BOF News

[mharky]

Why is England's Interland team BOF news exactly?

And why is the website so ridiculously difficult to use. I actually though I'd look at the BOF rankings, but gave up as I didn't have the dexterity to do it using the tracker pad on my laptop...

[AndyC]

Would it be BOF news if it was a Scotland Team?

[mharky]

What's this got to do with Scotland?

The SOA has its own, regularly updated, website where Scottish news, such as the Night and Sprint championships, are posted.

The point I was making was, as I think I made quite clear, why is England's Interland team BOF news. I wouldn't expect Wales, Scotland or Northern Ireland to have team news posted.

[andypat]

Back to the old Mharky we know and love!

Who the hell was that nice boy on the telly last night?

[AndyC]

Now be honest I did aim at a nerve and I would expect the announcement of the other home nations teams to be announced on the BOF website -despite there being a much more visited SOA site.

[smf]

Why is England's Interland team BOF news exactly?

They seem to have been a bit slow here, this was news on the 13th Feb 2011. England won the event last weekend.

But as Marky says why is this news on the BOF website.

[IanD]

Probably the majority of BOF members have at least a small interest in the England team.

I speak as an Englishman, but I would have no objection to occasional snippets of news about Scottish, Welsh & Irish teams.

A better question would be why is it so difficult to get some other news onto the BOF site - for example information about the Northern Championships or the UK Masters Cup. In this context, I can well understand resentment of news items about the England team, or the trail-O committee for that matter (although the latter is of considerable interest to me personally).

The actual "news" about the England team is very odd too, three days after an international match, we get told who was in the team, but not what the result was!
[edit: as smf as already pointed out]

I'm pretty sure that if the membership were consulted about what things should and should not make the main news page, a very different pattern would emerge.

[smf]

Now be honest I did aim at a nerve and I would expect the announcement of the other home nations teams to be announced on the BOF website -despite there being a much more visited SOA site.

Do more people visit the SOA site than the BOF site? I wouldn’t think so. Maybe more Scots look at the SOA site rather then the BOF site.

[AndyC]

I meant in comparison with the English Orienteering website but maybe more Scots look at SOA first?

Oh and I didn't realise interland had already happened -it is pointless news in its current form

[Clive Coles]

For me usability is average. A more interersting poll would be one that assessed the usefullness and timely nature of the content of each news item.

I'm more interested in what we are not being told until it's a done deal ~ like the cost of the website developments. I have no idea what is coming next or what it will cost. But we will be paying for it out of our levy.

[distracted]

I'm not convinced that the front page content, especially the dominance by news items, is what the national federation website should be about. It is one of the biggest marketing tools that we have, but it's not very intuitive and the 'important' things aren't obvious enough.

I'd much prefer to have a frontpage along the lines of one of the following:

http://orienteeringusa.org/
http://www.orienteering.ca/
http://www.orientering.no/

which are much better visually, with clear, concise navigation.

[mharky]

Sorry, the poll was kind of on a different topic, but I just lumped them into one. I just get so frustrated when trying to go onto the fixtures list or something and bloody things keep disappearing!

I'd rate the website on 3 things, generally: does it have the right stuff, is that stuff in a sensible place, is it easy to use the website. The aesthetics are OK. The stuff is all in a logical place, but getting there is a nightmare.

It may be worth comparing the site to other sports, not just other federations, i.e. British Cycling, UK Sports favorite NGB.

[brooner]

I'd much prefer to have a frontpage along the lines of one of the following:

http://orienteeringusa.org/
http://www.orienteering.ca/
http://www.orientering.no/

which are much better visually, with clear, concise navigation.

Too right, it has been said here before but the BOF website has gone backwards in terms of visual identity (with the paltry images at the top), the prioritisation and naming of content is awful while the menu implementation is ridiculous. All things which would have been picked up quickly had any user testing been done.

I think the American site is brilliant for both the newcomer and their current membership, the imagery, text and quick links to videos on the front page gives an idea of what orienteering is about and reasons to try it. Compare that to the spiel of text on the BOF site which is meant to be captivating.

Orienteering is a challenging outdoor adventure sport that exercises both the mind and the body. The aim is to navigate in sequence between control points marked on a unique orienteering map and decide the best route to complete the course in the quickest time. It does not matter how young, old or fit you are, as you can run, walk or jog the course and progress at your own pace.

Orienteering can take place anywhere from remote forest and countryside to urban parks and school playgrounds. It’s a great sport for runners, joggers and walkers who want to improve their navigation skills or for anyone who loves the outdoors. Orienteering - The adventure sport for all. Read More

I've never even bothered going to the page that Read More links to:
A Newcomer's Guide to Foot Orienteering (Good, as a newcomer I'm glad that we're talking about Foot Orienteering.)
Why is this page so unengaging? Why isn't the DVD footage embedded? Who the hell expects to have to download a video from a website to view it these days? Why has someone gone to the effort of creating a control card as a table in html?!

This has all been said before in the previous thread about the BOF website, the last two points from Kitch & JonB especially.

There is a balance to be had between giving your existing membership the information they require quickly (news/events) but given this is the first place anyone comes when searching orienteering in the UK, it isn't too surprising why there is a massive issue in attracting newcomers.

[brooner]

Also, having now bothered to download the movie, could they not have got someone who sounded a bit more excited about orienteering to do the voiceover? It is spoken in the same dull tone of voice that the website seems to be written in.

[14stoneflyer]

As a newcomer, I was impressed with the smart look of the BOF website.

The site looks very professional, but I have found it difficult to use and the great information it contains is sometimes pretty well hidden. So far in my experience, club websites are easier to use and more fit for purpose (and I would guess easier to run and cheaper to set up?). I also agree that the website front page is a missed opportunity to suck in new participants, especially youthful ones: not enough fun and too few pretty pictures on the front page!

14stoneflyer