Discussion: IOF new webpage

Have a look at new IOF webpage.

With one word. Shit. I hope that Simone won't get bad publicty :)))

Hard to believe that IOF know how to increase media attention. And we want to be international sport organization with clear vison.
graphic?
navigation ?
budget???? Looks as lunch time project:)
responsible project leader??...
....
.....
After WC rules debacle it was really hard to figure out who run our sport: president, coucil, commisions or someone else.
Really nice to see how they run our sport toward olympics. I am dissapointed and this is amateur approach.

Must be pretty bad situation up there. Hope that will be also hot for sombody pretty soon.

"at one with nature"?

I hope that compass-halo thing Simone has on her back is sufficiently intangible it doesn't catch in branches.

Wow. "At one with nature" has to be the worst motto imaginable for a sport.

Good motto for... birdwatching.

Googling "at one with nature" produces such gems as

. this cartoon
.how caring some chemical companies are.
. a quote about pantheism from Mikhail Gorbachov

At least they aren't at two with nature though. Woody Allen may not be the most appropriate sponsor.

That is actually hilarious! What a catchy slogan they have found - wahahahahhahahahahhahaha

I see Barbie has pulled herself away from her vanity mirror just in time to poke fun of the IOF. Wonder how the IOF feels about that...

You know what I am thinking? we should send them the photo of Rosco mapping in the nude - now that's One with nature.

Cristina, you're just jealous 'cause you don't have a pretty pink pocket mirror.

"At one with nature" was the title used several years ago on the "environmental" issue of Orienteering World. That's great for showing to land owners and managers who have concerns about potential environmental impacts, but its sure not very motivational for attracting & recruiting future elite runners... we need a phrase that conveys the excitement of the sport. How about an attackpoint contest for an IOF motto?

Maybe the motto was first written in another language and something was seriously lost in translation.

Marie-Cat, you've seen how I dress. Do you think I even have one mirror? Of course I'm jealous.

Okay, a bit more seriously, "At One With Nature" makes me want to meditate by a lily pond, not run through the woods. But I honestly can't think of anything better off the top of my head. Even the old corny favorites like, "The Thinking Sport" and "Cunning Running" beat it out, but I still wouldn't pick either of those. Perhaps a contest is in order...

I think you scared them off. They took it down, back to the old version.

They put it back up just as I wrote this.

Be the tree.

the picture in the foot orienteering section is shocking, definitely doesnt portray the sport as attractive or fashionable

IOF wants to get feedback about the new webpage. I just recently became a member of Map Comission IOF. And the last email from the IOF secretary Barbro Rönnberg was asking for feedback. In Barbro's words: " I would welcome suggestions for additions and improvements and I’ll be happy to answer any questions you may have! The website is public and we want to get feedback!"
So let IOF know what you think. Barbro's email is barbro.ronnberg.iof AT orienteering.org

And I'm sure the AR people can't wait for the IOF takeover ...

"the orienteers have to punch their control card at each control using an electronic device."

"Equipment:

RACING SUIT: A lightweight, stretchy suit protects from undergrowth whilst allowing maximum freedom of movement even if it gets soaking wet"

RACING SUIT: A lightweight, stretchy suit protects from undergrowth whilst allowing maximum freedom of movement even if it gets soaking wet"


...sounds like an ad for condoms...

There's nothing like torching up a fat one after an O race to truly be "at one with nature".

"the orienteers have to punch their control card at each control using an electronic device." that's just sad....control card???

At one, with nature.
At two, back on the couch in front of the TV.
By three, looking forward to suppertime.

What does it say on the bottom of the IOF logo in the upper left? The top arc says "At one with Nature", but the bottom seems to say something about "Infrastructure"(?). And on the inside, there's something about "A challenge for Body and...".

I don't know much about webpage design. but surely wouldn't they be able to make the links load in just one of the frames, rather than reloading the WHOLE page everytime you click something?

What is FOOT-O? Surely this should just be described as Orienteering and doesn't need any prefix.

Where have the World Rankings gone?

on the right Bruce. should be in the lefthand menu.

>the bottom seems to say something about "Infrastructure"(?). And on the inside, >there's something about "A challenge for Body and...".

It says "Minimum Infrastructure"

The rest of the inside ring is pretty much impossible to read because of the big IOF covering half the text. The bottom half says something about "equality" or "equally"

Actually, after looking at the "Vision and Values" page...

I think the bottom half of the inner loop says "Women and men equally"

MINIMUM INFRASTRUCTURE? You've got to be kidding! That's what some braniac decided was a good slogan to put on this logo? What is this, sucking up to the IOC? "Let us in, because we don't require an expensive stadium." How about another line that reads "Unenforceable Rules"?

The illustrations on the discipline pages don't include any persons of color. Yeah-that's the main problem with the website: it's too Arian.

Suggested slogan: "No biased judges"

But seriously, rather than making a website targeted toward the IOC, why not just invest that effort into, say, tutoring the children of IOC members? The sport has plenty of brainy people and not enough money to make plain old bribery an option.

More slogans:

"Look, mom--no stadium"
"Map + compass = luv 4ever"
"Get on the medal train, baby"

Brother, you're hilarious.
I vote for: "look mom, no map. Look mom, no compass. Mom, mom, where are you?".
Or how about "Orienteering, the geeky sport"
or or, "orienteers love contours" that would tie in nicely with the campaign against skinny models.

