New EAA Web Site Splash Page

[WLIU]

Just went to EAA.org and wanted to say that the new page looks good. I am sure that a lot of work went into it.

And building your airplane and Young Eagles are front and center.

Thanks,

Wes
N78PS

[CarlOrton]

Oshkosh airventure site also redone.

[Hal Bryan]

Thanks guys!

Actually, the new site (which is still deploying as we speak...) consolidates somewhere around 25 different sites that were scattered all over the web... :)

All the old URLs will still work - airventure.org, airventuremuseum.org, etc., they'll just take you to those sections of the new site.

There's a lot more to do, but this is giving us a good foundation on which to build.

[rbarkerjr]

I was looking at those this morning too. They look awesome so far! Great job!

[Ken Finney]

I'm not a crusty curmudgeon (at least, I'm not crusty). I wonder how many website developers have any idea how unusable these fancy websites are to the "prime demographic" they are trying to reach? I'm with a fairly liberal large company, and they just upgraded us to Internet Explorer (IE) 8. The only website worked fine in IE and Firefox, the new one doesn't look right/has stuff missing in both. We are required to keep Java, Active-X, and all sorts of other things turned off. So, you say, you shouldn't be looking at it from work anyway, just access it from home. Well, working 5 (or 6, sometimes 7) days a week, plus commuting, plus outside activities, most days the last thing I want to do is go home and sit in front of another screen. It's much easier to get a quick update before work, during lunch, or after work.

[Hal Bryan]

Ken - can you please give me some examples of things that are missing?

Thanks -

Hal

[Floatsflyer]

Two thumbs up! Everything in one place. Congrats to all who have made the revamped site possible.

[gbrasch]

Hal, first impression, the site looks great. Glenn

[Mark Peterson]

Old wallpapers to use without the calendar are missing....

[Hal Bryan]

They'll get there, Mark - those images represent a lot of individual files that will take some time to reupload and link and all that.

[jbandstr]

I've done some website work and it looks great.

[Hal Bryan]

Thanks to all of you for the feedback thus far!

[steve]

The new front page looks great.
Another suggestion: Perhaps add a "Go to Discussion Forums" button on the front page instead of navigating menus from Aviation Interest, pick selection, Discussion Forum. Personally, I've been using the eaaforums.org link since the old OSH365 site became stupid. Quick and dirty, but I'm also bypassing the front page.

[Todd copeland]

Love the site. Still finding my way around it but the calendar section isn't very user friendly. I can't seem to get a user defined list for local fly-ins. The old one functioned a little better in that regard. I'm sure fine tuning will happen in the coming months.

[Ken Finney]

Difficult to say, because now I can't get in with IE. It wants me to login, which it never did before, and didn't this morning, either, but Firefox can get in just fine. This morning, when I viewed EAA Radio in IE, there were no links below to click on, but they showed up fine in Firefox. Also, the EAA Radio pages don't have any link to the archives (at least that showed up in either of my browsers). Again, this is a problem where many people are using "locked down" computers, and the web developers, used to a "wide open" college environment, don't have any clue about.

[Hal Bryan]

Ken - which version of IE on which operating system?

[gbrasch]

Difficult to say, because now I can't get in with IE. It wants me to login, which it never did before, and didn't this morning, either, but Firefox can get in just fine. This morning, when I viewed EAA Radio in IE, there were no links below to click on, but they showed up fine in Firefox. Also, the EAA Radio pages don't have any link to the archives (at least that showed up in either of my browsers). Again, this is a problem where many people are using "locked down" computers, and the web developers, used to a "wide open" college environment, don't have any clue about.

I had to re-register one time only this morning, maybe that will help you out.

[Bill Berson]

I can't find the Sport Aviation archives (no members only section)

Was planning to read all of 1969.

[Hal Bryan]

Bill - go to Publications under Education & Resources, you'll see Sport Aviation listed there. The archives are accessible as long as you're signed in to the site - there isn't a single "members only" section anymore. Content lives where it lives, and is differentiated by your login.

