General Website Discussion

Attraction Source and TowersTimes website news, comments and suggestions.
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Chris
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To be brutally honest. The new site design, particularly the homepage, looks a bit of a mess. While the design is simple (simplicity is the way to go these days) there seems to be far too much text all over the place which makes pages feel far too busy.

For me this new design seems a bit of a step backwards when you compare to older designs. For one of the 'top dogs' of Alton Towers fansites when you compare to the likes of Towers Nerd (the previews of their new site) and TowersStreet this new design looks like something a 13 year old would create when they're attempting to create a fan site.

Don't get me wrong. It's not bad. But it lacks a lot. Perhaps just moving a few things around and making sure there's less text could be a start? The homepage is a bit too much for me. I think with some text adjustments it could work out far better! Maybe some different fonts too. The one on the homepage looks like it's a standard font for a plain template? Maybe go for a simple font that is a little bit more interesting than the current one.

Agree with other posters that the banner on the events page looks dire too. A white box against a purple background looks very unprofessional.
Calling it a 'mess', a site that a 'thirteen year old would create' and 'dire' is offensive and unnecessary.

We are very much open to feedback, appreciate you taking the time to give your input, but comments like that are not constructive and motivational to anyone involved.
Last edited by Chris on Mon Feb 17, 2014 7:08 pm, edited 1 time in total.
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mattiepearce
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I really like the look of the website but I think it looked better with a banner at the top with TT logo on it.
Just my two cents.
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James
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Baffles wrote: Calling it a 'mess', a site that a 'thirteen year old would create' and 'dire' is offensive and unnecessary.

We are very much open to feedback, appreciate you taking the time to give your input, but comments like that are not constructive and motivational to anyone involved.
I wouldn't say my comments are unnecessary. Maybe offensive in some respect, although I mean no harm. As a site owner you should surly be open to criticism. I'll break down my comments so I'm not appearing too harsh.

Messy: Personally I find there to be too much text on the homepage. It's a work in progress so I appreciate that you guys are playing around with it and working on a final look. Like I said in my post maybe some experiments with different fonts and playing around with the layout of the homepage may work a little better. Even a banner may work at the top of the homepage and the navigation bar placed a little further down. Obviously these are my opinions and my suggestions. You can just ignore the lot if you like.

Something a 13 old would create: A little harsh of me so I apologise. However I agree with people on previous pages that the design is a little bland. It looks rather basic. Which as I said in my post simplicity is the way to go. However for TowersTimes it just doesn't quite look as quirky as I would have expected. Given the reputation this site has got I would expect something a little more special. But then as mentioned above it's all a work in progress so I won't judge too much at this point.

Dire: I was referring to the banner on the events page and I stand by that. People on the previous page mentioned that "it looks hideous" and it "doesn't look very professional" - I don't see how my comment is any worse? The graphics are good on it and suite TT. It's just the white background that looks out of place. It just needs blending in with the main background colours of the page! 

I appreciate all the hard work that is going into the new site. TowersTimes is a mammoth of a website with endless amounts of pages enough to scare anyone away from re-writing, moving around and editing. It's a huge task and I understand these things take time. Although there are just one or two little things I believe could be changed here and there to make the pages of the site look more appealing.

Hopefully that clarifies things a little. :)
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Chris
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Thank you, James.

I am completely open to criticism as it can only ever improve a situation, but I do believe there is a point someone should go when reviewing other people's work.

Rob and the team have spent absolutely hours on the site and will continue to do so until it is perfect. Once we feel it has got to this point we will then announce that the site is complete.

TowersStreet is a beautifully designed website created by some talented people. Our design is clearly different from theirs, and we hope to reach the same standard in due course. Rather than spending longer on a new site behind the scenes, we thought it was best to release what had been completed and continue to work on the design until it is consistent across the board.

As I have stated, we value feedback but just ask that it is conveyed in an appropriate manner.
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Dom
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Hi,
I was just wondering when the other pages of the website are going to be changed?
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Rob
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We currently do not have a completion date but pages will go live once completed.
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lewis97
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If you haven't already noticed, over the past couple of weeks we've been fiddling around with the Information, Features and CBeebies Land sections.

There are now several refreshed Information pages, with this section of the site nearing completion. Progress has also started on the Features section, with brand new pages being created whilst also integrating with some of our older pages, whilst we work on these. Finally, we have extended the section of the site dedicated to the 2014 development of CBeebies Land. There is now an Attractions page filled with info about all the rides and experiences that are coming to CBeebies Land, a Construction page showing the latest progress, as well as a page containing all the key plans submitted back in September last year.
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haydn!
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Adding new content is good… but when will it be presented in an visually interesting and engaging way?

