Re: www.usfirst.org
 

All the teams could register at their address on TIMS (I don't think that's required) then they could just import that data into points in a Google Maps application on their website. Right?

The fact that teams have been able to come up with better methods of finding other teams than the umbrella organization for the competition shows how capable the students and mentors are, but how apprehensive FIRST is.

Re: www.usfirst.org
 

People have different preferences of how much information they want, how they want it presented, and how they want to navigate through it. I think a simple no graphics approach would be a very good option. It would be great to access the site with a limited bandwidth connection or from a device with a limited screen. But I think there should also be other landing pad options offered as well, and at least one should be media rich.

Exactly what is done depends on the ultimate goal. Is the intent just to make some parts of FIRST site easier to navigate, or is it to make the site good enough that some or all of it ultimately replace CD?

Re: www.usfirst.org
 

The FIRST forums will do that, although I think that there are so many people that hang out here on Delphi that you'll get about the same thing here. There are a number of people that know what they're talking about that hang out in both places.

BTW, both sites are run via vBulletin, so many of the same things work. Both have "New Posts" searches that help you keep track of changed threads.

No criticism intended...the FIRST web site stinks. There are a lot of good recommendations here. One of the first tenets of web site design is, imo, to be consistent. Don't change appearance on different pages. Fortunately, FIRST has done that for the most part. Unfortunately, the look is too complicated. :)

Re: www.usfirst.org
 

It would also be great for accessing the site with a high bandwidth connection from a device with a high resolution 25" screen :)

I don't disagree.

Re: www.usfirst.org
 

The "what events and teams are in my area" page is kind of a nightmare in that it doesn't work how you want it to.

The top things I look for on the website are always convoluted and harder to find than they should be:
Regional information (who's attending, when are regionals, etc)
Regional standings/match list/etc (Any time I find this page is by chance, I feel)
Regional Contact (currently the link is broken, but I remember several months ago that this was an annoying process)
What events/teams are in my area (this is not hard to find, but more so annoying to use. There are three scrolling bars on one page. I dislike nested scrolling bars for something that should be fairly intuitive such as this tool)


FIRST should take a group of people with basic computer knowledge and little to no FIRST website experience and give them a list of tasks to complete using their website and make changes based off their feedback. Tasks they should complete are things that a parent/sponsor/stranger would do:
Look up a regional
See the team list (will my child/team be there?)
Find regional rankings/awards (did my child competing in another state win anything?)
Find teams in their area
Find a local contact (I want to start a FXX team, who should I talk to)
Be able to find the mission of the different levels of FIRST
Be able to find game manuals

Re: www.usfirst.org
 

Good point Joe!
I didnt realize FIRST had a links page until week 3!
Prior to that, I kept digging on CD only.

Re: www.usfirst.org
 

IIRC, Glenn, the addition of the webcast link on the events page was added right about week 3 and was noted in one of Bill's Blogs. So you and the rest of us had to keep digging up to that point anyways;)

Re: www.usfirst.org
 

The search by location should include a search for teams within x miles of a zip code.

Re: www.usfirst.org
 

I'm usually hesitant to redesign other people's websites, but this seemed like an instance where it's called for.

I'm not a frequent user of non-building-related parts of the website — in fact, I didn't even know they exist. I tried to use the information in this thread to inform this mockup. Let me know how well I did. I'm also not sure about the repeated links in the row of boxes (I called them "linksets") — is that the best place for them? That's where they are in the usfirst.org site map. It occurs to me now that the Q&A should be in there somewhere.

This is just the top part. I'm thinking about doing another row of boxes with categories of links (find teams, mentor resources, scholarships, FIRST in the media, etc.) and how I would visually separate that from the first row. I'm also considering whether there should be a place for the slideshow FIRST currently has on the homepage.

Thoughts? Suggestions? I'm all ears.

Edit: The ideas keep coming! I need to take into consideration new visitors and what their questions will be, since it will be harder for them to find answers. Perhaps big links to that could fill up the space around the slideshow. Thinks like "What is FIRST?", competition schedules, etc.

Re: www.usfirst.org
 

I like it. It's clean and simple. That's the way a website with so much "stuff" should be.

Re: www.usfirst.org
 

I'd hesitate to have such a tall header, but it certainly is organized well.

Re: www.usfirst.org
 

Also, our school district (and I would assume others as well) blog all of Blogger on the school network. Having it on usfirst.org would be nice.

Wetzel

Re: www.usfirst.org
 

I was hesitant as well, but I didn't want to make these drop-downs since they're intended to be quick links to often-used resources. Looking at it now, I can tell I got off that goal, since I doubt all of those are accessed often enough to warrant their inclusion.

Re: www.usfirst.org
 

Short list of things I'd like:
-Easy access to list of events that doesn't involve a search or digging
-Easy access to list of webcasts
-Basic implementation of frclinks' many features

Re: www.usfirst.org
 

You have to remember who the audiences are that are looking at the site. Many of the comments in this thread are FRC focused but I'm sure that much of the site is aimed at potential sponsors, etc.

I think it's organized well, but I don't care for the search engine. I rely on a Google search, "site:www.usfirst.org keyword" to find what I' looking for. Also I know from experience how difficult it is to have all the links working and content up to date when you have a distributed ownership model. But that is a source of frustration for me.