[Bill Berson]

I found the archives, thanks Hal.
Now I can finish off all 60 years. Started reading last August.

[Hal Bryan]

I think you'll find that accessing them is considerably faster than on the old site - enjoy!

[TedK]

The new front page looks great.
Another suggestion: Perhaps add a "Go to Discussion Forums" button on the front page instead of navigating menus from Aviation Interest, pick selection, Discussion Forum. Personally, I've been using the eaaforums.org link since the old OSH365 site became stupid. Quick and dirty, but I'm also bypassing the front page.


+1 I liked the big yellow Forums button.

BZ! (That's navy for Well Done). Particularly the updated Advocacy issues.

[FunInAviation]

Very nice! One question though. Do you have to sign on to submit an aviation event? I didn't see a generic event submission link.

[1600vw]

Even if you were signed up on the old EAA forum you must resign or register again for this new site, I know its not a new site but its acting like one. I kept trying to log in and was told no info found. Go to the registration page enter your EAA number and all was good, it found all my info. I then had to come up with another user name but its all good.

Tony

[Hal Bryan]

Tony - it is an ENTIRELY new site, just FYI. Completely built from scratch to replace 20+ other sites. The only sites it hasn't integrated are eaavideo.org and this one (the forums.)

[Hal Bryan]

Smitty - yes, once you log in to the new site, you'll see a submit event button on the events calendar page. Just FYI, there's a lot of work coming on the calendar in the next few weeks.

[pjaffray]

Where is the weather page that used to be on Oshkosh365.org? I can't seem to find it now and www.oshkosh365.org just redirects to the new main EAA page.

Thanks.
pdj

[1600vw]

Hal I understand its a new site. But the address is the same as the old one. So if one logs into the website using the same old address they will think the website or webpage has been updated not knowing the complete building was tore down and rebuilt and now in order to enter the new building one must re-enter their info and come up with a new name. This is not the case when most websites update their page.

This went deeper then just a redo of the webpage. This update wiped away all old log in info.

Tony

[lnuss]

That main page with changing graphics is not good for a low bandwidth user (my phone), and I now have to chase multiple places to find news and blogs, which are my main use for the site (other than the forums). I really don't want multiple bookmarks.

Your style seems to be all the rage, and I've seen lots of them go this way, but I've never liked it. Looks like I'm in a very small minority, though, judging by the other posts here.

[krw920]

That main page with changing graphics is not good for a low bandwidth user (my phone),

Seems nobody designs for the low bandwidth user anymore, doesn't everybody have 30Mbps or better??? I don't think so, but web designers do.

[Hal Bryan]

Where is the weather page that used to be on Oshkosh365.org? I can't seem to find it now and www.oshkosh365.org (http://www.oshkosh365.org) just redirects to the new main EAA page.

Thanks.
pdj

Hi PDJ -

The weather feature was one of the few things about Oshkosh365 that actually got some positive feedback from time to time, but:



It was fairly high maintenance, at least periodically - we relied on software tools from NOAA that they periodically changed without any advanced notice.
There are scores (hundreds?) of other sites out there that provide aviation weather free-of-charge. Many of these sites are run by people who are experts in these areas - it only makes sense for us to focus on what we're good at it and let them do the same.
It was grossly underutilized. Less than 5% of Oshkosh365 visitors used it, which translates to less than 3% of all EAA members.

I hope this helps give you some clarity into the decision not to replicate this feature on the new site.

Thanks -

Hal

[tspear]

That main page with changing graphics is not good for a low bandwidth user (my phone), and I now have to chase multiple places to find news and blogs, which are my main use for the site (other than the forums). I really don't want multiple bookmarks.

Your style seems to be all the rage, and I've seen lots of them go this way, but I've never liked it. Looks like I'm in a very small minority, though, judging by the other posts here.

