New website for USA water ski

[LeonL]

So, if I understand correctly, our previously unfruitful affiliation with USOC continues by joining in a website that we are just a small part of. No longer even a towed water sports website, just a part of "team USA" sports.

[Horton]

@LeonL where do you see that? The Team Sports page has been around for a while and does not contain much of use. http://www.usawaterski.org/ is still the site of record and last time I asked there was a plan for a complete redesign of the site. Unfortunately that is a big project and can not happen overnite.

[JeffSurdej]

new site launching July 4th

[klindy]

Their are others who are better to respond than me but the redesign is supposed to use the template/frame that the USOC Team Sports page uses. I understand it will still be a stand alone website with additional features (ability to host video) and security. No idea of the timeframe.

[LeonL]

The new website is online. It may be a work in progress but currently not as user friendly. Some screens look better though.

[scoke]

“Entry status” on iPhone doesn’t appear to work. Haven’t checked it on desktop.

[JeffSurdej]

@scoke let me know exactly what page. Are you referring to the column on rankings page that shows if you are qualified or something specific on a tourney page?

 

[disland]

no matter what they do IWWF has set the bar so low we look good

[scoke]

Normal website, entry status. Then click the tournament. Then it allows you to filter by various factors. Easy.

 

This new website, it just brings you to enter online and general information.

 

The filters are still from asking for a tournament. I tried turning the phone sideways, that just filled up the screen with usoc template stuff.

[rayn]

@scoke. You need to click on the magnifying glass to get to the registration status not on the event. Took me a coupe to figure that change out.

[DavidP]

Launching a new site during regionals and upcoming nationals is not very...

[scoke]

@rayn

 

OHHHHH that tiny ass little magnifying glass on the right which is not intuitive like the previous version and barely appears on my iphone? it worked. thanks.

 

[LeonL]

Magnifying glass usually indicates "search". Maybe it's my internet today, but every page is slower loading than before. Even got the dreaded "problem occurred, webpage being reloaded". Some selection bubbles and text are overlaying.

[Keith_Menard]

 

[JackQ]

Unintuitive, doesn’t scale to user display well. They should have hired someone/anyone that has human factor UI experience. Did they spend member funds to do this?

[scoke]

I see the issue I was running into:

 

On iPhone, it doesn’t allow you to pan to right therefore the magnifying glass can’t be accessed therefore you can’t use those types of features via phones.

[MattP]

Flood the inbox. Too much wrapped text on mobile. Too many nested iframes which makes it load so slow. I hope the registration feature still works the week before Nationals

 

[Keith_Menard]

According to the press release they spent $0

 

[JeffSurdej]

Keep the feedback coming. There will be bugs as with any website launch. This took Scott 6-8 months to convert our very complex website over and mark crone has spent hundreds of hours on his own dime to make rankings, olr, and event pages work under the USOC framework. Instead of spending $30k to hire programmers to make a website we will actually make $40k from USOC advertising due to traffic to our site. We had no control over launch date do I know it comes at a bad time with regionals and nationals but the issues will get fixed. Mark has already fixed tons of issues found by members so feedback to scotts email above is important.

[Horton]

The android interface needs work

[LeonL]

So, at least some of the impetus for this change is potential $$$ ?

[klindy]

Yes @LeonL $40k annually

[Horton]

@klindy Guaranteed?

[JackQ]

It appears that a number of tournaments that you could register online, and check registration status no longer do so.

[JeffSurdej]

@JackQ mobile or desktop ? Which links or icons are missing ? There is a magnify glass that is not very evident To the right of tourney as far as checking registration.

[JackQ]

Desktop and mobile, the magnifying glass was not displayed. This is occurring for both the 9/26 Victory Lake and 10/17 Victory Lake OctoberrSplash. Previously could register and check status online, there is a red flag, not aware of what that signifies.

[scoke]

Looks like it's working a bit better, on desktop.

 

Unfortunately all the "cutoff" calculations which used to auto-populate when looking up rankings. Unless my not to bright mouse moving flat out doesn't see it or am clicking wrong.

 

[scoke]

Why do the banners scale LARGER when I scale up and down. Just make them small, keep them small. I KNOW ITS THE USAWATERSKI WEBSITE, THAT'S WHY I CLICKED IT! lol.

