Grant, Thanks for the email and your comments. I am glad that we had the opportunity to discuss some of these matters during our telephone conversation. As we discussed, navigation of any Web site should continue to evolve based on user feedback and statistical analysis of the most visited parts of the Site. As we gain more experience with the Site, hear more feedback, and look at user stats, we will continue to modify the navigation scheme to suit the user's needs. This is, at least in theory, the advantage of a Web site over a printed publication. We could also do a better job about educating users about the Favorites feature that lets users jump to their favorite pages quickly. Perhaps, we can push out some additional information on that feature as well. I certainly agree that we can improve the navigation. We have made many changes since the launch and we will continue to modify the navigation scheme so that it provides the best Web experience for our users. 73, Harold PS: The VE Session count page has now been restored. http://www.arrl.org/ve-session-counts Harold Kramer, WJ1B Chief Operating Officer ARRL -the national association for Amateur Radio 225 Main Street Newington, CT 06111 (860) 594 -0220 -----Original Message----- From: Grant Hopper [mailto:ghopper@eskimo.com] Sent: Monday, August 16, 2010 2:47 PM To: arrl-odv Subject: [arrl-odv:19290] RE: [arrl-odv:19285] RE: [arrl-odv:19283] Field Day Logs Posted??? Brian makes a good point about contrast. Most web links in email are underlined. Most web links in 'normal' web pages are a bright blue (in comparison to the black text) and frequently underlined as well. Web pages that have goofy designs and colors tend to be MUCH harder to navigate unless an obvious scheme is presented on the 'home page' so that viewers know how to identify the various things like links and scroll bars (within frames.) In any of those cases, the hyperlinks have to be differentiated from the rest of the text. To not do so makes navigation difficult at best. Nothing frustrates me more, and makes me far less inclined to go back to a page/site than difficult navigation. I spend a LOT of time using a web browser in my practice and confusing navigation is completely unnecessary even when you have a sophisticated web site. I keep hoping that ours will continue to improve, but I continue to find it difficult to find anything easily except by using the search function. Which brings up what I think is the real (and ongoing) issue. Based on all the "where do I find" and "I couldn't find under...." questions I hear, the hierarchy of the site is still too confusing/complicated. Fortunately this is something that can be fixed. A vast majority of what people want to use should be easy to find. Right now it isn't. As an example, what took typically three clicks to get to a product review article (when you don't know the issue of QST) now takes a lot of work. The last time I tried it, it took at least one search, several clicks (9 total for me), and downloading two different PDFs (the QST index for the year, and the actual article.) This is actually more of a load on the servers and more time spent looking for what was a very fast process. Eventually we'll solve all these issues, I'm not worried about that, but in the mean time we're generating more bad will. 73, Grant Hopper KB7WSD -----Original Message----- From: Brian Mileshosky [mailto:n5zgt@swcp.com] Sent: Monday, August 16, 2010 9:41 AM To: arrl-odv Cc: arrl-odv Subject: [arrl-odv:19285] RE: [arrl-odv:19283] Field Day Logs Posted??? It is indeed there, but I can see how the link -- given its color -- blends in with the rest of the text in the story, making it seem that there are no links to click on. I wonder if a different color would be better than the sorta powder blue that looks like black. Another option would be to make the links bold so they stand out. Or underlined. 73, Brian N5ZGT On Mon, 16 Aug 2010, Cliff Ahrens wrote:
Try the "has been posted" link in the article. Then in "Other Reports" click on "2010 Field Day". Then click on "Logs Received as of August 13". Or try this direct link:
http://www.arrl.org/files/file/Contest%20-%20General/Logs%20Received/Aug %201
3%20Logs%20Rcvd%20Merged.pdf
It's just a list of the logs received, not the results, yet. Hope this helps.
Cliff K0CA
-----Original Message----- From: dick@pobox.com [mailto:dick@pobox.com] Sent: Monday, August 16, 2010 11:22 AM To: arrl-odv Subject: [arrl-odv:19283] Field Day Logs Posted??? Importance: High
16 AUG 2010 - 1121 CDT
Perhaps I still don't know how to properly navigate the entire new ARRL website...
In response to the latest news posting "Field Day Logs Posted", I went looking for the results and can not find them. I started with the "On The Air" button on the home page and ended up with the contest results list menu. The "2009 ARRL Field Day" is an available selection, but "2010 ARRL Field Day" is not listed as of five minutes ago.
We should not post these news items until the referenced news or data is verified as being available on the web site. All this does is to increase member unhappiness with the ARRL web site. How about some coordination of this activity!?!?
- Dick Isely, W9GIG
ARRL Director, Rocky Mountain Division On the web at www.RockyMountainDivision.org