Actually they did miss the mark. New websites are being developed in a mode called "responsive". This means the CSS automatically adjusts between the smartphones, tablets and computers based on the screen size. If you really go to an extreme, the CSS will automatically also downgrade the graphics on smaller devices to reduce bandwidth, display area...

A good example of this behavior is when the menu changes from a bar at the top to a button which expands to a vertical menu based on screen size.
For an example, see one of my sites: http://www.tangiblepayments.com

I do not bother changing graphic sizes and a few other techniques. But my menu, layout, and some text all are dynamically sized down to the smallest size, which is roughly the screen on an iPhone.

Tim

[tspear]

Hi PDJ -

The weather feature was one of the few things about Oshkosh365 that actually got some positive feedback from time to time, but:



It was fairly high maintenance, at least periodically - we relied on software tools from NOAA that they periodically changed without any advanced notice.
There are scores (hundreds?) of other sites out there that provide aviation weather free-of-charge. Many of these sites are run by people who are experts in these areas - it only makes sense for us to focus on what we're good at it and let them do the same.
It was grossly underutilized. Less than 5% of Oshkosh365 visitors used it, which translates to less than 3% of all EAA members.

I hope this helps give you some clarity into the decision not to replicate this feature on the new site.

Thanks -

Hal

Hal,

I am one of the members who never used the weather feature. I did not know it was there... :D Probably to be fair, I would not use it even if I knew.
Has EAA considered partnering with one or more of those sites?

Tim

[Jim Rosenow]

Tspear, you probably know why I show the eaa.org main page trying to run scripts from googleadservices.com, google-analytics.com, microsoft.com, and ajax.googleapis.com. Seems a lot of sites do, but I'm not deep into it enough to know why. Can you elucidate?

[Hal Bryan]

Hal,

I am one of the members who never used the weather feature. I did not know it was there... :D Probably to be fair, I would not use it even if I knew.
Has EAA considered partnering with one or more of those sites?

Tim

Hi Tim -

Sure - we usually do something like that around convention for Oshkosh-specific weather, and the idea of expanding one of those relationships is one that's come up in conversation more than once. Nothing concrete, but something we'll certainly look at.

-Hal

[1600vw]

That main page with changing graphics is not good for a low bandwidth user (my phone), and I now have to chase multiple places to find news and blogs, which are my main use for the site (other than the forums). I really don't want multiple bookmarks.

Your style seems to be all the rage, and I've seen lots of them go this way, but I've never liked it. Looks like I'm in a very small minority, though, judging by the other posts here.

It's like going into a new town. You are lost as soon as you cross over into the city limits. I view this as going into a new town. Get use to all the roads, learn where all the shops are located and such and soon you feel at home.
Change sucks but not stopping it. Can't beat them join them. I had a hard time finding what I wanted but now its getting easier. I have about one hr surfing on the site. Myself I like this site much better but I only use a laptop on Cable Broadband.
I say thumbs up to the new site.

Tony

[tspear]

Tspear, you probably know why I show the eaa.org main page trying to run scripts from googleadservices.com, google-analytics.com, microsoft.com, and ajax.googleapis.com. Seems a lot of sites do, but I'm not deep into it enough to know why. Can you elucidate?

The new EAA website uses jQuery with a few AJAX toolsets from both Google and Microsoft. In this case, jQuery provides the dynamic backgrounds, slick menus and a few other tricks.

Tim

[tspear]

Hi Tim -

Sure - we usually do something like that around convention for Oshkosh-specific weather, and the idea of expanding one of those relationships is one that's come up in conversation more than once. Nothing concrete, but something we'll certainly look at.

-Hal

Hal,

If you can get him, Scott D. of https://avwxworkshops.com/ has the best weather programs and tools I have seen. The workshops and other stuff is just awesome.

Tim

[PaulDow]

That main page with changing graphics is not good for a low bandwidth user (my phone), and I now have to chase multiple places to find news and blogs, ...On my Android phone I get a reduced bandwidth version without the background image scrolling. Perhaps a selection to override the detected system could be added for full or mobile version.

