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Feedback wanted on new UK-based website launched recently: Commutineer

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BillyRayPreachersSon

BillyRayPreachersSon

Programmer
Dec 8, 2003
17,047
GB
I've been working on Commutineer, a web site for a friend, and it went live a few weeks ago. It's now in a fairly stable state, but we really want loads of feedback. The site has some way to go and new features are being developed and existing ones fleshed out all the time.

You can find it at
There are many things on our 'to do' backlog, but I know there will be many features people would like to see added and/or removed... and this is what I'm after :)

Some more about the site, if you're interested:

It's a bit of an escape from the drudgery of UK commuting. It's like social networking but targeted to places and/or topics that you have in common with other people.

Using Commutineer, you can:
- have conversations
- comment on what you see
- say what's on your mind
- share news
- rant
- flirt
- and generally stand out in the crowd while retaining your anonymity.

You can also:
- form tribes around topics, stations, rail lines and networks
- earn vitality points, compete for top spots in the day and the chance to become the top commutineer

Also, if you're on the move, you can do most of this with text messages from your mobile phone.

Thanks,
Dan



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Doesn't look very good in IE6 (yeah, who cares?).

Clever concept. Group twitter for UK commuters.

Greg
People demand freedom of speech as a compensation for the freedom of thought which they seldom use. Kierkegaard
 
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Hi Dan,

A couple of comments.

First, there seems to be something weird with the navigation. I followed your link, and reached a page containing a large graphical menu, with images of various canine commuters inviting you to "have your stay", "stay in the know", "joint the mutiny", and so on.

So far, so good (except that the menu in question was "below the fold" on my monitor).

Following a link takes you to the relevant page, as you'd expect. But then you've lost the Back button (nor can you hit Backspace to take you back). If you click on a home page link, it takes you to a "What do you want to say?" page. As far as I can see, there's no way of getting back to the main menu, and therefore no obvious way of visiting other parts of the site.

Presumably, this isn't intentional? It doesn't exactly make for a rewarding experience.

Another comment: You refer to it as UK site. But all I could see were posts re Holborn, Waterloo, Reading, Brentford, TfL, Victoria Line ..... It's a common mistake, but, you know, there's a lot more of the UK outside Greater London (and even outside the south of England). (If you disagree, there are a lot of folk where I am who are willing to argue the point.)

Mike

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Mike Lewis (Edinburgh, Scotland)

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Thanks all for the feedback so far.

Just to address a few points:

- Re. IE6: I was asked not to spend any time making it look good in IE6, so there will be plenty of double-margin float bugs and alpha-PNG nastiness going on. Not my call, but an interesting one none the less!

- Mike: That first page is what's called a 'splash page'. If you clear your cookies for the site and reload it, you will see it again. It has no navigation value, so you're not missing much by not being able to see it (i.e. it's not a main menu at all). I'd like to know what screen resolution and also what visible browser real-estate (after all toolbars, etc are taken into account) you have - as we tried a great deal to get the splash page to be above the fold on most 1024x768 screens with a full-screen browser with default toolbars.

- Mike: I know the UK consists of more that London and Greater London, but given the site only went live a week or so ago with very little marketing, it's only been friends and family (who mainly live in and around London) that have been posting. You'll find that all UK stations and lines are available listed, so if you want to start posting content outside of London, please feel free to do so - the more the merrier! If you can get your own out-of-London friend to do the same, that would be even better.

Thanks for the feedback so far.

Dan



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Dan,

I'd like to know what screen resolution and also what visible browser real-estate (after all toolbars, etc are taken into account) you have - as we tried a great deal to get the splash page to be above the fold on most 1024x768 screens with a full-screen browser with default toolbars.
Click to expand...

I tested this at 1024 x 768. The client area of the browser window (that is, after subtracting the toolbars, status bar, etc, is 570 px.

I could only see the top of the "buildings" above the fold. No speech bubbles or cartoon characters.

I take your point about it being a splash screen. I was simply trying to make the point that it confused me, and therefore it might confuse some other users. (And not everyone know what a cookie is.)

Mike

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Mike Lewis (Edinburgh, Scotland)

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I'm on a Mac with Camino as my browser.

The right scroll bar is there on "home, places and topics" but it disappears with the shorter pages "communities, tribes and lost&found." That makes the site shift to the right on the shorter ones. You might need a " overflow: scroll;" code added to your stylesheet.

I'd agree that not being able to get back to the splash page could be confusing. Folks who bookmark you for later perusing won't understand what happened to the splash page they may have bookmarked.
 
