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new website.. mobile freindly

A

Anonymous

Guest
actually id like to know in advance...

the current website works brilliant on my mobile browser because its predominantly text driven so when abroad i can still catch up on the cycling, or during the tour when in france i can read the live text reports etc as the race is going on..

is it still going to be mobile freindly????

use wap, or mostly opera mini
 
Mar 3, 2009
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Dimspace - I won't speak broadly on the topic as every phone is different and there's bound to be some issues on some platforms. I did however hi-jack our advertising manager's iPhone to take a look on there and it works pretty well there.

Cheers
Greg Johnson
 
A

Anonymous

Guest
thanks for looking.. iphone and a opera mini or opera mobile pretty much have 50% of the mobile market now anyway, (those that dont have opera can download it as its java)

opera 25%
iphone 22%
nokia symbian 17%

if you have a copy of opera desktop, just select view, and check small screen and it shows you mobile rendering current site looks like this..
operamini.jpg


both opera and iphone can show full html pages but obviously theres a lot of scrolling around to do.. the re-rendered versions of webpages that opera do are superb..

hopefully it will.. need me cycling news on the road we do.. :D
 
A

Anonymous

Guest
well... what a difference a day makes

newcn.jpg


three hours it took me to scroll to the results page...

mobile freindly...? its about as mobile freindly as toffee and a bowl of water..
 
Jun 2, 2009
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Greg Johnson said:
Dimspace - I won't speak broadly on the topic as every phone is different and there's bound to be some issues on some platforms. I did however hi-jack our advertising manager's iPhone to take a look on there and it works pretty well there.

Cheers
Greg Johnson

Sorry but the redesign is crap on an iphone - much worse than the old design - which was already poor because the line lengths were too long. I can't believe you've missed this opportunity to make the site mobile friendly. Actually I can believe it because I worked for Future Publishing a few years back & when they bought Cyclingnews I feared for it's future.
 
Jun 15, 2009
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The site is unusable in Nokia Symbian for me unless I disable Java and Flash and you can imagine the mess that makes of the pages.

It's slightly better in Opera Mini as you can see by using the emulator here:

http://www.opera.com/mini/demo/

but at present you can't access any results beyond the top 10 in either browser.

It's also incredibly data aggressive.
 

whiteboytrash

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Mar 17, 2009
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benlondon said:
Sorry but the redesign is crap on an iphone - much worse than the old design - which was already poor because the line lengths were too long. I can't believe you've missed this opportunity to make the site mobile friendly. Actually I can believe it because I worked for Future Publishing a few years back & when they bought Cyclingnews I feared for it's future.

Agreed. Load times are a lot longer on the iPhone & flash is not supported so you miss the headline stories. WBT travels the world breaking cycling news stories & has to put up with this whilst on the road. Crazy.

Didn't the cyclinging news IT heads check this out in the design phase or were they too busy lifting the design from Bikeradar site ?

Can't believe it was only tested after it went live !
 
A

Anonymous

Guest
so opera 25% of the mobile market... Iphone 22%....

thats nearly half of the mobile market upset in one go.. :D

and the blackberry users dont seem happy either...
EDIT: and the symbian users too
so thats the whole mobile market.. :D

anyone, with a vague knowledge (or even market research) can tell you that mobile browsing and small screen browsing (lapbooks etc) is on the up and up and is only going to increase more and more as mobile speeds get better.. websites simply HAVE to be tailored to the small screen...

The second thing, over the last few years as internet connections increased websites gradually became more image, flash, java heavy as the connections could handle it, and basically the old dial up users got forced into moving to broadband.. All well and good, but now low bandwidth browsing is making a comeback... more and more people are using phones sometimes on fairly low speeds, people are using the mobile networks to browse from their laptops, or using public wifi points at a lower speed, hotel wifi where many users may be sharing a connection and you are at near dialup speeds.. i imagine during the racing season cycling news have many many visitors who are on the road etc..

Now more so than any time since broadband came along, sites NEED to be suitable for the low bandwidth and small screen browser...

Web browsing isnt all about 8mb connections and 17" monitors.. ;)

Edit: Re opera.. just had a look with full browsing enabled on my opera and it is vastly better than the re-rendering/small screen that i tend to use as standard.. can i be bothered to switch modes every time i visit cyclingnews.. i dont know..
 