I do have a problem with Firefox 28. The popup menu isn't displaying in the right spot like it does in IE
3825

I do have a rather older machine. It's an Acer laptop with a 1.6 Ghz Intel T2060 processor. Running Vista with 2GB RAM. When the photo changes, I get a spike of about 45% CPU usage. If course Firefox is a huge memory hog too.
I used the Windows Network Connection Status screen, and see that after I clear cache I get about 3.5MB loaded when I go to the new eaa.org page. There may be some other background transfer going on in those 4 to 5 seconds, but I don't think it's much.

[Jim Rosenow]

The new EAA website uses jQuery with a few AJAX toolsets from both Google and Microsoft. In this case, jQuery provides the dynamic backgrounds, slick menus and a few other tricks.

Tim

I guess I'm paranoid in my old age....I was wondering about tracking activity. Thanks!

Jim

[tspear]

I guess I'm paranoid in my old age....I was wondering about tracking activity. Thanks!

Jim

Good on you to notice. Less likely to get a virus on your machine. I still keep my hand in cybersecurity stuff and as a result of the training I am still somewhat security paranoid. :D

Tim

[Wrongway Feldman]

On my Android phone I get a reduced bandwidth version without the background image scrolling. Perhaps a selection to override the detected system could be added for full or mobile version.

I do have a problem with Firefox 28. The popup menu isn't displaying in the right spot like it does in IE
3825

I do have a rather older machine. It's an Acer laptop with a 1.6 Ghz Intel T2060 processor. Running Vista with 2GB RAM. When the photo changes, I get a spike of about 45% CPU usage. If course Firefox is a huge memory hog too.
I used the Windows Network Connection Status screen, and see that after I clear cache I get about 3.5MB loaded when I go to the new eaa.org page. There may be some other background transfer going on in those 4 to 5 seconds, but I don't think it's much. I have the same rendering problem with Firefox 29.0
The categories row: Membership, Avitaion etc. is displaying underneath the EAA logo, rather than to the right of the EAA logo.
This is happening on the EAA, AirVenture and Shop EAA site pages.
On the EAA Museum site pages the categories row is rendering correctly. (To the right of the EAA logo)
So, however the EAA Museum categories row is built, should tell you how to fix the problem with the categories row on the EAA, AirVenture and Shop EAA site pages.

Google Chrome and IE 10 are rendering correctly.
OS Windows 7

Those Darn Cyber Gremlins!
Other than that the New site looks Modern "up-to-date", "new", Great!

Thanks,

Wrong

[Jim Rosenow]

Good on you to notice. Less likely to get a virus on your machine. I still keep my hand in cybersecurity stuff and as a result of the training I am still somewhat security paranoid. :D

Tim

No viruses for me....at least till someone starts writing them for Linux :-)

[Bill]

No viruses for me....at least till someone starts writing them for Linux :-)

Not likely. There are too few of us Linux users and we're all too poor to make it worthwhile for the hackers:). Especially since its a lot harder to infect a Linux machine than a Windows machine with its tons of vulnerabilities, both known and unknown. That's why all my computers are dual boot, so I always have a safe operating system to run.

[tspear]

No viruses for me....at least till someone starts writing them for Linux :-)

Ah, smart choice. I still use Linux mostly on my servers. I ran Linux on the desktop for years, switched to a Mac about four years ago. Mostly because the laptop support is not very good with Linux.

Tim

[FunInAviation]

I noticed that all the RSS feeds (EAA, AirVenture) stopped working. Will those get turned back on at some point?

[Mayhemxpc]

Just for situational awareness, I run a Mac, OSX, with Safari and Firefox 29. Everything works fine, looks great.

[Wsquare]

Am I the only one here, but every time I visit the home page it looks exactly the same as the last time I visited it, and the time before that, etc. Any good web page needs "action" and change, with "hot topics" in order to keep people coming back. I am not used to having to "hunt" for the news, it should "jump out at me". Just my reaction.

