WHY are we making changes?- BEST PRACTICE: On behalf of our partners and clients, SportingPulse has a responsibility to ensure websites are of the highest standard in terms of layout, usability and readability, as well as being accessible to all users – including the visually impaired.
- BETTER LAYOUTS: Over 60% of site traffic is generated through results and stats information. Whilst every page is getting an overhaul, we want to ensure there is space to display all statistical information and that we follow best practice in the layout of all information.
- CONTENT IS KING: As above, we have concentrated our efforts on best practice in terms of layout and content. We will ensure on your behalf that site content is readable and work towards a better flow of information, including removal of background colours on text rich content areas.
The changes will be made on ALL Sportzware websites provided by SportingPulse, across each of our sports. The changes will not affect Smarterweb sites.
WHEN will the changes take effect?
The changes will take effect on Monday 22 November 2010.
WHAT is changing?
MENUS: moving to top-menu navigation only (left and right-hand menus will migrate) – largely so that the area for all page layouts, including fixtures, results and stats can be maximised. - COLOURS: Currently users can configure 20 colour settings. We’ve simplified this back to 4 main colours, and ensured that content is readable on a white background.
- IMPROVED LAYOUT ACROSS ALL PAGES: E.g. News, Fixtures/Results/Ladders.
- IMPROVED WYSIWYG EDITOR: Upgrade to TinyMCE, the text editor used by Facebook, Wordpress, Joomla CMS, Microsoft etc.
- SOCIAL MEDIA INTERACTION: Ability for users to share pages, news articles and page content via social networks such as Twitter and Facebook, in order to drive traffic and user engagement back to your site.
A test version of your site (with the new changes) will be made available on Monday 15 November for you to play around with. Website (Note: Any changes you make in this test site will need to be re-produced on your actual live site after 22 November).
WILL I lose any information?
Of course not! All left and right-hand menu items will be put into the top menu, and you can then structure your new menu structure accordingly - but there’s nothing stopping you doing this right now on your live site! And rest assured, no current pages, or any of your information, will be lost through this upgrade…
WHERE can I get more more information?
We invite any Sportzware website administrators to attend one of our upcoming Webinars to find out more details about these changes and how they will affect your site.
Webinar Details:
| Date | Time (AEDST) | Registration |
| Tue 9 Nov | 11:00am – 12:00pm | Click here to register |
| Thu 11 Nov | 3:00pm – 4:00pm | Click here to register |
| Tue 16 Nov | 11:00am – 12:00pm | Click here to register |
| Thu 18 Nov | 3:00pm – 4:00pm | Click here to register |
Stay tuned to the SportingPulse Product Blog for more info, or Contact Us for any further enquiries.
Hi Guys, When you say you have reduced the color setting options, where do you mean? I assume this wont restrict the colors we use on our club websites?
ReplyDeleteLooking forward to the editor and twitter options.
Hi Lindsay - you're right.
ReplyDeleteYou'll be able to choose your own colours - we're just making the process less confusing by having 4 main places to add your colours, as opposed to the 30-odd that presently exist.
The other thing we're doing is ensuring that content is highly readable, by having text areas presented on a neutral background.
Will we be able to delete complete directories from the photo gallery? At present we must delete each individual photo before deleting the directory.
ReplyDeleteI like the idea that the homepage will be more flexible than having to choose one type of standard page
ReplyDeleteThanks Rick, that change is slated for Phase 3, around February in the new year - more info to come on this change, but we're looking forward to it as well.
ReplyDeleteWill we be able to embed a Google Calendar, particularly one that is capable of sending out meeting requests and the like?
ReplyDeleteWill we be able to personalise our site header with Club related Photo etc
ReplyDeleteA reason suggested for the menu change is to maximise space, but as is the websites only occupy 75% of screen width anyway - less actually, because of the space sportingpulse sponsors get on the right hand side!! I appreciate the nil cost, but I know some ppl are turned off the sites because of the advertising.
ReplyDeleteI'd also like the option to be linked to more than one League - as our club fields teams in more than one competition, but we're restricted to just one in terms of feeds etc.
Hi are we able to make colour changes now ? I just ran the test version for my site, and our colours dissappeared back to a basic grey ?
ReplyDeleteRgds
Anthony
Hi Anthony - thanks for the feedback.
ReplyDeleteWe'll write a post about this asap - in your test site's website editor, you'll see there's now a preview of colours you can add before you commit them to your site (see Customise your website > Advanced Configuration > Colours and Fonts).
In terms of your site going 'grey' - one of the base colours we are using is the site 'background' colour. I suspect in your case that you may have a coloured 'menu', but your site background is actually grey.
We expect there will be some need to 'rejig' colour schemes on some sites - but you should find its very easy to do.
