new efestivals website

[eFestivals]

The new version of the efestivals website is now having a public test ... so you can take a look if you'd like to.

You can access it by going to http://m.efestivals.co.uk - USING A COMPUTER, not a phone or tablet.

The new site has been designed to give you a different version of the website depending on the device you use to access it - so if you go there with a phone or tablet you'll get the mobile version of the site.

Please let me know what you think, or if you encounter any issues.

(One issue I'm aware of is that if using the efestivals app it won't give you the full version of a page if you click on the link for that. This should be addressed with an update to the app next week.)

[Brave Sir Robin]

The colour banner is nice.

There's a typo in the middle column - Camdem.

[eFestivals]

Brave Sir Robin, on 10 May 2013 - 10:20 AM, said:

There's a typo in the middle column - Camdem.

thanks - i think I've tracked down what you were meaning.

[theboytaff]

Bit disappointed that you've lost the 'future festivals' row. I like that as a quick glance to see if there's been any updates to festivals I'm attending. I can see that you've got it in that other column, but now it only has 1 picture.

Feels very 'busy', but I've always thought the current homepage is a good example of publishing the key information I'm interested in.

But hey-ho, change is inevitable....

[mikeb]

I like it It's a much better fit on Ye Olde 1024x768 Screen (no almost unnecessary h-scroll bar) plus it also seems to be a lot clearer and easier for my antique eyes to read although the top banner might be displaying a bit oddly possibly due to resizing or something I really hope I'm not insulting someone because it's *supposed* to look cool and a tad pop arty but at first thought it does look somewhat strange ... as though resizing has resulted in poor rendering. Here's a quicky screen grab taken just before the Ad loaded to hopefully show what I mean but do bare in mind that it's a JPG and although not that much different to what I actually see, there will be some subtle compression effects as well:

Edited May 10, 2013 by mikeb

[eFestivals]

thanks for the comments. I'll consider putting back that 'recently updated' bit for the festivals. There's planned changes to the homepage anyway.

Because of a number of major changes of how things work in the background with the new site, it's necessary to get the new site in place before further changes are made - because otherwise trying to manage those changes within the code when the data isn't handled in a way to suit those changes starts to make the whole thing so complicated that I'd never keep on top of it all.

(I just read that back and it's a confusing sentence ... but not half as confusing as trying to manages changes in lots of different places while also keeping the current format website working).

What i'm saying is that the new site isn't finished, but it's finished enough to be able to do everything that the current sites does. The real changes will be what gets changed from how it is now.

[eFestivals]

although the top banner might be displaying a bit oddly possibly due to resizing or something I really hope I'm not insulting someone because it's *supposed* to look cool and a tad pop arty but at first thought it does look somewhat strange ... as though resizing has resulted in poor rendering.

yeah, there's a bit more work needed on that to get it absolutely right - because now it's coloured the words alongside the logo get lost in the tents in the background, so the logo and words have been moved a little.

But it is meant to have that pop-art/poster-y look. It injects some of the colour that was lacking in the old design.

[LondonTom]

I take it the top navigation bar is supposed to send you the old website still?

Looks cool! I like the new more colorful banner, though I think the first tend looks odd...maybe a bit to faded/like its not loaded correctly.

And I see I am logged in on the main site and get no ad's there their either now

I like festival and ticket search, a lot better location and a nice reminder to buy using efestivals links for tickets!

The line up pages, while a subtle change, I think look fantastic! Alot clearer! I also like the reviews and interviews on the homepage, as I missed these!

Only thing I'd say, is Video of the space looks like it should be centered/stretch across? Just the one video looks odd? (Unless your going have the previous videos of the day there to?)

[eFestivals]

LondonTom, on 10 May 2013 - 12:28 PM, said:

I take it the top navigation bar is supposed to send you the old website still?

are you meaning clicking on the logo in the very top part of the page? If so, I fixed that a short while ago.

If not, could you please say exactly what you mean, so I can fix it?

LondonTom, on 10 May 2013 - 12:28 PM, said:

Looks cool! I like the new more colorful banner, though I think the first tend looks odd...maybe a bit to faded/like its not loaded correctly.

yeah, it needs a bit of a touch up, will get that sorted.

LondonTom, on 10 May 2013 - 12:28 PM, said:

And I see I am logged in on the main site and get no ad's there their either now

yep - one of the new features of the new site, and extra value for gold members.

LondonTom, on 10 May 2013 - 12:28 PM, said:

I like festival and ticket search, a lot better location and a nice reminder to buy using efestivals links for tickets!

ummm ... it's actually in the same place as before.

LondonTom, on 10 May 2013 - 12:28 PM, said:

The line up pages, while a subtle change, I think look fantastic! Alot clearer! I also like the reviews and interviews on the homepage, as I missed these!

am glad you like it.

LondonTom, on 10 May 2013 - 12:28 PM, said:

Only thing I'd say, is Video of the space looks like it should be centered/stretch across? Just the one video looks odd? (Unless your going have the previous videos of the day there to?)

yeah, it'll have more there as the days go by - it's the first day of presenting these 'videos of the day', so there's only today's video showing there just now. Tomorrow there'll be a new one, plus the one from today.

[Pinhead]

Neat. Reminds me somehow of the site design about two generations ago. Also feature aligns with the app better.

[LondonTom]

ummm ... it's actually in the same place as before.