[krw920]

Am I the only one here, but every time I visit the home page it looks exactly the same as the last time I visited it, and the time before that, etc. Any good web page needs "action" and change, with "hot topics" in order to keep people coming back. I am not used to having to "hunt" for the news, it should "jump out at me". Just my reaction.

I agree, the old page had the new "news" articles front and center, I still haven't found a good place to find them on the new one. One other thing, many links do not display in IE8, like on the blogs page, I see no links at all in IE8 which is what is on my work computer, which is locked down so I can't put another browser on it.

[PaulDow]

Just for situational awareness, I run a Mac, OSX, with Safari and Firefox 29. Everything works fine, looks great.The popup menu bar is in the right place with Firefox 29 now for me too. It must have healed itself.

[Hal Bryan]

I agree, the old page had the new "news" articles front and center, I still haven't found a good place to find them on the new one.

Thanks to all ongoing for the feedback. As you've seen, the 4 "feature item" blocks on the home page aren't changing all that frequently. This will change a bit over time, especially as the "we have a new website" story is no longer news - then you'll start to see other news items that merit the exposure pop up there.

That said, to see the news articles, just click on "News" on the menu bar. They're all there, one click away.

A couple of points for everyone to consider:

The overwhelming majority of traffic to EAA.org comes from search engines, social media, and direct links to stories from newsletters like e-Hotline, bypassing the front page altogether. Of the traffic that does hit the home page, the overwhelming majority of that traffic is made up of new users who have never been to the site before. When going through the redesign process, we asked ourselves what we wanted a new user to see: an orgy of ads and a massive not-well-organized list of news stories like on the old site, or a simpler, cleaner destination that says a bit about who we are (we build airplanes, we fly young eagles, we love flying, etc.) and then offers a reasonable set of navigational tools to find the rest of what you might want.


One other thing, many links do not display in IE8, like on the blogs page, I see no links at all in IE8 which is what is on my work computer, which is locked down so I can't put another browser on it.

Sounds like you're running IE8 on Windows XP at work?

[krw920]

Sounds like you're running IE8 on Windows XP at work?

Not quite that bad, IE8 on Windows 7! :rollseyes:

[Hal Bryan]

Not quite that bad, IE8 on Windows 7! :rollseyes:

Hmm - that's odd, I've only seen the behavior you described un IE8 on XP. That said, IE8 is three versions old. I understand you can't change browsers on your work PC, but can you at least update to one that is reasonably current?

[Blue Chips]

that says a bit about who we are (we build airplanes, we fly young eagles, we love flying, etc.)

Just for the record, not all members of the EAA build Airplanes !
Some actually build Rotor Craft, you know, like Helicopters and Gyro Copters.
"Airplanes" seems to be the mindset of EAA, not entirely but for the most part likely due to Airplanes being what the majority of it's members are interested in, myself, I love all experimental types but Helicopters are where my big interest towards flying are, so there is at least one that is building a helicopter and It's very quiet here :)

Ken

[Hal Bryan]

that says a bit about who we are (we build airplanes, we fly young eagles, we love flying, etc.)

Just for the record, not all members of the EAA build Airplanes !
Some actually build Rotor Craft, you know, like Helicopters and Gyro Copters.
"Airplanes" seems to be the mindset of EAA, not entirely but for the most part likely due to Airplanes being what the majority of it's members are interested in, myself, I love all experimental types but Helicopters are where my big interest towards flying are, so there is at least one that is building a helicopter and It's very quiet here :)

Ken

Wow, Ken - you have me dead to rights on that one. As someone who aspires to build a gyro one day, I should know better! I'm usually pretty good about saying "aircraft" and not just airplanes.

Just a slip of the keyboard, I promise...! :)

[Blue Chips]

Well... OK :D

[rleffler]

Hmm - that's odd, I've only seen the behavior you described un IE8 on XP. That said, IE8 is three versions old. I understand you can't change browsers on your work PC, but can you at least update to one that is reasonably current?