Once you're happy with the result on the test site, make a note of your changes, as you'll have to replicate these once the new site changes go live.
Cheers, Andy
I think these changes are totally unecessary.
ReplyDeleteI have helped a number of clubs to set up their websites to the way they liked them with colour schemes to suit their clubs and with the side menus bring utilised to even up the look of the website.
Now I will have to make changes to all of these sites.
Sportingpulse seems to make changes every year without seeking feedback from the clubs.
This happened last year as well when they widened the size of the right menu which imposed over a lot of text on the main page.
And of course their advertising is front and centre.
And could you please remove that bloody gameday survey that takes up advertising space.
The clubs main sponsors should be able to be seen on the home page when it is opened up. Not some survey! Who cares who can bounce a ball the highest????
Unecessary changes!
Hi Anon - thanks for the feedback.
ReplyDeleteWe actually have worked with leaders at National Governing level of sports extensively during our research period and given presentations at state conferences before these changes began to be coded.
I appreciate the mix of advertising and sponsors within sites and we are making changes as logical and integrated as possible. The fact is that we have to serve advertising to survive as a company, as we gives tools to administrators at no cost - from league management software, to websites and membership databases.
We used to charge licencing fees to sports to use our software, so the real cost savings to sport throughout Australia and New Zealand is actually one of the best 'good news' stories we can tell as a company - and hopefully you can understand that we need a mix of partners, advertising and club sponsors for you to be able to use our products freely.
Cheers, Andy
Can you put our sponsor information straight into the widget sponsor space? Its alot of work for us to have to retype and re enter all the data
ReplyDeleteHi there - thanks for your comment.
ReplyDeleteNo info should be lost in the transition - please send a link to your site to websites@sportingpulse.com if this isn't the case.
Cheers, Andrew
I understand the need for advertising, but can you ease up a bit? There is just too many ads on our site and our club will be looking for an alternative
ReplyDeleteHi Anon,
ReplyDeleteSorry to hear that - in the right hand column, the RH Column widgets integrate with advertising, so it breaks up the ads we serve down the side there.
We're also planning on releasing a 'premium sponsor' widget by the end of the year, that will be able to sit above the med rec (square) advertising spot at the top of the RH column.
I appreciate what you're saying and we're really trying to get the mix of advertising right, whilst being able to supply software (including competition, membership, iPhone app, mb web), etc at no cost to sports.
Cheers, Andrew
Andrew, these changes look fantastic. And so is this forum! Keep up the good work! PB
ReplyDeleteHi there - thanks for your comment, Christine - there is now more information on adding news feed type widgets to your site here - http://blog.sportingpulse.com/2010/11/feed-latest-sports-news-directly-into.html
ReplyDeleteThanks PB - there has been a shift for administrators to get the sites in order in terms of colours and menu conventions. When you consider these sites are used by thousands, the feedback has been fantastic, and people have been very positive about what we've achieved.
ReplyDeleteThis blog post alone has had a few thousand reads, so embedding the blog into the Website admin area has been a winner.
Cheers, ac
Heya. I have no problems with the ads whatsoever. The biggest issue, is having to look in between all the ads to find the content.
ReplyDeleteIs there any reason why the ads can't be set to go below user content? Much easier for Nav. and looks much more professional.
Other than that, loving the update.
Hi Jason & thanks for the feedback,
ReplyDeleteWe're always trying to find the best way to display advertising that serves both the advertiser and club.
At this stage, we display a leaderboard across the top and also have a sponsored weather widget, that we believe is a value add, as it gives the weather based on the location of the league / club you're looking at. Quite clever.
We then serve a 'med rec' ad and from there, we alternate between 'widgets' and other things like polls and ads.
Our responsibility is to serve the med rec ad 'above the fold'; meaning, the ad must be displayed in the first 768 pixels (in height).
Cheers, Andrew
These changes have altered the entire layout of our web site and i am not impressed.
ReplyDeleteMany hours have been spent designing what suits our club best.
I would suggest you speak to clubs rather than governing bodies... Many of them have there heads in the clouds and never understand what clubs need.
It is becoming obvious from the last forum i attended neither does sporting pulse... A complete waste of time, and now i must waste more re-designing...
Benjamin
Hi Benjamin - thanks for the input.
ReplyDeleteWe started consultation with National Governing Bodies, but from there, we also gave demos to some states, leagues and clubs, plus ran 5 webinars on the changes.
We've been as open as we could be with the process and given details where people could have input at any time (such as this blog that has had 1000's of reads).
Most governing body reps actually come out of grassroots sport, with many still playing at club level and as such, their sites were affected by these changes - so, whilst I don't quite agree with your 'head in the clouds' observation (!), I do thank you for the time you've spent to give feedback and also your commitment to your club site.
If we can help, please contact websites@sportingpulse.com