Discussion: Meet www.orienteeringusa.org

All,

This week Orienteering USA will launch its new website www.orienteeringusa.org. Based on requests from our members the first phase of this site provides content to current and new orienteers in a consumer friendly way. In addition, we have updated the graphics to be consistent with the new Orienteering USA campaign presented in Spokane and is continuing to be rolled out.

Moving forward we will introduce additional phases that will include a geolocator for events and clubs as well as an online registration system.

I would like to thank the web committee of: Lisa Carr (chair), Dan Felitsky, Greg Lennon, Mike Schuh and Janet Tryson for their tireless efforts and ongoing dedication to this project. It would not have happened without them.

Discover Orienteering. Discover www.orienteeringusa.org.

Have a good day. See you in New York.

Glen

At a first glance, looks great! Thanks everyone for the hard work!!!

Thanks Boris. They did a great job.

Also, we welcome all feedback on the site. You can post here and it will be monitored.

Back to work.

Glen

Yes, thank you!

Could the rules be available as a webpage (html) as well / instead of as a pdf? When I forget one, I usually find the old site's web page (which used to be at http://www.us.orienteering.org/binder/rules.html) is easier to search almost instantaneously than a pdf would be (in fact, that's why I use the website rather than the stored copy on my hard drive). So, removing the text version is a big step backwards for me. (I like pdf as much as the next person but it is annoying for documents one consults frequently but for a short time per consultation.)

Otherwise, looks (finally!) very nice.

Also, no redirect from http://www.us.orienteering.org?

Great job folks. My one comment would be that the visual appeal would be improved if the black nav/slogan bar were less obtrusive.

All,

Thanks for your continued comments. We will address in full after this weeks A meet at EMPO>

Feet - we are working on the redirect issue now.

Glen

(redirect now in place)

Great site - obviously a lot of work went into it.
I notice that all the links under "Featured News" lead to a "Page Not Found" error.

John,

Thanks. That is being addressed.

Glen

The "Featured News" links work fine for me.

And, while I'm here - excellent job to all involved!!

Yes, it seems to work now.

The new site does look great. Congrats to everyone who worked on it!

Is it just me or can other people not view the site?

Jordan

What is your server?

Glen

I'm not seeing the OLD home page or redirect at us.orienteering.org. The links down the left side look and work ok but the home page itself is blank. Connecting directly, the new page is working great for me. Using internet explorer, but an old version (not IE-8).

On the row of drop-down menus (Home | New to O | Orienteers | ...), in the drop-down menus themselves, the spacing between the menu items is different for the items that have a submenu vs. ones that don't (tried IE 7.0 and Opera 10.53, happens in both, more glaring with IE). There are a lot of other spacing/font issues, some apparently from rendering, some apparently by design, but this one seems harshest on the eyes. If the spacing/font issues were to be fixed, I think this is a great design.

Also, is there a dedicated bug-report place? I wouldn't want to clutter this thread with each found bug.

Bug report to me and I will foward to the the folks working on the web.

Glen

Looks awesome -- thanks to all who worked -- and will continue to work -- on i!

Few quick comments just on the Homepage:

Is using "New to O" instead of "New to Orienteering" optimal? Using just "O" on the homepage might come across as jargon-y.

The web icon (OUSA arrowhead) looks a bit like an eye.

Photo selection seems Highlander heavy -- and youth light.

As has been discussed previously and at length, the O in the new OUSA symbol represents a booby, and the arrow represents a dude. Together, the logo symbolizes the coming together of both sexes in the spirit of discovery that is orienteering.

Oh, Tom, thanks for the levity in this humorless time of new budgets and new websites!!!!

In the What is O section, it seems to be more How It Works than What It Is... control punches are irrelevant. The concept of running finally appears, almost as an afterthought, in the sixth paragraph. The words suggesting some sort of displacement in paragraphs one through five are "visit" and "navigate".

The goal of a marathon-runner is not to visit the bits of tape marking his/her route and the drinks stations along the way. Skiing is not just about balancing on two planks. American Football is just about tights and padding.

Pleeeeeeeeeeeease do something about this :)
Otherwise, good work!

My first comment is earnest, my second may be dismissed.

The footer text (About US, Documents, etc.) does not seem sufficiently visually distinct and sort of melts into the sponsor logos. Is it possible to separate it somehow?

The map background is cute, and we are all about maps, but it isn't aesthetically cohesive. If you have to have a map, can't it be on the same scale as the rest of the page, or the way it is done on AP? Also, and feel free to smack me--are any Pat Dunlavey maps available? An example of first-rate drafting would be great.

Under Featured News, hopefully it will not be the "2001" Draft Budget that will be discussed this weekend.

Generally an impressive site. Good work by all.

• Kentucky Sports Authority
• Bollinger Insurance
• Road ID
• Studio 6 Extended Stay
• Motel 6

The five Sponsors that appear in rotation is something new. I'd be interested how much advertising revenue we get annually for such prime positioning on our home page....and where this income is reflected in the 2011 budget. Do we get a few cents every time someone clicks on an ad icon and is provided an opportunity to make a reservation or order more info?

I love the new website. Thanks Glen and co!

The whole "Discover orienteering. Discover " over really awesome photo montage is cool.

Yes. That is a great tagline. A great logo, slogan, and website. We are getting there.

Page not found: http://www.us.orienteering.org/images/bkcup-team20...

On the O Vendors and/or the SportIdent page it might be worth informing people that sportident.ca is a North American outfit that repairs SI equipment.

