October 1st, 2004

[Roland]

Originally Posted by Greg Marra

You said it yourself, you surf at 1024x768 and are in the minority.

$@#$@#$@#$@# that. People with 23" LCDs are people too! I don't see why anyone would make a fixed width page nowadays. It's so annoying to not be able to change the width of the page.

(Yes, the site I made last year was indeed fixed width. It was such a pain to maintain - and a usability nightmare - that I swore I'd never make another fixed width site again.)

[rowe]

Originally Posted by Roland

People with 23" LCDs are people too!

I have my res at 1600x1200 for design purposes (I like the extra workspace while still keeping the toolbars). There is still something to be said about fixed width websites. Your's looks extremely nice and I wouldn't change the layout one bit. Websites that shift to fill the entire screen sometimes piss me off because they are hard to read, and I end up resizing them anyways. Go with whatever way seems best, but always keep in mind the people that have a quarter the screensize I do, because horizontal scrollbars are worse than unused space.

[HFWang]

Originally Posted by roninmedia

Hopefully this year, we can take the National Website Award with a good PHP/MySQL backend site.

Just saw this and it sort of bugged me.

As a webdesigner, I have never had someone tell me "I love how everything is backed by a MySQL database and written in PHP!" I want my users to have fluid experiences, find the information they want, buy the product they want, and not worry about implementation.

You have done a good job when people can do whatever it is they meant to do on your site. Technical implementation and design are means to an end, not ends in and of themselves.

[Roland]

Originally Posted by HFWang

Just saw this and it sort of bugged me.

As a webdesigner, I have never had someone tell me "I love how everything is backed by a MySQL database and written in PHP!" I want my users to have fluid experiences, find the information they want, buy the product they want, and not worry about implementation.

You have done a good job when people can do whatever it is they meant to do on your site. Technical implementation and design are means to an end, not ends in and of themselves.

Indeed. Nobody really cares how it's done, it's the user experience that matters. The site looks very nice. One thing that bugs me, though, is the forum. I've noticed that a lot of FIRST team websites have forums, very few of which get enough traffic to merit the countless subforums they have and even fewer of which sport templates matching the rest of the site. Are you planning on using the forum for much internal team communication? Do you honestly expect any people from other teams to become active members? Personally I'd love it if some team created a good alternative to ChiefDelphi, but that'll probably never happen due to CD's popularity and the fact that most people in the FIRST community I've met seem to love the extremely friendly and PC atmosphere here.

So, to sum up, I like your site in general but predict the forum won't get much use.

[Joe Matt]

Originally Posted by Roland

Indeed. Nobody really cares how it's done, it's the user experience that matters. The site looks very nice. One thing that bugs me, though, is the forum. I've noticed that a lot of FIRST team websites have forums, very few of which get enough traffic to merit the countless subforums they have and even fewer of which sport templates matching the rest of the site. Are you planning on using the forum for much internal team communication? Do you honestly expect any people from other teams to become active members? Personally I'd love it if some team created a good alternative to ChiefDelphi, but that'll probably never happen due to CD's popularity and the fact that most people in the FIRST community I've met seem to love the extremely friendly and PC atmosphere here.

So, to sum up, I like your site in general but predict the forum won't get much use.

While I won't speak for Pat at all, previous web forums we have used have gone the way of the dodo. I don't think we are planning on having this one be used as much as CD, or even used 1/100th as much as CD, but for internal back-and-forth team discussion I think it's a good thing. I'm currently thinking about how to get it running and maybe getting the kids to check the forums daily for important reminders and other things.

Anyway, thanks for the comments.

[PCole]

The forums for Team384 are basicly a way for team members to quickly post and to respond to messages that need to be posted. Email lists are great but sometimes they just don't do the trick so, our forums will be used for quick messaging. In addition to team messaging.. it helps other teams who need to contact us quickly.

I agree no forum in the FIRST community will get as much traffic as ChiefDelphi but having our own forums for our own use is a good thing for us.. I think..

Thanks again for the wonderful comments..

[HFWang]

Originally Posted by Roland

So, to sum up, I like your site in general but predict the forum won't get much use.

I think that its good that there is only one big main robotics forum. A fractured community (or needing to check multiple forums) is a nuisance. Being able to go to one place to talk to the greatest number of people just makes sense. I'd rather individual teams come up with unique ideas, be it being able to swap programming or mechanical expertise, or maybe some sort of virtual drawingboard where robotics members could share ideas for strategy or whatever. (warning: ideas are half-baked and thought up to make my post look more impressive)