A

Anonymous

Guest
fourstagesinoneday said:
The site is unusable in Nokia Symbian for me unless I disable Java and Flash and you can imagine the mess that makes of the pages.

It's slightly better in Opera Mini as you can see by using the emulator here:

http://www.opera.com/mini/demo/

but at present you can't access any results beyond the top 10 in either browser.

It's also incredibly data aggressive.

and that is one massive annoyance!
 
Mar 10, 2009
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Yes, verified it does not work on blackberry.

Pull the rug out from under the new code! It does not work!

What a nightmare!

Like I've said before, move the new site to some test URL like test.cyclingnews.com and put the old one back, that way you can test it out all you want before you ask for a refund for the code as its does not work!
 

whiteboytrash

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Mar 17, 2009
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ElChingon said:
Yes, verified it does not work on blackberry.

Pull the rug out from under the new code! It does not work!

What a nightmare!

Like I've said before, move the new site to some test URL like test.cyclingnews.com and put the old one back, that way you can test it out all you want before you ask for a refund for the code as its does not work!


They should have asked Lance before they went prod. He would have told them how krap it is and it doesn't work on his BB.

What is going on ? Must be a French DS in charge of the CN IT dept.
 
A

Anonymous

Guest
well as far as the site goes and mobile coverage, thats me done.. im off to find a new home..

we are off to paris for the last five days of the tour, and obviously we have french tv but we rely on the mobile for the live coverage, the reports, and going through the FULL STANDINGS each day...

that now is not possible..

so we are going to have find something else.. simple as that..

as has been said..
opera 25%
iphone 22%
nokia symbian 17%
and blackberry 8%
and java capable so opera capable the majority of the rest..

there is the entire mobile market shut out in one single go!
 
Jun 16, 2009
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CN, are you guys paying any attention to the forums? Your new format is terrible, and even worse than terrible for mobile browsers! Have been a 3 time a day reader for over 7 years, not interested anymore with this format.

:mad:
 
Jun 16, 2009
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agreed

I only have 3 bookmarks set in my phone: National newspaper, weather.com, and cyclingnews.com

I used to tolerate the ridiculous way that every time I navigated to a new page I had to scroll through the entire results section (left side of old page) to get back to news. This MONSTROSITY however is clearly untested.

Mobile:
- It uses huge amounts of data on my account just to open the first page
- I get a message that the page is too big
- and when it DOES load, its formatted pressed up against the left edge of the screen and most of the links don't work


PC:
- I don't WANT to see a scrolling flash banner of the same 4 headlines going round and around.
- I want links that work (like the OLD page!)
- I want News headlines well formatted and progressing logically so I know what I have read already (like the OLD page!)
- I want to be able to easily resize the screen without it reformatting so I can hide the ads when viewing at work (like the OLD page!)


by the way - a response of 'I tried it on the manger's i-Phone' only goes to strengthen my claim above that no actual structured testing was done and that you had no idea what would work when you released it.

I won't be using it via mobile anymore and I think I won't be accessing the site much at all anymore really.
 
A

Anonymous

Guest
ok using opera

163kb in full mode which is just unnacaptable for mobile browsing
42kb in mobile mode which is ok..

but due to very strange page layouts, and the insane amount of links its completely unnavigable with either option..
 
A

Anonymous

Guest
maybe just a really simple, text driven version just containing the following

current race stage details
current race live reports
current race reports and standings

wouldnt take much.. or make the live reports subscribable by rss.. then i just have to figure out rss on my phone.. :D
 
Jun 16, 2009
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Actually, I'd like to see a really simple low data front page put on it with a simple menu that allows you to navigate to only the area you are interested in (with MAYBE a couple of news flash headlines on it if they really feel they have to)

I actually browse on the mobile for the news more than results as with the exception of the really big races, I am happy to wait till I am near a PC for that. Its definitely absurd to put tech reviews etc on that front page.

Have a look at the mobile version of theage.com.au for an example of what I mean
 
Jun 16, 2009
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Absolute shocker!!!

I can't beleive I can't find out the results first thing in the morning on my mobile (just before I check twitter) or check the news at lunchtime and before I go to bed. This is a monumental **** up!
 
