In feedback tab, make "submit idea" link more prominent completed
Drop the preview of the Idea list in the feedback tab. It's unactionable, therefore useless and confusing. It also masks the fact that there's a "Submit an Idea" link there that you're supposed to click. The user sees the Comment box first (because it's instantly recognizable and somewhere you're supposed to type stuff), and goes straight for that, which is not the preferred action.
On the left side, just have a giant link that says, "Submit or vote on ideas (preferred)"
Better yet, skip the screen all together and have a "submit comment (i.e. email)" link in the margin of the actual uservoice page.
We've added the "submit comment" type link to the forum as you suggested. We're still seeing many more people click through to the forum versus submitting feedback. We also have people telling us they need that instant feedback form for bugs.
- rrwhite