The New BOF Website

[Mrs H]

[

Doesn't the Fixtures page for PDA that is part of the new website do that job for you? The list contains every event in the database.

so it does
But what is a PDA?

[TimField]

The front page does not display as intended by the developers in chrome browser. It displays a large white space going down all my screen between the blue welcome box and the first news item.

I do not like how the dynamic multiple level menu works, pushing down the content when the additional levels are displayed. It would be better if they dropped in to some free space.

Within the fixtures list when I filtered on region I got a 'Not found' dialogue box.

When we did the new LOC web site we thought very carefully about width and decided to make the site a fixed width that displayed on 'standard' laptops with out a scroll bar.
We concluded that 980 pixels for the content was optimal as this allows space for a vertical scroll bar on a 1000 pixel.

We decided not to have a variable width screen as studies have shown that expanding to the whole width of the wide screen reduces readability of text.

Took a lot of care with the choice of top level menu options so they fitted in to the 1000

During the LOC site testing I was using 3 computers all running different versions of internet explorer so I could check for formatting problems, so I understand that with limited resources some problems can creep through. One ends up testing on multiple versions of IE, firefox, Opera and Chrome (which also covers other webkit based browsers like Apple Safari). Then you can fall in to the trap of the test site working but a news item is added to the live site after go live and it gets stuffed.

If the development of the web site is being done by paid employees then the will be a trade off between the testing resources and the 'cost' of the time.

So my understanding to the BOF staff involved rather than criticism

Tim

[Ernie_Wise]

I do not like how the dynamic multiple level menu works, pushing down the content when the additional levels are displayed. It would be better if they dropped in to some free space.

Dito, there are much better ways of dispalying drop down menus.

[Spookster]

The front page does not display as intended by the developers in chrome browser.

It works fine for me in Chrome, after I pressed refresh. It didn't look right the first time I loaded it.

If the development of the web site is being done by paid employees then the will be a trade off between the testing resources and the 'cost' of the time.

So my understanding to the BOF staff involved rather than criticism

Tim

Staff have specified the website, and will have certainly tested it, but the development and coding will have been done by Zygo Consulting Ltd.

[PhilJ]

I like the new site but do find it a bit "jumpy" as the top of the page keeps moving the rest of the page down as you scroll around the page you are viewing if you happen to end up on the top menu section of the page, but maybe it is supposed to be like that.

[TimField]

The front page does not display as intended by the developers in chrome browser.

It works fine for me in Chrome, after I pressed refresh. It didn't look right the first time I loaded it.

If the development of the web site is being done by paid employees then the will be a trade off between the testing resources and the 'cost' of the time.

So my understanding to the BOF staff involved rather than criticism

Tim

Staff have specified the website, and will have certainly tested it, but the development and coding will have been done by Zygo Consulting Ltd.

Yes the site does display ok after a refresh with Chrome.

I think if professional developers have been involved, something must be a miss in the engagement between the developers and BOF to put the site live in it current unpolished state. May be some lessons to be learned for the future.

One would suspect a pressure to go live before year end.

[Clive Coles]

Well.... I rather like the new look. I had 2 pet hates; the use of flash which slowed the old site down for slow spec PC users and the white space on the right and left hand margins which made the old site look as if it had been designed on an A4 pad. These have now gone and the response times are great.

There are some problems with the initial deliveries and many are being resolved as we correspond on Nopesport.

The important thing is to feedback to BOF ( in a constructive way). That helps to identify the bits that are not working as was hoped. I have sent BOF a few thoughts and these have been logged for consideration. So things are moving forward.

In my opinion even the old displays look cleaner and fresher with the revamp. Well done BOF

[roadrunner]

But what is a PDA?

It's a Personal Digital Assistant - the thing that was going to do all the things we now do with a Smartphone (apart from make phone calls ). I'm surprised to see the term still being used.

[denzil53]

I just did a search for Trail-O events on Fixtures and it came up with the November Classic on 6th November, but not the JK! Hmm. . . .

[Paul Frost]

But what is a PDA?

Personal Digital Assistant - It's what we had years ago before Smartphones like the iPhone were invented.

When I saw the reference to PDA on the website it made me smile as I haven't seen the term used for ages. The problem is that it is barely readable on a "PDA" or Smartphone, as the text is so small and the page too wide. In fact even on my large monitor I'm tempted to zoom in to increase the text size.

I am using a link on the SOA website that shows a complete listing of all events in Scotland from now to ever, it can be edited to show another association or all associations. This link is for all associations, this link is for the West Midlands.
You just change the number for the association (&evt_assoc=10)

[awk]

Agree that it looks a big improvement. Also agree that there is a real chance of seasickness - don't like the way the up and down movement of menus - horrible.

[Clive Coles]

There has been a new delivery this afternoon~ some funnies have been corrected and Associations Fixture secretaries in theory now have the powers to update Level D's to level C status. But there are further problems as things like club, web site and event fees seem to have gone missing from the Fixture entry. As a result these updated events no longer pick up on searches. So Fixture Secretaries beware ! Best lay off until the next delivery.

[Clive Coles]

Posted on BOF website this morning

There have been a number of problems with the rolling out of the new web site; these are being addressed as quickly as possible and many were addressed by Friday afternoon.

In particular, there are some problems with the event registration system that are preventing the Association and National fixtures secretaries from updating events into the 4 Tier event structure. This has become evident as fixtures secretaries have tried to move some regional events registered in the old event structure to Level B events under the 4 tier structure.

It should be emphasised that the failure to move registered events to Level B is not the fault of the fixtures secretaries.

If you are waiting to see how the new event structure will look in practice, or a fixtures secretary waiting to make the changes, please be patient.

Item posted by Mike Hamilton


Posted on Saturday 18th December 2010

[mharky]

The new menus are far more intuitive and make much more sense, but the fact that they keep appearing and disappearing is both annoying and frustrating. Why would anyone think that is a good way to design a website?

The map data base doesn't seem to exist at the moment

[Nimby]

The map data base doesn't seem to exist at the moment.

Anyone found it yet? I tried "search" which gives the link
http://www.britishorienteering.org.uk/event/map_search.php

but that just goes to the Home page.