Wonderful update. Compelling and modern. Well done team! Keep up the good work!

http://www.us.orienteering.org/ should do a 301 redirect to http://www.orienteeringusa.org/ (or http://orienteeringusa.org/) instead of also being a valid website. You should also pick www.orienteeringusa.org OR orienteeringusa.org (canonify) as well, and redirect one to the other.

Again: go team go! Excellent! Wahoo! :)

Website looks great on the whole, thanks for your hard work!

One obvious aesthetic thing sticks out and that is the low resolution of many of the photos used. I am particularly surprised by the banner photo on the "New to O" page, as I know Wil Smith has taken much crisper photos than that.

They've all been dumbed down from the originals for some reason (load speed or size?) Maybe a better interpolation algo would help.

Looks like that photo in particular has been compressed and then blown up, you can see jpeg artifacts all over it.

The photo within the 'New To O' page is also badly done - the actual file is 1704x1278px, relying on the browser to force it down to size. Browsers suck at resizing photos, and having the full size image in there removes any speed benefit you might have gotten.

This is all fiddling around the edges though - overall IMO the site looks fantastic.

"Orienteering is a sport in which orienteers use an accurate, detailed topographic map and a compass to find points in the landscape."

If I don't use a compass, does that mean I don't orienteer?

Colm, half the time you don't use the map

(i was waiting for you to comment Neil :) I like the aaah it'll be grand approach)

Would this not been more suited:
Orienteering is a competitive international sport that combines running with navigation. It is a timed race in which individual participants use a specially created, highly detailed, map to select routes and navigate through diverse terrain and visit control points in sequence.

While some comments here are a bit harsh, it definitely seems like the description of orienteering on the website is a bit dated - note that this has nothing to do with the creators of the new website, since the text is taken from the old one.

Is it possible to rewrite the text of that section? I am happy to do it if no one else wants to. (I'll even find a nice picture of an SI unit to replace the one of the punch that's currently there :)

Don't get me wrong - the difference in web design is a massive improvement. The site looks extremely good.
Dated content is more what I was getting at.

I like it! Looks good!

The stated focus if the federation is more recreational (unless that has changed). I think it is hard to catch both a competitive and recreational aspect in one description, and still keep it short, but perhaps something like this can be used as a starting point --

Orienteering is an intense navigational race thru the forest using a
highly-detailed map, or an afternoon outing of off-trail discovery.

In particular, I think you can cut the part about finding control points (the use of a map already implies finding something), and certainly eliminate the bit about the compass. Even the recreational market would rather hear about GPS units than compasses, so the less said here about the technology (and lack thereof, the better).

Also agree with the comment about the map at the bottom, would like to see a better image of a better map. And, while I didn't go thru the entire rotation of photos so this may already be there -- if not, it might be cool to add one of a "highly detailed map" in the rotation. A cropping of Surebridge or Pawtuckaway might look cool there :)

Better map images just like you asked for are on my to-do list for tonight (I was supposed to supply them yesterday, but I got behind schedule).

Thanks, everyone, for your suggestions and feedback. Please keep them coming -- send to Glen at gjs@orienteeringusa.org, and they will be added to our issue tracker.

A good website is never "done" -- we're about to kick off Phase 2, which will focus on new functionality, and we'd love to have some new people join our "posse" to help us keep the momentum going. If you have mad Drupal skillz, so much the better! But all are welcome. Please let Glen know if you'd like to help.

Phase 1 was getting the new website design created and content re-organized...many thanks to Lisa Carr for her guidance & others for additional input.

Phase 2 includes, among other things, getting USOF Orienteering USA members to step up and contribute some excellent, updated content to replace what was on the old.

The team welcomes all input, and will work on getting changes made in the coming weeks. Your patience is appreciated.

j-man, we are looking for all kinds of map images for the banners. Since there are a lot of pages, it's nice to have a lot of images to choose among. We've already sought out a few really nice technical maps (see J-J's comment above) ... and hope to add an image from this past weekend's US Championships map as well, as permission has been granted by EMPO to include a clip. ;-)

JanetT:

If you put on an image of the US Championships map, that would make me really happy!

Colm, I hope you don't mind that I used your definition above Orienteering is a competitive international sport that combines running with navigation. It is a timed race in which individual participants use a specially created, highly detailed, map to select routes and navigate through diverse terrain and visit control points in sequence, pretty much unchanged.

The use of the word "running" in the definition excludes all non-Foot-O forms of orienteering, so it's use should either be avoided or qualified.

And your suggested wording is...?

This should be good.

Oienteering is orienteering. Its a race. You run.
MTBO is Mountain Bike Orienteering. Its a race. You bike hard.
Trail O is Trail orienteering. Its a technical challenge. Not a physical race.
*** O. Insert **** here and build a bridge and get over it

If it really upsets you have running*

Then at the bottom have *other forms of orienteering involve biking, walking, crawling, kayaking, whatever your having

OR come up with some other definition thats not from the 60's and makes it sound like a tree hugging exercise.

The use of the word "running" in the definition excludes all non-Foot-O forms of orienteering, so it's use should either be avoided or qualified.

I can't believe someone has suggested avoiding the use of the word "running" in a definition of orienteering. Sure, add the variants in, too, if you want to, but avoiding the word running is a bit extreme. That's like not talking about a pitcher pitching a ball on a baseball site because it would exclude tee-ball. (This from someone who actually really respects tee-ball, btw.)

what about "racing" instead of "running"?

I think most people who come to the site will have a general idea of what orienteering is (to them)... if not.... they will more likely find the definition from wikipedia , which currently shows up before orienteeringusa.org on google search. Wikipedia's definition looks good to me but anyone who doesn't like it can change it.

I like the fact that the OUSA site is attractive, makes the sport look exciting, and has useful information.