Jun 15, 2009
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posted this in the larger thread but seems to have been lost in the flood of posts - thought I'd C+P it here as it directly relates to the mobile functionality of the new site design:

--------------------------------------------------

stefan said:
Mobile access is clearly something that can be improved - the site works fine on my Nokia 5800 with Opera Mini in full render mode, but we know we need to better this.

Stefan - I usually access the site through my Nokia 95 normally via the symbian browser. With "awkward" websites I switch to Opera Mini in full render mode, so in effect the site should be working as well for me as it does on your Nokia 5800.

I've found three major problems:

i) an Adobe box requesting you download Adobe Flash Player 9 below the various time zones, with all the times bunched up to the left. The carousel is absent (I assume this causes the Adobe Flash thing - there's a similar problem with the Symbian browser).

ii) The drop down for Stage report/results/overall standings overlaps the title of the article as rather than being one line width as per PC version, it is now split onto two lines.

iii) The Show More links don't work so you can't expand any of the result categories and are restricted to the top 10 (another Symbian problem).

Now I've thought it could be just my phone, but all three of these problesm exist if you visit the site using Opera Mini's own Simulator:

http://www.opera.com/mini/demo/

Hope that helps you troubleshoot.
 
Jun 17, 2009
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Mobile User Experience Will Reduce Readership

I would like to state that I have only joined the Cyclingnews forum so that I could complain about the new website design.



I work in technology and understand developmental change but the cyclingnews website has gone through a poor design phase. I consume most of my content via a Windows Mobile 6.1 powered device. The previous CN website rendered very well and was easy to navigate. I have tried the new website on both my Windows Mobile device (Internet Explorer) and an Apple iPhone. On both devices the experience was so poor I have no inclination to return.



Cyclingnews must recognize that much of its readership is done via mobile devices. The reported experiences by the mobile users community has been totally negative.
 
Jun 19, 2009
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News not usable on either Opera or IE Mobile.

I used to keep up with Cyclingnews on my HTC Diamond (Windows Mobile 6). The performance was usable with either Opera or IE Mobile. The new site is not usable using either browser. Sorry, but this is a big backward step.
 
A

Anonymous

Guest
can we please have some feedback on the mobile issues..

we have given a lot of information here and it is clear that it effects virtually all mobile browsing, and browsers, opera iphone symbian etc...

can we please have some feedback? mobile viewing really is very important..
 
Mar 3, 2009
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dimspace said:
can we please have some feedback on the mobile issues..

You already have - but it's not in this thread. I can't keep following a million threads (because people ask same questions in each, like this) - everyone seems to want their own thread on the topic, they are popping up quicker than I can merge them.

You will see my response in the main (70+ page) thread - but the gist is that we're aware of the issues and intend on looking at the mobile side of matters. I go on to say we need to get the website itself right first - creating a mobile version of the website is easy once the main website works. If we worry about the mobile area first, it's going to present well but still have the same usability issues that have been covered in the other thread. I'm sure you understand the logic in approaching it this way.

Cheers
Greg Johnson
 
A

Anonymous

Guest
cool.. ok..

i dont think its so much a mobile version needed, just looking at the things on the website that cause problems for mobiles (like the expanding results etc) and finding a way of getting around those...

the home page is a mess on mobiles, something on the way the columns are assembled means that the useless headers, and tech etc seem to be given priority over news and the news ends up at the bottom when its rerendered into a single column.. as far as that goes you will find very often the opera mini guys are pretty helpful...

I just assumed this was now the official mobile thread as the issues are obviously different to normal web browsing, and ive given up looking for things now in the 70+ page default thread..
 
Mar 3, 2009
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dimspace said:
cool.. ok..

i dont think its so much a mobile version needed, just looking at the things on the website that cause problems for mobiles (like the expanding results etc) and finding a way of getting around those...

the home page is a mess on mobiles, something on the way the columns are assembled means that the useless headers, and tech etc seem to be given priority over news and the news ends up at the bottom when its rerendered into a single column.. as far as that goes you will find very often the opera mini guys are pretty helpful...

I just assumed this was now the official mobile thread as the issues are obviously different to normal web browsing, and ive given up looking for things now in the 70+ page default thread..


G'day Dimspace,

I'm not guaranteeing it will be a dedicated mobile site - although there was some chatter - but the mobile issue will be looked at. We've gathered a list of the top mobile platforms used on CN for testing once we get to that point.

Cheers
Greg Johnson