Unfortunately, that's out of many corporate user's control. Many corporations have critical applications that haven't been maintained to current HTML specifications. In many cases, there just wasn't budget to do so. One of my previous projects was to upgrade a major automotive manufacturer from IE 6 to IE8, even though IE10 was just being released at the time. Yes, they were still on XP at the time too!

Having maintained a web site for ten years that supported millions of users, I was always surpised by the stats on OS and BROWSER types used. At least for the site I managed, it showed that users tended not to upgrade. They ran forever what was on the computer when it was purchased. The bane of web developers. Do they stay within the installed base, or do they incorporate new technology that may cause users some grief? There is no good answer to that question. What ever decision is reached, there will be a percentage of folks that have a different opinion.

bob

[Hal Bryan]

The bane of web developers. Do they stay within the installed base, or do they incorporate new technology that may cause users some grief? There is no good answer to that question. What ever decision is reached, there will be a percentage of folks that have a different opinion.

bob

Well put, Bob.

We were surprised by our stats as well, though in a different way: over the past year, about 6% of the visitors to EAA.org were combined XP / IE8 users. In addition, that number is trending down - in the month before the new site launch, it was less than 4%. Still not zero, but a reassuring trend to be sure.

[Bill]

Well put, Bob.

We were surprised by our stats as well, though in a different way: over the past year, about 6% of the visitors to EAA.org were combined XP / IE8 users. In addition, that number is trending down - in the month before the new site launch, it was less than 4%. Still not zero, but a reassuring trend to be sure.

Maybe EAA members are more intelligent than your average browser user!

I think of knuckles dragging on the ground when I talk to most computer users (Oh, do I really need a password for my accounts, including the admin account).

[Tcraftpilot]

Hi guys, perhaps I have missed it. There used to be a way to search for area fly ins by entering an airport identifier then selecting a search radius. Have I missed that or are there plans to put that back in? I find searching the fly ins on the new site a huge hassle right now. Otherwise looks great! Thanks

ryan

[krw920]

Hmm - that's odd, I've only seen the behavior you described un IE8 on XP. That said, IE8 is three versions old. I understand you can't change browsers on your work PC, but can you at least update to one that is reasonably current?

Not without admin rights I can't! :(

[rleffler]

Not without admin rights I can't! :(

I would assume that there are quite a few corporations on Win7/IE8 with locked admin access. Sad to say, I can count at least a dozen that I'm aware of at the moment. Mostly due to corporate web apps that don't work well with later IE releases and no budget to update the offending application. They take the typical approach by putting their head in the sand and hope the problem goes away on it's own.

bob

[authorpilot]

Hello All & Admin,

I would like to chime in here, may be off subject, but somewhat related, or repeated. I have not been happy with the new Events Calendar on the redesigned website. I used to regularly search for fly-ins easily through the old interface. The old filtering and distance search worked great. I find the new Events listings to be very difficult to use and full of bugs. I have decided to steer away from EAA's Event page all together until this feature is improved. I hope to see better user interface return, and soon. It is prime fly-in season now. Thanks for your attention & Fly Safely!

PB

[Wrongway Feldman]

I noticed that all the RSS feeds (EAA, AirVenture) stopped working. Will those get turned back on at some point?Is there going to be anymore EAA, AirVenture RSS feeds?
I do not see any RSS feeds links on the new sites,
And I also have not received any feed updates.

[Jim Clark]

Love the site. Still finding my way around it but the calendar section isn't very user friendly. I can't seem to get a user defined list for local fly-ins. The old one functioned a little better in that regard. I'm sure fine tuning will happen in the coming months.
Same here.

[pcrevier@gmail.com]

What happen to the event calender used to be able to look up by area. Living in Illinois and flying a Light Sport I really don't need to know about breakfast in Mass.
Before you could put in zip codes or identifier and find info on events within a fixed mileage that was really handy.
Paula