New CFC website

[Carlton_FC_Media]

Hi everyone,

Hope you're all well.

The Club will launch its new website in late March. We've been working on the design in conjunction with the AFL and BigPond for a couple of months now, and we're really happy with the end result. It's a big improvement over the current site.

We've come up with a test that takes no longer than 5 minutes to complete that determines how 'user friendly' our design actually is. If you've got the time, we'd love it if you'd take a look.

Here's the link: http://bit.ly/wa7cfz

We've also been working on our official mobile app which will launch in the coming weeks.

If you have any questions regarding the design of the new site, please don't hesitate to get in touch - luca.gonano@carltonfc.com.au

Thanks in advance for your help, guys.

Luca @ CFC Media.

 

[thylacine60]

The current site is certainly tired and a dog's breakfast to look at. Shame BigBuffer has been let anywhere near the new design but looking forward to seeing it regardless.

 

[Salaryman]

Luca, great to see some usability testing with the end users.... bravo

 

[SpiritOfCarlton]

Just did it.

Hope I passed!

Great initiative Luca, well done.

I encourage everyone if you can to do this, only takes a few minutes. The more people the better for supporters and the club.

 

[zeeCFC]

Awesome work Multimedia crew, look forward to the launch. Please don't make it hard for me to get my replay links though

 

[Chism]

Looks great so far Luca and well done.

 

[Blue Dawn]

Went through the 12 steps and more than happy to see the club seeking user input on the menus etc but it's really the lack of content overall, and of updated info in particular, which has seen the CFC website fall miles behind those of other clubs such as Essendon.

Nonetheless, good to see that this well-overdue update on the way and PLEASE increase amount of content, updated player statistical info (inc yearly updated weight please!) and may i suggest other pretty basic supporter communications like listing upcoming training times a little earlier than 12 hours before the session in question.

Great to see you touch bases with the largest pool of Carlton tragics anywhere on the interweb! Hope to see you touch bases with us with some frequency going forward.

 

[Artie Bucco]

Like the usability testing

Interesting you're working with Bigpond...I was under the impression that the AFL is taking everything in house and away from Bigpond for the new websites? (aside from the bigpond branding in the header and footer)

I got a look at another clubs website today and if the design is similar (which I imagine they would be) it's a hell of a lot better than the current design. It's a lot less cluttered and more modular which gives the club more flexibility in changing it I assume.

Also no more horrible Bigpond TV for video content and it looked like it was being hosted by Amazon cloud

 

[HARKER]

I don't have any issues with the soon to be old site, but look forward to the new one.

I do agree that the current Essendon site does have a lot of useful content, but don't think it looks all that great though.
May be an Essendon sort of thing?

Did the test run, but may have failed.

 

[Malifice]

More info on the phone app when available please.

Us expats find things like that particularly useful for keeping up to date on things back home.

 

[Kreuzin4aBluesin]

Forgive my ignorance in web design, but it seems to me that if I want to 'download the latest podcast' I shouldn't have to navigate through a confusing maze of sub headings. Too much guess work here. A fair few of the 'tasks' seemed like they could have been under multiple headings. For instance why have 'club' and 'fanzone'? I'm a FAN of the CLUB. So which one has the info I'm looking for? The difference between some of these headings isn't obvious enough for mine. Maybe I'm stupid.

 

[LanceRomance]

Forgive my ignorance in web design, but it seems to me that if I want to 'download the latest podcast' I shouldn't have to navigate through a confusing maze of sub headings. Too much guess work here. A fair few of the 'tasks' seemed like they could have been under multiple headings. For instance why have 'club' and 'fanzone'? I'm a FAN of the CLUB. So which one has the info I'm looking for? The difference between some of these headings isn't obvious enough for mine. Maybe I'm stupid.

The club can control what it does and what they players do. They can only suggest what Fans get up to.

Reckon they'd approve of some of the stuff that goes on here?

There needs to be some form of seperation between official club business and what the fans are doing/talking about.

 

[Kreuzin4aBluesin]

The club can control what it does and what they players do. They can only suggest what Fans get up to.

Reckon they'd approve of some of the stuff that goes on here?

There needs to be some form of seperation between official club business and what the fans are doing/talking about.

I take your point there. All I'm really getting at is that the site should be very easy to navigate, and I didn't feel the test was super easy. Did you find everything straight away? I think it bears repeating also that maybe I'm stupid

 

[Artie Bucco]

I take your point there. All I'm really getting at is that the site should be very easy to navigate, and I didn't feel the test was super easy. Did you find everything straight away? I think it bears repeating also that maybe I'm stupid

Overall the site structure seemed good to me, there would be 1 or 2 small things I'd change....but that's the point of the user testing if something isn't working they know it and can change it.

 

[gbatman]

yep the site does need a cleanup, being a bigpond site is a bit of a worry as they seem to be a pain to load once your BigPond internet is slowed back to walking speed. The club seems to be doing a good job media wise so no doubt the new site will be good.

 

[ThePine]

please make sure the mobile app is available on both apple and android.

 

[zeeCFC]

YES! Android or bust!

 

[GordonBlue]

Great initiative and good to hear that the club not only asks the fan for their input to the site... but also that they listened to the fans who wanted a new site in the first place!

Well done to everyone at the club re multimedia

 

[GordonBlue]

Android FTW

 

[Artie Bucco]

Great initiative and good to hear that the club not only asks the fan for their input to the site... but also that they listened to the fans who wanted a new site in the first place!

Well done to everyone at the club re multimedia

Not really a club initiative, this is being driven by the AFL. They have taken development in house which is way more important in the grand scheme of things

AFAIK the clubs will still get their 500k P.A. for having the bigpond branding.

Still the club is doing really well in the digital area, Ian Coutts is speaking at a digital conference next month -http://www.ad-tech.com/melbourne/adtech_melbourne.aspx

 

[Aphrodite]

Excellent work Luca & all the CFC multimedia team.

Really looking forward to the launch of the new website in March.

 

[Blues_FC]

I found it hard to find some of the items, and overall, I think there's just too much information there. You have to delve through so much stuff just to find something really simple.

That's a general comment for all AFL based websites, there's just too much content and it's too difficult to navigate.

I think priority in the menus should be given to the things that supporters view most often. For example, I want to be able to easily find the team lineup for an upcoming match, but I really don't care how to make a donation to the Richard Pratt foundation. I'm assuming that the vast majority of your end users would feel the same way.

 

[jimsta10]

Luca, Good initiative. Its a little hard for me or anyone outside from the club to understand the driver or initiative for this, its good to see that the funds were allocated to marketing something had to be done.

When building a website that is user friendly keep in mind that it has to be "topic based" at its simplest anything else would be a dogs breakfast like what the previous guys said.

What scares me is bigpond is still incorporated. could we have another potential influx of marketing material splattered all over the screen while navigating? I would like to see how this would be user friendly.I agree with developing various platforms to tackle the variety of smart phones on market.

 

[blueman2012]

Luca - survey needed a box at end for comments.

What is CPOTY? ok, I worked it out eventually but for the uninitiated it needs to be more self explanatory.

 

[DamoESP]

please make sure the mobile app is available on both apple and android.

and Windows Phone as well please

kthxbai