Bushwalk Australia

... a live preview of its new web site.

http://bushwalkingnsw.org.au

This is a preview because there are still a few rough edges and a couple of pages yet to be finished. We will be polishing these over the next week or so for the official launch at the AGM on Tuesday 19 August. All are welcome to come and celebrate. Do not forget to RSVP to Gail as soon as possible.

You will notice several features of the new site:

• Fresh modern look featuring photos taken by NSW club members
• Lots of useful content
• Fast navigation - two clicks will get you to any page

What you can do!!

There are probably typos and other errors, or useful information we have overlooked. Please let us know by clicking on the "Email us" link at the bottom of every page. Make sure to tell us which page is involved.

The old site will remain for a time until a few matters are resolved.

Thank you.

David

Great work on the website David, it looks really good!

Looks really good. I love the layout.

I'd suggest making the subheading titles a bit larger.
It might be worth switching this photo to one of NSW and not Tassie:

Hehe, we knew that was Tassie, and it did worry us a bit at first. There is another one from the Flinders Ranges.

But then we decided that NSW bushwalkers go to other states and even overseas, so why shouldn't we use pictures from there.

Thanks for the comment about the font size. Do you meant the subtitles on the pictures, or on the information pages? Could you give me an example?

We are still polishing all this and sometimes there are inconsistencies between pages.

It was the combination of the picture, and the subtitle, suggesting that there walks would be in NSW. Perhaps change the subtitle to say "...amazing walks available in NSW and abroad".


As far as larger titles go, I'd probably boost the titles above the images by a couple pts.
eg: "Bushwalking NSW" here

OK, so that box is meant to represent all walks, not just NSW. The designer has just made up those words and not realised it was not just NSW. So the answer, as you suggest, might be just to remove "NSW".

I will run the point size past the designer to see what he thinks.

Thanks for the feedback.

Looks much improved over the old site.

I have noticed a few minor grammar/design/links issues:

1. Many pages have no spaces between some sentences eg http://www.bushwalkingnsw.org.au/navigation/ - "navigational skills.A car GPS unit". There seem to be quite a few pages with this issue - might be easier to run a database query to pick them up.
2. http://www.bushwalkingnsw.org.au/walks/ - the slideshow image shows "Why to bushwalk?" (my emphasis), but the box below shows "Why bushwalk?" which looks to be correct
3. http://www.bushwalkingnsw.org.au/walks/ - there is a box for "Other activities", but the text in the box is "Find a bushwalking club close to you, so you can start enjoying the great outdoors". Seems like one or the other is incorrect (should be "Find a club"?)
4. Same page as 3, same issue with "Clubs" - text is "Subscribe to our Newsletter to stay up to date with what is happening"
5. Same page as 3, same issue with "Feature walks" - text is "Find a bushwalking club close to you, so you can start enjoying the great outdoors"
6. http://www.bushwalkingnsw.org.au/walks/ - clicking the "Spring Walks" box doesn't do anything
7. http://www.bushwalkingnsw.org.au/safety/ - the "Gear to be safe" image is a group of canyoners - while canyoning is obviously a gear-focused activity, I think that's probably confusing to people starting out in bushwalking. Better to use a bushwalking image.
8. http://www.bushwalkingnsw.org.au/gettin ... irst-walk/ - "Bushwalking NSW recommends bush walking with a minimum of three people" - should be bushwalking
9. http://www.bushwalkingnsw.org.au/bushwalking/nsw-walks/ - no content? (other pages seem to link to http://www.bushwalkingnsw.org.au/nsw-walks-3/, so perhaps that's the problem)
10. http://www.bushwalkingnsw.org.au/gear/ - the "Health" link goes to the "Getting Started" page
11. http://www.bushwalkingnsw.org.au/safety/ - the "Navigation" box on this page has the following text - "A bushwalking gear shop can advise you on the features of GPS useful for bushwalkers", which seems out of step with the text for the "Navigation" box on other pages eg http://www.bushwalkingnsw.org.au/gear/ - text is "You should always carry a map and compass and know how to use them"
12. Would be useful if the dropdown menus changed colour as you hover over each item - see http://ufnsw.com.au/ for example

Nothing major, but some of them are bugs and should get fixed up.

I'll have a look at some other pages a bit later.

Also
http://www.bushwalkingnsw.org.au/footwear/ - opinion only, but I think there's an overemphasis on boots at the expense of other forms of footwear. I've never worn a pair of boots and I suspect there are plenty of very experienced bushwalkers in the same category. Certainly to start with, a pair of old joggers is fine.

tom_brennan wrote:Looks much improved over the old site.

Thanks. We have tried to use leading edge techniques in web design to make it functional and attractive. I didn't realise until we had done it that you can get to any page with just two clicks.

1. Many pages have no spaces between some sentences eg http://www.bushwalkingnsw.org.au/navigation/ - "navigational skills.A car GPS unit". There seem to be quite a few pages with this issue - might be easier to run a database query to pick them up.

I have noticed this. The original content was written in Word with as much formatting done there as possible. This formatted text can be copied and pasted into Wordpress and retains the formatting. Except that it seems to lose the spaces between some sentences. None of us really know Wordpress yet - we have a training session scheduled for Wednesday. After that, we will be going through fixing up oddities like this.

http://www.bushwalkingnsw.org.au/footwear/ - opinion only, but I think there's an overemphasis on boots at the expense of other forms of footwear. I've never worn a pair of boots and I suspect there are plenty of very experienced bushwalkers in the same category. Certainly to start with, a pair of old joggers is fine.

I tend to agree that people get too prescriptive over boots. This is what the author of that content wrote. Again, we will be reviewing the content over the next few months too.

Thanks for your comments and corrections, Tom. I have fixed a few of them already where I could figure out how. And yes, we would be very grateful for any other comments anyone cares to make.

David

Just continuing the proofing...
13. http://www.bushwalkingnsw.org.au/clubs/ - the text in the "Find a club by its name" box is "Know a Club's name, find out it's location here". Apostrophe Man says no to the second apostrophe
14. http://www.bushwalkingnsw.org.au/map-of-clubs/ - only the first club alphabetically is shown for each point. So for Sydney, only All Nations is shown, which is a bit of a problem for the other 15 Sydney-based clubs
15. http://www.bushwalkingnsw.org.au/clubs-location/ - title is "Clubs location" - should be "Clubs' location" or "Club locations" or ...
16. http://www.bushwalkingnsw.org.au/clubs/ - if I click on "Find a club by its name", I'd expect to get the club page sorted by name, but it's sorted by location
17. http://www.bushwalkingnsw.org.au/bushwa ... -archives/ - page not found (linked from http://www.bushwalkingnsw.org.au/about/)
18. I'd probably remove the Log In button, as it's to manage the Wordpress site - shouldn't really be visible to the public

There were also a few places where the site was still being constructed, but I forgot to note all of these.
- The minutes (on page http://www.bushwalkingnsw.org.au/publications/) was one I do remember.
- Feature walks (http://www.bushwalkingnsw.org.au/other-places/) was another.
- http://www.bushwalkingnsw.org.au/bushwalkers-health/ - under "Blisters" it looks like there was supposed to be a link to footwear.

I think that's probably enough for now. I don't think I'm going to proofread all of the individual pages!

Thanks again Tom. We are working our way through all the glitches.