"Orienteering, the geeky sport"

Truth in advertising, eh?

This is so mean. The Swedish kindergarten student (Tor M., 5 years old, from Kiruna, Sweden) who designed the web site deserves a lot of credit. He tried. He tried very hard. And now he gets bad grades.

No one seems to have asked it yet so here goes - what was wrong with the old web page?

upnorthguy; you're joking right?

Geez, you guys are tough.

Well I don't think the old one was as bad as this new one and I don't recall people refering to it as having been designed by a 5 year old....

Speaking of design, is that the example to follow?http://www.us.orienteering.org/

lol..

Or this: SOLV?

Ok, I think the USOF webpage is totally fine. A couple of the photos on the front page could be updated, but otherwise it does what it's supposed to and works perfectly well. The IOF page, on the other hand....

Thank you, Boris, for your kind comments. As for the photos, perhaps USOF's photo librarian could choose and send me some new ones to use there, with suggestions of where to use them....

Or perhaps other USOF members could send new pictures. Or make suggestions on updates or changes.

Swisscheese, do you design and/or maintain web pages?

And please don't blame me for the lack of updates on the US Team's pages. That's a separate site, only linked from the USOF pages. When the last volunteer stopped updating it, it kind of fell by the wayside. Perhaps someone would like to volunteer?

Swisscheese, good one! Charlotte our new COF president sent a mass email requesting photos for the new website and I have to say, the result is quite nice http://www.orienteering.ca It looks good (graphic and pictures), and like Boris said, it does the job. Plus there is no cheesy tag-line!

Janet -- I'm always happy to contribute photos provided I get a credit somewhere on the site. If you're looking for anything specific to illustrate a concept, let me know -- I have literally thousands of shots -- A-meets, local meets, families, kids, close-ups of equipment, control sites, candids, scenics

There's a few A-meet galleries here (near the bottom of the page - EMPO, Hope n a Holla, Sprint Finals, West Point) but I have more.... a lot more.

true. the COF looks good ( if you start analyzing pages vs pages.) good point Barbie.
maybe more maple leafs just "falling" under left side ( where the menu and "did you know" are will be some icing on the.. )

I have absolutely no clue about web designing, I only asked a rhetoric question and did not give an opinion. But it bothers me that the IOF webpage gets so torn apart with only very little constructive criticism.
The IOF web-designer is certainly reading this thread and will ask himself: “mmh, ok, I did crap, but how the heck shall I do it right? Let me see what the federation webpage from Attackpoint www.us.orienteering.org looks like”.
I personally only use the IOF webpage to look at the international event calendar and the WRE points. I don’t have the impression that the broad public is getting on this homepage at all. If I am curious about athletics or soccer, I will go to the national federation’s webpage.

Merry Christmas!

I'm naive on design, but a utilitarian at heart. I go to the IOF page for specific information. In this context, a good web page to me is one that is easy to navigate to what i want to find. The new IOF page seems an improvement on the last. A good web page is quick to download. A good web page is easy on the eyes. There is a lot less small print on the new IOF page. A good web page is current. Time will tell on that. A good web page is easy for other sites to link to as appropriate. The new IOF page seems to have got a thumbs up for that on World of O.

Once those criteria are met, then I will think about graphics and slogans.

Actually, if there's criticism on Attackpoint about the look of the IOF webpage, a great example for the IOF web designer to look at would be... Attackpoint!

My only recommendations at this point would be a better foot-O logo (does it look like a leaping pixie to anyone else?), and removing the section about clothing (I don't think that is the first question that most people ask about the sport, and the only imagery it left me with was static cling). There is quite good "what is O" material out there for inspiration..Heather Williams', and Thierry Guergiou's Follow Me videos, for instance.

Yes, I quite like Chalotte's selection of photos for the COF front page...a good mix of the aspects of the sport. (Of course, two of those photos are particularly quite nice :-)

If anyone wants any of my O photos for promoting O, go ahead. See http://flickr.com/photos/jimbaker. (For any commercial purposes, contact me first.) Many are from Canada, but some are from the States. Many are of people in lightweight, stretchy fabrics, but some are of people quite nattily attired.

In addition to AP page, I say IOF could us some help from OT pple, I like their website a lot...

A slogan probably needs to be simple and evocative, capturing the essence. ("Citius, Altius, Fortius", for instance.)

How about "The wilderness. A map. A race." (Unfortunately, you'd need "Grass. A map. A race." for Sprint.) Maybe just "A map. A goal. A race."

How about "Grass, Speed, Ecstasy" ;)

Well, the first is certainly something sometimes found out there on orienteering courses. The plot the local "farmer" thought no one would stumble across. Maybe we can promote the usefulness of O to law enforcement officials? DEA sponsorship?

How about "Grass, Speed, Ecstasy" ;)

Now that might be a way to increase numbers with the youngin's.

... and no hangover!
Love it!

You can find grass while orienteering? How come I never find any?

Wrong climate? Common occurrence in Oz and NZ, I understand. And parts of Canada? In Massachusetts, it's endemic to closets.