It's quite disheartening that literally non of the constructive criticism given on these pages by 'valued' members of this community have been taken on board. Instead it's foolishly dismissed as hurtful and unnecessary with only the positive comments acknowledged and thanked. The result? A bland, unoriginal, boring website straight from the 90's. I mean seriously, who actually uses Verdana anymore? There are countless better, free, web safe fonts available online, and that's just the tip of the iceberg...
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Chris
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Haydn,

At the end of the day we are sorry that you do not like the website. You can honestly go on and on about how the design is clearly dated and not presentable, and call me foolish for dismissing your comments - it does not bother me.

I don't like your attitude - as you clearly have a grudge against any further progress, and make it almost an expectation that we provide you the best website you have ever seen.

No one on our team does web design for a living (I appreciate that you do), and we are trying to do the best we can with the resources we have.

I'm not Robb Alvey, and will not tell members to bugger off somewhere else if they do not like something, but also know when someone gives constructive feedback or is just being unreasonable.

If you would like to discuss further then please contact me.
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haydn!
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I won't contact you directly, because I prefer open and honest discussion.
Baffles wrote:...it does not bother me.
If you don't care what people think, why are you doing this?
Baffles wrote:I don't like your attitude - as you clearly have a grudge against any further progress…
You couldn't be any more wrong. I am being harsh, I agree, but not to cause offence, it's to make you stop and think because I want to see progress, it doesn't have to be the "best website ever" (I am realistic) but it does need to be half decent and at least a little on theme and relevant to the era it's being published…

I appreciate that some/all of the team may not have professional experience in this arena but you're better than this. TowersTimes is, and deserves better than this. If you want help, or constructive criticism, lets start here:
  • Review your choice of fonts - typography makes or breaks a site and Verdana is unfortunately about as dated as it gets. https://www.google.com/fonts has a fairly good selection of free fonts.
  • Open up your colour pallet. Blue is essential, its part of the brand. But try to add more accent colours, perhaps the yellow, but I'd look wider.
  • Re-think your front page. It is far too text heavy for the type of website this is - plus when paired with poor typography, it kills your look straight away.
And, if you want more help. Just ask.
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bensaund
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My honest opinion is that since the upgrade I have gone from accessing the site daily, to every other week or even less.

For me the News on the front page looks good, but when you open the site, I would prefer a list of news like we had on the old site. For me it has to be functional and user friendly rather than look good. I for one don't want to sit and wait for the tiles to change.

I still don't like the way the forums work, on the old forums, I could nip in and check all my unread posts since the last visit, now I seem to get a list of 200 odd. Is there a way to get just the new posts since your last visit? As it turns what could be a quick 10 min visit into a huge task of trolling through lots of topics.
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lewis97
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In answer to your forum related question, if you click 'View new posts' in the 'Forum Menu', which is on the left hand side or near the bottom of the page depending what device you are on, this should take you to a page which contains all the new posts since your last visit.
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hursty
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bensaund wrote:For me the News on the front page looks good, but when you open the site, I would prefer a list of news like we had on the old site. For me it has to be functional and user friendly rather than look good. I for one don't want to sit and wait for the tiles to change.
If you click on News on the top navigation bar it will take you to http://www.towerstimes.co.uk/news/ where all the articles are shown in date order. The key difference is that the articles are in full rather than snippets.

We're constantly improving the site and welcome your insight.

hursty
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bensaund
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Cheers for the updates guys
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Fish777
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It's brilliant but I'm gonna nit pick one thing
I preferred it when the list of active users were listed by most recently active, not alphabetically, but that's me being very picky :)
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Danny
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Why is the thanks/rate button there but not working? Or is it just not working on iPads?
Kirsty25

DannyG wrote:Why is the thanks/rate button there but not working? Or is it just not working on iPads?
We're working out the final few issues with the system before putting it totally live so you have the best possible experience!
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Danny
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Thank you for your answer :)

Although I can see that under posts it says reputation. I'd assume this will be the number of posts that are 'rated'. I'm not sure I like the choice of wording, making it look as if new members/ members who don't post as much have a bad reputation. I'd rather just have the thanks button added again with the number of thanks ranked. Otherwise it may get competitive as to who has the 'best reputation'.

Other than that I'm very happy :)
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Alex
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When it was up briefly you had the option of rating the user or a post and they all count towards the reputation rating. I dont think its a bad thing that new members will have 0 as I'm not sure they would expect anything else. Its right that users will have to build up their reputation over time as that's the purpose of the system.
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Cookie Monster
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What happened to the reputation then, Alex? Why did the team stop it?
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