[eFestivals]

I went back to double check and so it! Must be cos I am looking for things!

Anyway the navigation menu thing, I meant the one just under the banner:

When you click that Navigation bar, it takes away the M.

ahh, got you. Thanks for finding that!

I think I can fix that pretty easily.....

[eFestivals]

actually, scrub that. My thinking has just caught up with my typing.

I deliberately want them to direct to the 'www' sub-domain, because anyone using that 'full' skin should really be getting their pages from the 'www' subdomain.

When it gets fully installed (so that everyone is using it), the 'www' subdomain will work in an identical fashion to the 'm' subdomain, so while it's an issue now it won't be when properly live.

Edited May 10, 2013 by eFestivals

[eFestivals]

I really hope I'm not insulting someone because it's *supposed* to look cool and a tad pop arty but at first thought it does look somewhat strange ... as though resizing has resulted in poor rendering. Here's a quicky screen grab taken just before the Ad loaded to hopefully show what I mean but do bare in mind that it's a JPG and although not that much different to what I actually see, there will be some subtle compression effects as well:

You might have to force a full refresh to get it, but there's now a better graphic at the top of the (new website) pages.

Please let me know what you think?

[eFestivals]

(One issue I'm aware of is that if using the efestivals app it won't give you the full version of a page if you click on the link for that. This should be addressed with an update to the app next week.)

there'll be updated version of the app in a few hours.

[Matt42]

Congratulations I like it!

[eFestivals]

Bit disappointed that you've lost the 'future festivals' row. I like that as a quick glance to see if there's been any updates to festivals I'm attending.

you're not the first person to say that, so I've just added it in.

Feels very 'busy'...

That's actually one of the reasons why the 'future festivals' part hadn't been included previously.

But anyway, how busy the front page is is now strictly related to what is actually new - so, for example, the 'interviews' and 'reviews' parts will come and go from the front page, dependent on whether or not there's new interviews &/or reviews within the last few weeks.

[mrtourette]

I like the festival and line-up 'quick jumps', good idea. Also the festival details and line-up pages seem a lot cleaner and crisper, and the video of the day is a nice touch.

I must say the banner/header strck me when i first saw it, I thought someone had been playing with the contrast/brightness settings. It's very bold.

[eFestivals]

I must say the banner/header strck me when i first saw it, I thought someone had been playing with the contrast/brightness settings. It's very bold.

the old site was a bit dull, what with all that grey. So we thought that we'd give the masthead a bit of a makeover as well as the rest of the site.

I like the festival and line-up 'quick jumps', good idea. Also the festival details and line-up pages seem a lot cleaner and crisper, and the video of the day is a nice touch.

thanks - I'm glad you like it.

There's quite a lot still to be done before everything that's planned for the new site is in place.

[SimonEvans]

The menu (festivals/shop/info/community/about) doesn't sit right and the items cross over to the container to the left

Is this CSS or JS driven?

[eFestivals]

The menu (festivals/shop/info/community/about) doesn't sit right and the items cross over to the container to the left

Is this CSS or JS driven?

The menus for the full website are javascript.

The placement of the menus is browser dependent, but only as good as that browser is consistent across platforms.

I'll take a guess that you're using Google Chrome, probably on Android (cos I know the menu is not placed correctly on Chrome for Android) ... and yet on Chrome for PC it is in the right place. Which is why i'm guessing that you're using Chrome.

Hopefully I'll come up with a fix for it at some point in the future.

I'll be interested to know what browser and platform you are using, so that I'm aware of as many issues as possible.

[SimonEvans]

Desktop - Windows 7 and Chrome v27

[eFestivals]

As I test webpages on a daily basis I have my IE settings to display every error and not mask anything...

Your site is throwing up an errors...

Webpage error details

Message: Expected identifier

Line: 1

Char: 9

Code: 0

URI: /topic/174961-new-efestivals-website/page-2">http://www.efestivals.co.uk/forums/topic/174961-new-efestivals-website/page-2

IE 10...

It appears in various formats at various points. I suggest you try setting your IE browser to show all errors to see it...

Line 1 is

<!DOCTYPE html>

Care to tell me where the error is with that?

What you've learnt today is don't believe anything that Microsoft tells you in regard to anything web. They don't do universal standards, they make it up as they go along.

[eFestivals]

Desktop - Windows 7 and Chrome v27

Thanks.

I'm not sure why that's wrong, cos it should be right (it was positioned for Chrome on a win7 machine). It's perhaps the case that I was using a different version of Chrome.

I'll check it out later, and hopefully fix it.

[eFestivals]

All I learnt today is your not a good developer LOL

Its probably referring to come javascript somewhere

yeah, cos I did all the coding for the forums, didn't i?

If you show me a website that p[asses the error checks for every browser, you'll be showing me the most simple webpage in existence.

None of the errors you're seeing on these forums are down to any errors of mine.

I'm sure you'll find plenty of 'errors' on the rest of the site, but seeing as not even w3c are able to build code validators that work properly for html5 in all circumstances, they only really count as errors if something isn't doing what it's meant to.

So there's not really any errors to speak of (unless I've screwed up something when I've doing something else, which is quite possible).

But having said that, it's still very much a work in progress too. The site went live when it did because it would have otherwise been impossible to manage the switch-over between the sites, because of the differences. I'm actually working thru a major change right now, tho it's background stuff so it's not too likely that any humans will notice any differences.