Home Page Design

[adz]

Kicking things off with the home page, logged out. The first thing that people see when they come to ccmfans.net ...

These are areas of the design that could be improved or generally have questions about them.



1. No logo

2. Seems like a bit of wasted space at the top? Big area of nothing really.

3. It's a list. I guess the good thing here is it shows when there is something new in that category. And then it shows some stats. Does anyone care how many discussions (threads) / messages there are?

4. Probably the most useful bit, shoved over to the side - latest posts.

5. Again, stats. Does anyone care how many discussions, etc, there are?

6. Share buttons. Does anyone use these things?

7. Does anyone care who else is online?

8. Sign up button. Seems like an after thought.


So ... any feedback on any of that? Does anyone care about the forum stats? Anything I missed there?

 

[adz]

What has worked... and then not.

Early days of the site it was called marinators.net, and mainly about the group of people standing and chanting from bay 16. It was a blog type setup, built on a CMS that worked independently to the forum. This meant the users had to be added by an admin before they could post on it. The posting style was a lot more formal than a forum, with long articles being posted by the handful of contributors. Stories ranged from news-style game previews and reviews, recaps of away travels (with some minor details left out ), and a lot of organising things like busses to away games, pre/post game venues for home and away games, and marinators events - trivia nights, golf days, etc.

While the content going through this system was top notch, the problem was when, for whatever reasons, the people contributing are no longer able to. So we go from someone writing brilliant articles on a fan site, to writing for news outlets instead. We go from someone hassling everyone to fill 2 big busses for away games to nobody saying anything and not even getting a mini-bus going. Annual Marinators vs Cove football game? Gone.

The process of adding contributors and content to the site is a very hands-on, manual process, as opposed to a forum where anyone can sign up and start contributing immediately. People come and go from the forum but it still lives on. There's no pressure on a forum to write that weekly game review if you don't feel like it. It's not like an unpaid journalist job, it's something you either do because you want to, or don't.

Usually people are keen to be part of the CMS style page and contribute articles at the start of the season, but then a few weeks in they lose that enthusiasm and the home page dies. Nobody looks at it and everyone bypasses it to go straight to the forum instead. This isn't limited to teams that are fighting for wooden spoon either. Just have a look at http://sfcu.com.au/ - last updated 06 OCTOBER 2016.


And then...?

Since we started the website, we've seen the rise of social media - Facebook and Twitter - which has taken a lot of traffic away from forums all over the net. This isn't such a bad thing, because now all the crap stuff that was posted on here has shifted to those other sites. Instead of having "shouting matches" where someone bashes everyone else with their opinion, while at the same time complaining about not being allowed to have an opinion if someone disagrees with them ... all that has moved to Facebook and Twitter (hooray!) ... we have the better quality content and discussions on the forum.

We've also gone from being active support focused to being a more general Central Coast Mariners Fan site. This one is important and we are looking to get more content/discussion on the Y-League and W-League, as well as local comps.

While we can have all this great content on the forum, the home page can be used to highlight important things. Events could still be organised and pushed through the forum - although that is probably another topic - but to be more effective they should be highlighted somewhere easy to spot without trawling through posts. The podcast is another thing that deserves more attention than a simple update buried in the forum every week. Also we have access to the Mariners CEO, and he has indicated the club is keen on getting content to us easier.

So these are just some general thoughts on what we've tried in the past and where we are now. The first aim is to get somewhere in the middle of the two, then we can start adding things and expand our little community.

 

[kevrenor]

Sorry, being this time of the year, with grandkids around, have just noticed this.

1. No logo - why not? If there is one, wouldn't it appear?

2. Seems like a bit of wasted space at the top? Big area of nothing really. - no comment

3. It's a list. I guess the good thing here is it shows when there is something new in that category. And then it shows some stats. Does anyone care how many discussions (threads) / messages there are? a) go there a fair bit to find threads other than latest, and to drill down, b) It is data, I like to see it for reasons that may be just mine - feel for size and activity

4. Probably the most useful bit, shoved over to the side - latest posts. - Don't really look there (more for the casual browser), as I just go to New Posts

5. Again, stats. Does anyone care how many discussions, etc, there are? - Yes, but maybe that is me

6. Share buttons. Does anyone use these things? - have no idea - never tried on this site.

7. Does anyone care who else is online? - Yes, if you want to comment with that person in mind.

8. Sign up button. Seems like an after thought - Should it be up top?


So ... any feedback on any of that? Does anyone care about the forum stats? - Yes, but again that's me.

 

[adz]

Cheers @kevrenor - wasn't expecting any response really. Not until things get a bit further along anyway with some design concepts to comment on... or even after they are implemented

 

[JoyfulPenguin]

1. No logo
Not fussed either way with no logo, looks tidy without it but could look cool with one.

2. Seems like a bit of wasted space at the top? Big area of nothing really.
Ads there now and I think they fit there well.
3. It's a list. I guess the good thing here is it shows when there is something new in that category. And then it shows some stats. Does anyone care how many discussions (threads) / messages there are?
I like the list, use it to navigate and check if other parts of the forum have new posts. Personally never noticed that the thread number and message tracker were there!
4. Probably the most useful bit, shoved over to the side - latest posts.
Don't use it personally, navigate through the list or alerts page.

5. Again, stats. Does anyone care how many discussions, etc, there are?
I like seeing who the newest member is and how many members the forum has. Don't personally pay attention to the how many discussions.

6. Share buttons. Does anyone use these things?
Never used them.

7. Does anyone care who else is online?
Enjoy knowing who else is online, good for a look every now and then.

8. Sign up button. Seems like an after thought.
Maybe the double sign up log in places up the top is a bit much but doesn't bother me either way.

 

[adz]

We've addressed 1 and 2 a bit in the mobile 'category-thread' design by trying to keep in elements that are necessary. There's a bit of space around the start new thread button but that's to make it stand out a bit more.

I want to get quite a few more elements in here like social media, table, results, voting... stuff that might be showing on desktop and disappear for mobile. Or have to find some neat way of navigating through it all on mobile so we don't end up with a really long page.