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The right scroll bar is there on "home, places and topics" but it disappears with the shorter pages "communities, tribes and lost&found." That makes the site shift to the right on the shorter ones. You might need a " overflow: scroll;" code added to your stylesheet.
Click to expand...

I can't speak for my friend, but personally I think it's pointless to frig the browser to create an artificial scrollbar that does nothing. Surely browser users the world over are used to scrollbars when there is something to scroll?... I know I am!

I'll be re-visiting the site later this week to nut out some more issues on his 'to do' list, but I'm not sure whether the splash screen is one of them or not.

Cheers for the feedback, though!

Dan



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For what it's worth, I think my IE6 comment was off base. My experience was similar to Mike's. The first time I go to the site, literally everything (but the background building graphic) is below the fold. Then when moving between pages, the entire message box is then positioned at the bottom of the screen, while the background is scrolled up and all lower content is off the screen.

The size of my browser window (without the chrome, and with horiz and vert scrollbars) is about 1070 x 570. I rarely use full screen browsers, but that may be just me.

When the browser is full screen, the message box appears at the bottom of the screen on initial load.

Greg
People demand freedom of speech as a compensation for the freedom of thought which they seldom use. Kierkegaard
 
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I get the same issue as Greg when visiting the site in IE6 at work - the background graphic fills the whole screen and I have to scroll down to see any content. When using a proper browser at home, the layout is more sensible (and the background seems to be different too).

Overall it seems to look and work well enough, but I don't see your site's USP. Why would I want to post 140-character messages about commuting on your site when I can post 140-character messages about anything on Twitter? (That's assuming I understood the appeal of twittering - which I don't!)

Producing a site of this type is like producing an online bookshop or auction site - not necessarily doomed, but you need to have a really good hook to compete with a really dominant market leader. Commutineer may have one, but I don't see what it is.

-- Chris Hunt
Webmaster & Tragedian
Extra Connections Ltd
 
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I've fixed the IE6 'content being pushed down' issue and added a 'please upgrade your browser' message if we detect IE6, although this won't be going live for a bit.

Basically, we're not going to spend time fixing the site for IE6, instead encouraging users to upgrade.

As for the USP, perhaps the 'about us' page ( might offer some insight?

Thanks again for the continued feedback.

Dan



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Yes, using IE6. :-(

Greg
People demand freedom of speech as a compensation for the freedom of thought which they seldom use. Kierkegaard
 
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Ok - we've pushed the "not good in IE6" message live now so people will have some idea they need a newer browser...



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we've pushed the "not good in IE6" message live now so people will have some idea they need a newer browser...
Click to expand...
If they are still using IE6 as their main browser (and it's not a work machine), then it's not an upgrade they need... it's a good slapping!

Cheers,
Jeff

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On the other hand, since this is a message board about the experience of commuting, there's clearly quite a good chance that people will access it on their work machines when they get into work from their nightmare commutes. And there's sadly still quite a good chance that said machine will be running IE6 if they work for a large organisation.

Don't cripple your site too much for those (like me) saddled with bad browsers at work.

-- Chris Hunt
Webmaster & Tragedian
Extra Connections Ltd
 
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It should still be functional - just not look the best...

Shout if you see something that you can't actually use in IE6, though.

Cheers again!

Dan



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Just checked it in IE6. The layout's a bit scrambled, as boxes which I expect line up in proper browsers are offset by a few pixels. On the login/register page, the register column sits below (and to the right of) the login column instead of beside it.

The only functionality that is actually broken on IE6 is the four "add a tone" icons, which have the about where/what text boxes rendered on top of them. This means they can't be clicked.

Also, I'm getting a really weird rendering error in one of the threads. It's the first message on the screen, and it's tagged as a "rant". As I scroll the screen up and down, different lines of the message get the pink highlight colour. Other rant messages are rendered normally.

-- Chris Hunt
Webmaster & Tragedian
Extra Connections Ltd
 
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Another IE6 user here. I'll send the page to my company software responsible to see if we can upgrade before 22nd century

Cheers,
Dian
 
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Oddly enough, I still have only IE6 installed on my PC at home. If I want to run IE7 or IE8, I'll fire up a VM. I guess it matters not, because I only use IE for test websites rather than surfing.

I know that a large number of big companies still use IE6 as their main browser... I've just finished another website for one, and the IE6 hassles took a long time to iron out, so I can see why it's not at the top of every 'to do' list.





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