ASK & DISCUSS INDEX

12 years, 2 months ago - cath le couteur

Patrick hi,
This most certainly does help. In many ways it exactly reflects our thinking, in some cases it's made us re-think our priorities. But firstly - thanks big-time for your time and effort and clarity and clear smarts. You are absolutely right that function is everything. I guess as an overview, I feel compelled to explain a little of the legacy of shooters. And that is, that pretty much since we started, we've had to work with many different freelance designers over the years. And the result of that, is that parts of the site are schizophrenic and not nearly well enough integrated with the rest. This doesn't mean we couldn't have done better, but building new services with different coder/designers has had an impact as the site, new services etc continued to grow.

For the last year, and on-going, we now have a great in-house designer and a really experienced in-house tech team. This is transforming our workflows. But what it has meant too, is that we have decided that this year is going to be a year of consolidation. Getting all the core areas/functionality sorted and integrated smoothly.

I'd be interested in what you think of our plans
- Namely we are rebuilding the homepage to much better reflect activity of shooters. so you can see activity of areas that interest you, follow creatives that interest you, source content of interest to you directly.
- That also includes re-working the Nav and stripping it back, making it much simpler
- Re-building Search. (You're right. It's horrible. We know this. Not sure if you've seen how myspace now do search, but we will be implementing similar code)
- Reworking profiles which are need better clearer design (more like the grid you mention for jobs) and should be split into social/activity, CV.
- And most definitely fixing the collaborate/jobs section. Yes, it absolutely needs to be on one simple page. It also needs a total re-design, it's err, not very nice. For what it's worth, you can currently just add new roles into an existing film project on the front collaborate page: https://shootingpeople.org/castcrew/choose_project
(ie without retyping everything in).

BUT! Your post has made us re-think our priorities. We know the job/collaborate section is of prime importance to shooters. 10mins to fill it out and the whole process being draining puts urgency into that section...

So we are going to see if we can make this our first priority now going fwds. In terms of specific dropdowns, be very grateful if we can pull you in to check that we are covering multiple scenarios easily and efficiently when we have that in beta?

But essentially, the above will be the rest of our years work. Our problem is that we do want to build new services - a funding directory for eg, a peer-to-peer script review application, a directory for camera hire/equipment, a map (using the google API) where shooters can pin good location places around the UK.

But its always a resource issue and our thinking really reflects yours above. We have to sort these core elements first. Sort the foundation as it were, so we can then add new gleaming windows afterwards.

At any rate, your post has really made us re-think priorities and to push the collaborate/jobs section to the top.

Big thanks again. Also hoping we might be able to persuade you to look at some future beta devs in the next few months...?!

Best
Cath

12 years, 2 months ago - patrick astwood

Hello Cath,

And thank you for your response. My gripes and recommendations are as follows:

I think the redesign of the design is good in parts, but there are definitely blind-spots in navigation that make the user experience frustrating at times. It's like being in a big office building that you think you know very well, but one day you find yourself on floor you never knew existed, or you try to double back to your office only to find the original door you came through has disappeared.Or you enter a corridor only to find a dead end.

Some of the good features from the original Shooting People are still here. But with a site that is performing several functions at once, it is important that it performs each of these functions well while being integrated and fluid. It means that wherever one is within the site, your point of entry and navigation path are never obscured i.e. it is consistently functional. This to me is the sign of well-designed site.

For e.g. on one occasion I remember entering the site site through my accounts page, and then spent 5-10 mins trying to find out where my messages were. And it doesn't seem you can access your messages through any of the other tabs unless you are on, or enter through the landing page. I may be confused in this, but believe me this is not my intention. I also think if you are going to use a black as background (which isn't always a good idea) why use a dark grey sub-font that disguises important secondary information. Whose idea was that? On reflection, maybe the site is too cluttered in places, with a page performing more that one function, or packed with too much information?

My main complaint is with the job or project form. I do not believe that enough thought has gone into this. As I said before, it does not come anywhere near anticipating any of the potential scenarios and does not offer enough options for posters. Not everybody is making shorts or features and (why not have a separate promos/commercials bulletin?). And at times producers have requirements that lie outside your listed parameters.

But fundamentally, making people jump from page to page to post a project, is an emotionally draining experience. A grid style form, with diverse menus and drop-downs allows people to give as much pertinent information about a project as possible without putting it in a straitjacket. I don't enjoy spending 10 minutes having to enter details of a job posting only to have to do it all again for another role. Allow the poster to have as much control over the process as possible, and a final review page, where you can see your entire ad before it goes out would not go amiss. I would think this is a given.

Finally the crew search facility is a real pain as well. How many times have I put in my search parameters got a list of results and then one I go into a one profile, I find have to enter all the search parameters again to see the other results. If there is an easier way to do this I would appreciate any pointers.

Anyway I hope this helps,

Best

Patrick

12 years, 2 months ago - SONJA NASH

Hi Patrick
I agree - the posting situation is problematic and invariably you do forget what you wrote on page one and then have to go back and lose what you did on page two etc., AND I'm nearly always rejected for some stupid and simple reason. EG., I wrote pay was NEG and it was refused because I didn't write NMW. To me that was ridiculous because a lot of professionals won;t respond to NMW as it is so low but may want to negotiate their deal. Definitely should have NEG as an option.
And with regards your other professionals that use this forum, I think there should be an area for us posters to list a crew position - wording it the way we want to - that may not be listed on the drop down menu.

And while we're at it - the new bulletins housing paid and no paid all in one hit is a nightmare!

11 years, 11 months ago - cath le couteur

PS. Just to add - we've taken all your comments on board re wanting to post roles with a single form etc. This is definitely happening.
We're just rolling out the search side first.
Thanks
Cath

11 years, 11 months ago - Marlom Tander

For the Gods of Shooting People - your site is exactly what Drupal is designed to deal with - Complex Content Rich Community. Open Source, free and enterprise class, def worth exploring.

I use Drupal but NOT at the level you need, so I'm not touting :-) But talk to someone like Robert Castelo - London based, excellent communicator and top Drupaller.

http://www.codepositive.com/

As it sounds like you are looking at a major rejig, might save you both time and money.

12 years, 2 months ago - cath le couteur

Patrick hi.
Gee. Sounds like we really need to do much more to make this better. We have casting/crewing on our list of things to improve this year and would really value specific feedback. Could we contact you direct? Also I can see you are based in London, could we possibly persuade you to drop via our office for direct swap of ideas? Be massively helpful.
Best
Cath
SP

11 years, 11 months ago - cath le couteur

Dear all
Yes, Yes, Yes, Yes, you are totally correct. We are almost ready to re-launch so this so it is WAY simpler and clearer and easier and faster.
Sorry - but it's coming. Really soon.
Chrs
Cath
SP

11 years, 11 months ago - Stuart Tily

Hi,

We're going to be gradually rolling out some UI changes, first off is searching for roles - if you would like to try that out it's at https://shootingpeople.org/production/work - feedback most welcome, particularly if you are using it on a phone. When we have the other part (posting open roles) done as well we'll move it all across from the current UI, but in the meantime please have a look at the searching side.

11 years, 11 months ago - chris quintana harris

It's crazy it's like wading thru a maze blindfolded in a muddy field... Grrrr... I'm trying to find a writer and this site is total torment. Sorry to complain I think you're great but clarity would be great. That's all!