new efestivals website

[eFestivals]

The new efestivals website is now live. We hope you like it.

If you encounter any problems using the website, please let us know by posting information about the issue here.

[love_music_hate_xfactor]

Ah, when I saw the Efests banner a different colour I thought there was something up with my monitor!

Thanks for clearing it up

[LewisXI]

If I'm being totally honest...I really dislike this new website look. It looks terrible.

I quite liked the old look of the site, this new one looks like a 90's style design and it is quite a pain trying to navigate.

Also the site defaults straight to the forum now instead of the homepage which is quite annoying.

I'm a long time visitor to the site and this certainly puts me off visiting. Can you make it an option to enable the old theme please it was much better.

Thanks

[eFestivals]

Also the site defaults straight to the forum now instead of the homepage which is quite annoying.

erm ... I'm not getting what you're meaning?

If you go to http://www.efestivals.co.uk you'll get the homepage and not the forums.

I'm a long time visitor to the site and this certainly puts me off visiting. Can you make it an option to enable the old theme please it was much better.

Are you visiting on a mobile or tablet, and so getting the mobile version?

If so, all you need to do is click on the 'full version of this page' link at the bottom of any page. You'll then get the full website.

[nickkkw]

Looks pretty nice on the whole, but a couple of things I would say... (using the Glasto lineup rumours page as an example - http://www.efestivals.co.uk/festivals/glastonbury/2013/lineup.shtml# )

It seems a lot harder now to see any additions to the lineup or rumours page. It might be my browser perhaps, but the different colours standout nowhere near as much as the previous "NEW" and "UPDATED" icons did.

Also, am I being blind or has the direct link to the forums from that page disappeared now too?

[eFestivals]

It seems a lot harder now to see any additions to the lineup or rumours page. It might be my browser perhaps, but the different colours standout nowhere near as much as the previous "NEW" and "UPDATED" icons did.

I'll lighten the purple a little bit in a moment, I think that'll sort it.

Also, am I being blind or has the direct link to the forums from that page disappeared now too?

ahhh, good point, I'd stupidly missed including that.

I've now added it in.

[nickkkw]

I'll lighten the purple a little bit in a moment, I think that'll sort it.

[Marie Welsh]

Agreed, the nav seems more confusing. It's hard to find a link to the line-up when browsing a festival info page now. The colours are quite garish too...

[eFestivals]

It's hard to find a link to the line-up when browsing a festival info page now.

you'll find that link at the bottom of any festival related page (as long as that festival has a line-up page, of course).

[Marie Welsh]

you'll find that link at the bottom of any festival related page (as long as that festival has a line-up page, of course).

Edited May 14, 2013 by Marie Welsh

[eFestivals]

I'm currently trying to merge the mobile domain with the full website, but it's causing those accessing the mobile domain to instead get the forums .... I'm currently trying to fix this as quickly as I can.

Apologies for the inconvenience.

[goodmorningspider]

It seems a lot harder now to see any additions to the lineup or rumours page. It might be my browser perhaps, but the different colours standout nowhere near as much as the previous "NEW" and "UPDATED" icons did.

[Keef]

The header banner looks quite 1990s/CGA, but I quite like it. General layout is good too. One thing I particularly like is the lack of adverts on the main site rather than just the forum for those of us Gold members.

Just as an aside, I presume you use some kind of content management system - which one?

[eFestivals]

Just as an aside, I presume you use some kind of content management system - which one?

It's self-written. The main purpose of this makeover has been a re-write of the backend of things, rather than much in the way of changes. I'm now in a far better position to make changes (cos the old version had been built to work, rather than with forward thinking in mind).

[eFestivals]

This. A thousand times this! New site looks great, but this is one of the main reasons I visit, and it's so much more difficult to see the updates now. When you're scrolling through the A-Z, the purple and black just bleed into one another. Having the icons there was SO much easier. Sorry Neil

I've tweaked things a few times already but I'll take another look when I get time.

[bluepork]

If I'm being totally honest...I really dislike this new website look. It looks terrible.

I quite liked the old look of the site, this new one looks like a 90's style design and it is quite a pain trying to navigate.

[eFestivals]

If I'm honest I have no real issue with how the website looks and I think any tweaks to the navigation of it can be picked up within a couple of days and be second nature a couple of days after that. This site is an information site so it doesn't need to be all singing and dancing in terms of visual style.

I'm sure that the intentions of the redesign have been to enable the content to be updated more quickly and easily for the admins (as the the world of festivals is very swift moving), to be compatible with more devices and a whole host of other reasons to our benefit.

I say great work with it and as a vet on this site (10 years) I find it the most valuable resource for my interests out there.

Thanks for your comments.

Yep, you're exactly right - there's now support for mobile devices, and the updated content management system has lots of nice new features to make things easier with running the site.

There's more changes yet to come with the new site, as its easier to manage those changes with the new site in place than it was to try and keep two different versions working while these developments were made.

It's also now much easier to add any new features into the site, so if there's something that you'd like to see included which isn't, please give me your suggestions so that it can be considered.

[eFestivals]

Also the site defaults straight to the forum now instead of the homepage which is quite annoying.

ahhhh ... I'm getting what you were meaning now, and it's now been fixed (I hope).

It was one of those unintended consequences things, as a result (I believe) of you accessing the site without the use of 'www' on the front of the domain.

Sorry about that. Normal service should have now resumed.