www.usfirst.org

[camtunkpa]

Originally Posted by JB987

How about an easily visible link to web casts for the public on the main home page instead of being buried deep in the FRC events page?

+222 on that one....want to get the word out about FIRST? make sure people can find matches to watch!

[buildmaster5000]

I realize that this does not address the root of the problem, but it is much easier to tell email someone the specific link from frclinks. Once you figure out how the syntax works, it is far easier than using the actual FIRST website.

Along the same lines, telling someone to go to frclinks.com/t/2421 is far easier than telling them to go to https://my.usfirst.org/myarea/index....ils&tpid=63475.

Just my 2 cents

[waialua359]

Originally Posted by JB987

How about an easily visible link to web casts for the public on the main home page instead of being buried deep in the FRC events page?

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

[JB987]

Originally Posted by waialua359

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

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

[Jaxom]

Originally Posted by tsaksa

It seems like there needs to be some way on the site to get quick if unofficial advice and to do it in a way that does not require special status to make the ruling request. Without that I think some people may continue to avoid the official process.

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.

[Ether]

How about a single web page with NO GRAPHICS and a list of links to the Top 25 destinations on the site.

[tsaksa]

Originally Posted by Ether

How about a single web page with NO GRAPHICS and a list of links to the Top 25 destinations on the site.

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?

[Ether]

Originally Posted by tsaksa

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.

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

I think there should also be other landing pad options offered as well, and at least one should be media rich.

I don't disagree.

[Katie_UPS]

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

[beiju]

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.

[1986titans]

Originally Posted by beiju

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.

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

[cgmv123]

Originally Posted by beiju

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.

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

[beiju]

Originally Posted by cgmv123

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

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.

[DCA Fan]

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

[KathieK]

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.