New Look for Website

[EMT-83]

gocivilairpatrol.com

I was a little surprised at the new look – much cleaner.

[Persona non grata]

beat me to posting this

[Eclipse]

I no longer need the googles!  (which is good, because they do nothing...)

Much.

Better.

[nitpick]
The photoshopped MAJCOM is crooked.
The "learn More" link doesn't work.
I don't think I'll be going to CAP's site for a wiki link to "New Year".
Hate the look of white shirts under the blue field and utilities
[/nitpick]

[jeders]

Wow. I actually did a double take when I saw that.  :clap:

A much cleaner look, and it doesn't take forever to load the content.

[davidsinn]

It looks pretty, but where the frak do I find anything on it?

[jimmydeanno]

I think it looks a whole lot better.

My only nit-pick would be that "what we do" is relegated to the bottom corner, out of sight, out of mind.

[Eclipse]

Seriously, this needs work.  There's "stuff" all over the place at the edges, inside the plane, etc.

Why can't we take photos on purpose with correct insignia, decals, and a good background instead of having to hack things together all the time?

Granted, uber nitpick for the average person, but for people who do this kind of work, the "willies".

[manfredvonrichthofen]

Seriously, this needs work.  There's "stuff" all over the place at the edges, inside the plane, etc.

Why can't we take photos on purpose with correct insignia, decals, and a good background instead of having to hack things together all the time?

Granted, uber nitpick for the average person, but for people who do this kind of work, the "willies".

That is a really bad photoshop job.

[EMT-83]

I can't find the triangle thingy anywhere.

[a2capt]

At least it loads nicely now. I hope they re-do capmembers.com in a similar way, real soon. That would be one step in the right direction.

The next would be to fix that hideous CMS they use.

No one, and I mean, NO WHERE ELSE have I ever come across downloads presented with names that look like they are spit out of a sausage maker.

[Eclipse]

No one, and I mean, NO WHERE ELSE have I ever come across downloads presented with names that look like they are spit out of a sausage maker.

That I really don't get.   I realize it is probably an offshoot of the way the USAF does (did?) their docs, and is probably someone's idea of a "good" idea, but it doesn't seem to make any sense, and even within the "standard" there is no standard.

[arajca]

It's a measure of laziness to use the default document names provided by scanner software instead of taking 30 secs to change it to a sensible name.

It's a double measure when you continue to use them after updating the document.

[AirDX]

That I really don't get.   I realize it is probably an offshoot of the way the USAF does (did?) their docs, and is probably someone's idea of a "good" idea, but it doesn't seem to make any sense, and even within the "standard" there is no standard.

No - Air Force E-Publishing is so straight forward it's a little scary.  AFI11-202V3 is... AFI11-202V3.pdf.  I don't know where CAP got its system.

[a2capt]

Scanner software? This stuff is all native PDF. As in Print to PDF, or exported as PDF.

[Pylon]

So after I was impressed with the move in the right direction to a "WordPress-like" CMS appearance and navigation, and the ditching of the ridiculous overusage of grunge effect, I'm finding a few serious problems.


We don't tell people anywhere on the homepage or anywhere within one click of the homepage what we do.  In laymans terms.  Yeah, I see that little graphic in the bottom right corner of the homepage, but it just says the names of the 3 missions and offers nothing more.  What's worse is that graphic doesn't link to anything!   Whaaaat?  Why wouldn't the "Cadet Programs" link to an explanation of CP, and "Aerospace Education" link to an explanation of that, etc.?


Also, if you click on the "About" tab (which sadly is all the way to the right), it takes you to a page about our history.  I know we're really proud of stuff CAP did 65 years ago, but when someone new to CAP clicks on a tab called "About", we should probably lead with at least a few sentences about what CAP is today.  Keep the history within the lengthier discussion of "about CAP" but you lead off with an executive summary.


So the website doesn't tell anybody what CAP does.  If you're a teen or parent, you're directed to a FAQ page first.  Uhh.... well, it's pretty hard to have questions when you haven't been told what CAP is and what it does for your audience yet.  Those links for Teens, Parents, Clergy, etc. are great in theory (segmenting audiences is a good tactic) but you need to give them an audience-specific pitch about CAP and what it is/can do for them.  Then if they have questions, link to the FAQ page afterwards.


And as if we haven't over-emphasized our history over what we do today enough, we take a slice of the homepage to ALSO explain our history and link to more historical information (remember, nowhere do we explain or link to what WE DO AS AN ORGANIZATION TODAY though).




