Idea collection tools with some required fields are pretty standard and decently implemented collectors see a lot of contributions (think: Starbucks). But when these tools ask for a login, they need to offer something that makes signing up worth the effort.

“You dream it. Asus builds it” with “Intel inside” is the promise on the other side of the forum inputs at WEPC.com. Enticing to engadget-reading netbook hot-rodders like myself who literally DO dream of having a set of top engineers build a custom machine dialed in to my exact needs.

Here’s how it works:
1. The site collects ideas, designs and feedback from users.
2. Asus evaluates the posts.
3. Innovators use the top posts as inspiration for a new notebook that uses Intel inside.

The site does a great job asking customers two questions:
1. What do you want regardless of limitations (the Share track with a looser format)?
2. What do you want given what can be checkboxes and sliders?

Both let you illustrate your idea with a flash drawing application. This makes it a bit more engaging than typing out a bulleted feature list or paragraphs of circuit-bent daydreaming.

Also, both questions collect some mutually beneficial user-generated content. Intel and Asus get free marketing research and brainstorming from the customers who buy their products. Machine tweakers get to browse and vote up ideas they like.

I was gung-ho to contribute until I realized voting on designs required setting up an account. In my contemplation of taking the dive, I saw plenty of room for improvement in the WEPC site. 

Here are a few pieces of feedback I have for the site’s developers:
1. Give the user a single track. Don’t split Share/Create, just reveal details as necessary.

2. Show examples of what other people have said on certain topics and allow you to load their data instead of re-writing something similar. It would help users know what kind of things to post and provide Asus/Intel with less duplicate data.

3. Allow more user input (voting) without logging on. If the site didn’t require login for voting, Asus/Intel would get numbers closer to what the masses were interested in. Right now they are only getting numbers about what interests people who are dedicated enough to go through the login process.

4. Put some faces and names in the About Us section. The contributors/community members are listed in the authors section, but we’re never introduced to the editors of the site.

5. Give me a sitemap. The number of different pages buried in the site without any clear navigation to them makes the site seem a casualty of feature creep where pages were just tacked on without IA thought. A sitemap would help and would sit nicely next to the search box.

Despite all that, I’m still interested to see if Asus builds a machine incorporating any of the ideas collected on the site and if it’s a step closer to consumers seeing custom or to-order netbooks anytime soon.

And as a creator of exceptional experiences I wonder: As a consumer, would you contribute?

Jordan Gray