BCSS Website - have your say - design and feel.

[Bill]

Following on from the previous thread, some more targeted questions.

Share links to sites you like, whether its the look or the way it works and let me know what it is you like about.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/ Nice clean look

https://www.rhs.org.uk/ Probably a better example for us, full of colour and lots to get your attention.

Bill

[Terry S.]

Please do not use the RHS site as a model. The useful information is not easy to find and the top level is just flashy with lots of links to social media. Possibly great for recruitment but not as a members' resource. Focusing on social media means that lots of new posts have to be sent up and the RHS has a small department dedicated to this. I suspect that as with many other aspects of BCSS management, volunteers to do this would be hard to come by.
I mainly look at the BCSS website to find information about the activities of the Society, its officials and the branches. I do look at the Forum and participate but I am not sure why?

[fruit]

If rendering of pages is slowed due to irrelevant content (IMO) then those pages are likely to be clicked away from by me - I have a flakey line that BT have kindly just reset to 5.7Mb this morning

Same goes for over large photos, some pages containing lots of large images take an age to render here. I now ignore such pages and threads completely

Of course I could get on to BT, again, but have tried many times before and really can't be bothered any more - they can't be bothered as they only supply my line not my internet access.

[Bill]

The website has to serve multiple purposes Terry, recruitment being a very important function of the home page. I anticipate much of the members specific Content will be grouped and even only accessible via log on which will result in a members menu.

5.7mb, mine averages about 4.5! Upload is less than .25mbs!! Image size is one thing that anticipate will be better managed. Can't do a lot about imagine intensive content, but decent management of their size should improve things. Not sure what you mean by irrelevant content?

[fruit]

I realise that large uploaded images are very much a fact of online life these days, it's a shame that little consideration is given to those of us who have limited bandwidth.
I'm not complaining though, just stating how I manage it here.

I think I have the option FTTC/FTTH here but use the net so little these days that an upgrade and additional expense does not appeal.

Sorry, by irelevant content I meant large background or link images where lower resolution versions would be much more approriate. Thankfully such pages are not so common these days but I am sure we have all had experence of them in the past.

[IanW]

5.7mbps should be ample speed for any modern website (you can easily stream 1080p movies on that).

If you find simple web browsing to be too slow at that speed, then odds are your ISP is selling you a line that's over-contended. That is, their network is being shared by way too many people at once for you to get the bandwidth you're paying for.

[Chris43]

The screen ratios are different for laptops, tablets and smart phones. For a laptop it is usually 16:9 these days in landscape style. Tablets somewhat variable but 4:3 perhaps but portrait style, as are smart phones.

It seems to me that the developer must acknowledge and check the device that is being used and produce a website that sits comfortably on both, or which changes depending on what device is used.

I'd be interested in what the plans actually are for this.

[Phil_SK]

I'd be interested in what the plans actually are for this.

I'm sure that a responsive site is on the list of requirements and that Pedalo are experienced enough to be able to do it - you could see how some of the other sites that they've done look on different devices. https://www.cipr.co.uk/ https://www.pre-school.org.uk/ http://westindiacommittee.org/ http://www.bettertransport.org.uk/

[Bill]

As Phil has said the new site will be what is called responsive, so it will adapt to the device its being viewed on. Unlike the old way of doing things you don't simply get diverted to a mobile version of the site, instead, the software arranges the content and the way you interact with the menu to suit the device. Even the simple site I have done for the Haworthia Society has this functionality.

[purzo]

Even the simple site I have done for the Haworthia Society has this functionality.

Just had a quick look, it looks nice clean simple bright and easy to navigate, presumably this is the wordpress influence. It will be good to see how it develops as more images are added to the species lists. I wouldn't be too disappointed if the new BCSS site ends up being something similar.