Why is Membership benefits a top level tab?  And why is it more prominent than "How to Join" and easier to find than information about WHAT CAP DOES?    Sorry, first of all, our "benefits" aren't impressive enough to compel anybody to join within first knowing what CAP is and does.  Second, saying we have these (seriously dubious) "benefits" should be, AT BEST, a few bullet points on the join page.  Get rid of the tab.  Absolutely ridiculous.


Why is Donate more prominent than joining?  And when you click on Donate, do we really have to be subject to this hideous and absolutely ridiculous graphic? 
That's just ridiculous.  It makes us look even worse than amateur hour (because even amateur graphic artists today would recognize that as embarrassingly messed up).  It makes us look like amateur hour 1997 and conveys a message that we're some fly-by-night operation.  If that (along with wording that's misleading and legally incorrect) instills donor confidence, rather than important information about what the money will be used for, why it's important to donate, how much money we need, and third-party validation like a CharityNavigator rating icon, well then I can imagine why we're getting ZERO donations through that portal. 




How about this on the homepage:

And is there any reason that we take up primary real estate on our homepage to offer a terrible and gaudy "Happy New Year 2011" graphic that links to the Wikipedia page explaining what New Year's celebrations are all about?  Really?  REALLY?   Were we confused that someone might not know what New Year's is all about and so we feel the need as a public service to raise awareness for New Year's?











Steps in the right direction with the design, but the content (and content is more important than anything else) severely lacks.

[A.Member]

Only had enough time to type the URL and load the page but my initial thought is:  MUCH BETTER!!!

I look at it more later but the only other initial comment I have is that the "What We Do" needs to be more prominently positioned above the "CAP history" and "I Want to Join".   
 
Nonetheless, it's a move in the right direction!

:clap:

[RiverAux]

Looks like we need to have yet another talk about branding....

"Everyday heroes, Every Day" and "Citizens Serving Communities Above and Beyond" both on the same page? 

And people thought I was being silly worrying about how the conference motto contest might morph into yet another CAP motto/tagline/whatever

[A.Member]

We don't tell people anywhere on the homepage or anywhere within one click of the homepage what we do.  In laymans terms.  Yeah, I see that little graphic in the bottom right corner of the homepage, but it just says the names of the 3 missions and offers nothing more.  What's worse is that graphic doesn't link to anything!   ...

Funny (well, not funny but you know what I mean).  I just posted the same thing but I didn't attempt to click on the image.  Are you saying that the link takes you to a 404 or to a page with no real information?  I'll look at the site again when I have more time but I suspect that I'll have similar concerns since I often agree with many of your assessments on this topic.

If it's not ready for prime time, it should not have been cut over to production.

Let's just say that aesthetically, it's cleaner ( :clap:).   However, it may not address any of the content issues of the previous site ( ).

[jeders]

We don't tell people anywhere on the homepage or anywhere within one click of the homepage what we do.  In laymans terms.  Yeah, I see that little graphic in the bottom right corner of the homepage, but it just says the names of the 3 missions and offers nothing more.  What's worse is that graphic doesn't link to anything!   ...

Funny (well, not funny but you know what I mean).  I just posted the same thing but I didn't attempt to click on the image.  Are you saying that the link takes you to a 404 or to a page with no real information?  I'll look at the site again when I have more time but I suspect that I'll have similar concerns since I often agree with many of your assessments on this topic.

It's not that they link to bad/blank pages, it's that they don't link anywhere at all. It's just a static picture saying the names of our three missions.

[davidsinn]

We don't tell people anywhere on the homepage or anywhere within one click of the homepage what we do.  In laymans terms.  Yeah, I see that little graphic in the bottom right corner of the homepage, but it just says the names of the 3 missions and offers nothing more.  What's worse is that graphic doesn't link to anything!   ...

Funny (well, not funny but you know what I mean).  I just posted the same thing but I didn't attempt to click on the image.  Are you saying that the link takes you to a 404 or to a page with no real information?  I'll look at the site again when I have more time but I suspect that I'll have similar concerns since I often agree with many of your assessments on this topic.

It's not that they link to bad/blank pages, it's that they don't link anywhere at all. It's just a static picture saying the names of our three missions.

I swear that graphic changed since the last time I looked at it. Maybe this wasn't supposed to be live yet and somebody screwed the pooch?