[JackQ]

The more I use the new web site, the less I like it. Many tournaments can not be signed up for online, nor can you see the status. Screens are hard to read, dont display well, etc. I am able to get into the old site to navigate most functions.

 

[scoke]

Lots of ongoing issues trying to register for future tournaments.

 

Tried various browsers on Dell Laptop and it kept seeing it as a mobile device not letting me register.

 

Then officials codes section not working.

 

Polite email sent asking to look into it.

 

 

[JackQ]

You cant enter most tournaments on the new web site. If not fixed or revert to old site by the end of the Nationals this will be a disaster.

[ALPJr]

1st world problems

[JohnN]

Couldn't sign up for a tournament on the new site! Fortunately through google (select the 2nd site, not the first) you can still hit the old, functional, site which works. Surprised there's not more feedback on this. Also, the half screen banner is terrible for actually getting any information out of the site.

[skiinxs]

Thanks to the above post, found the old site (since the new one has been down all day). Wow, the old site was so nice!

[rico]

I cannot login to my tournament to see who entered what round nor download skiers...

[lpskier]

All said and done, the new website (once the bugs are all fixed) will be a net +++ for USAWSWS.

[bojans]

I am noticing when looking at past tournament results there is no option to see overall scores.

[The_MS]

I switch browsers to Microsoft and it works.could not get signed up in Chrome

[Bill22]

Update: August 28th and the new site still sucks... lol

[rico]

1- Registration download for tournament does not work so impossible to check who registered for how many rounds

2- Find my ranking does not work

3- Site is not responsive so the scroll and visible area is awkward to use.

 

Is there a list of known issue that they are working on and where to report problems?

[Hallpass]

@rico I noticed the ranking for the kids, which is all I reviewed, were screwed up the last couple of days. They seem to be ok today. FWIW

[MattP]

@rico the registration download is no longer a working function and there is no timeline to fix it. You will need to do a OLR import into WSTIMS. This is the new standard procedure.

 

As for the website... too many issues with it to count. I'm happy to make a list of all the issues I find but I would like to know someone will actually read and address them before I take the time. I know there is always a pecking order to things getting fixed. @JeffSurdej

[JackQ]

They need to revert to the old site immediately. Then actually test all the activities and features on the new site before going live. Too much chaos in everyone's lives.

[rico]

@Hallpass find my ranking is still not working for me.

 

@MattP So how do you know what event / rounds skiers entered?

[MattP]

@rico the tournament registration page will tell you which events or you can pull the running orders.

If you are also referring to more a pick and choose format there is a separate pick&choose under import for that. I can’t say for sure how that works as I’ve never used it. You can also look at the Paypal and see what they paid for.

 

Email Jeff Clark he will be able to tell you for sure.

[rico]

@MattP Are you talking about check registration status?

 

This gives you who entered which event but you don't know if they entered 1 trick 2 slalom 2 jump or 1 trick 3 slalom 1 jump...

[JeffSurdej]

@rico @MattP How about we try a google sheet where people can add issues they see or enhancement ideas, this way we can have them in one place and work on them all winter.

 

https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/135vMmVLc1bh6HsXnh8hLohpkHP-dX2OmVkqU3gFMrlk/edit#gid=0

[JackQ]

Jeff, We really need to go back to the old site now until many of the fixes in place, not work on it over the winter. Once the new site is usable with time consuming frustrating work arounds, and operation, then you should entertain enhancements. I am afraid the cart is being put in front of the horse.

[JeffSurdej]

@JackQ going back is not an option at this point, I know the transition has not gone smoothly and the new site is no A+ but there are too many logistics to go back, so we gotta make it work. The # one issue is the iframes that had to built to make OLR, sanctioning, rankings all work within the USOC platform, we have reverted some of those back for now. lets just work together to fix issues and improve it. The old site worked well but for many reasons it had to be changed, we couldnt even play video on the old site, it was not mobile responsive, and would not work going forward as we work on new membership database and sanctioning functions, so this is step 1 in a number of steps.

 

[JackQ]

I understand and support the goal of moving but not the execution. From my last 20 years as the Chief Information Officer for a large organization I would comment that you have met two of the top 5 contributors to IT malpractice head on: 1. Lack or ineffective testing 2. Risking your core mission (sanctioning and executing tournaments) for nice to haves (mobile and videos), though important new capabilities not worth negatively effecting the must haves. I have not met anyone that likes the new site, and scorers and tournament directors seem to despise it.