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Website survey
Responses
1. Are any changes needed to make the site more user-friendly? e.g:
1.1 Reducing the number of clicks to reach the page you want
• Possibly but this is not a problem.
• This is pretty good already.
1.2 Being able to fill in the results and adjudication sheets as online forms and email them direct
• This may be useful. Submission of adjudication forms electronically for some captains is very difficult. Is it possible to provide easier access to the adjudication form and a “drop-in” set of pieces on the website?
• On-line adjudication forms would be helpful to team captains.
• As a captain I would find this very useful indeed – doing a ringed letter for black pieces is pretty difficult.
1.3 Anything else?
• Many links [to documents] won’t work in Quantum and other secure systems. It would be helpful if documents were produced in a format that could be more readily viewed without breaching IT security settings. For example, the ‘proposed new rules’ and ‘commentary’ links on the main page.
• The site might benefit visually from the occasional game position image and commentary.
• I like the interactive games but felt clicking on the game number was not immediately obvious (x 2).
• Could the ‘teams’ section of the website show which player has been nominated for which team? It is sometimes very difficult to guess (e.g. by looking at team results) who is likely to be playing in future matches.
• It presently has a resource focus (i.e. to give people the dry information they need to play in the League) and is very good for that purpose, so general changes to make it more an interactive (and dare I say, fun?) online environment may generate more traffic.
• Perhaps also an A–Z sitemap or something.
• It can be hard to find the match result sheet and adjudication form – the fixtures page is not the most logical place for them.
2. How easy is it for you to find what you're looking for?
• Quite easy for me.
• Mostly I find the site very useful and I don’t otherwise have any trouble negotiating it.
• The site is certainly easy enough to navigate through.
• Very easy.
• Easy enough.
• No problem.
3. Would you like to see any features added that aren't available at present?
3.1 A search facility
• Yes – this would benefit some of our members.
• Not really necessary.
3.2 A list of all fixtures in chronological order
• Good idea.
• Yes, if up-to-date and accurate.
• Possibly – not sure. Surrey does have such a list and it does have its uses.
3.3 A list of all CSCL players in name / grade order
• This would be very useful.
• A list of players’ grades would be of interest.
• I’d suggest placing information on last season’s Civil Service League grades already given at the back of the handbook alongside ECF grades on club pages making clear which was which etc to avoid confusion or misuse of figures.
• Maybe list the other clubs that players belong to, or link to their entry on the ECF grading database.
3.4 Reviews of chess books
• Yes (x 2)
3.5 Discussion forums
• I believe you have previously suggested this but with little positive feedback.
• The idea of a forum initially appealed to me, but these things do have a tendency to create friction. I can envisage a thread on adjournments / adjudications / quickplay becoming one of those intractable discussions leading nowhere which I have seen (and started!) on other forums, even though it is a campaign which needs to be pursued until the right outcome.
• Not keen as this may invite viruses on to the site which infest forums with unwanted emails. Yahoo suffers from this a lot.
• Could be interesting but would have to keep brief.
3.6 Anything else?
• I think publishing individual statistics could put people off playing if a string of poor individual results is highlighted in a team event. Fair enough to publish the names and results of each match, but probably unkind and unnecessary to calculate and publish a “league table” of individual scores (in case someone suggests it).
• I’d find it very helpful if individual players’ results could be cut and pasted from the site to my team progress reports. Something like: Name, Team, Won, Drew, Lost, Average Board. I’d prefer defaults to be ignored or shown separately.
• Individual player stats would also be good, e.g. performance so far, split to include playing White and Black, and also including grade changes over the years.
• Would like to see previous grades – whether players are going up or down.
• One other piece of useful information, if possible, would be to show the extent to which players had played for higher teams than the one they’d been nominated for.
• How about profiles of the top league players?
• Profiles could perhaps have a link from the player list mentioned above, and could include favoured openings as well as biographies. This could be user-driven (players submit their own, although might not want to give away opening secrets).
• Perhaps the League should have an online store for unwanted chess books with contact information for the sellers. I think this would be popular if managed well. Funds could go to the seller or the League.
• Online resources for the general player? e.g. chess cafés, review websites, news websites.Perhaps a page devoted to special events occurring in the chess world or in the UK i.e. tournaments, congresses etc.
• Perhaps more fun stuff like problems, novelties, competitions (problems or otherwise) etc.
• Chess puzzles on the front page – engage with them more quickly than with games.
• Places to play in London (clubs and / or tournaments on weekends or evenings).
• Info on ELO / ECF conversions and stuff like that.
• How about a helpful page for team captains? You could have advice on how it’s done and a copy of the Word document that captains have to write the results on, sorry if it’s already on there and I haven’t noticed yet.
• Anything that makes the site stand out more in comparison to other league sites. It should also have a link to the centenary book whenever it comes out if possible. I don’t know if the book will be made available online.
• A list of post-match watering holes with links where possible, showing which clubs hang out where.
• Regular polls e.g. "Is the Pirc a better option for Black than the Caro-Kann?"
• Calendar of forthcoming events (maybe a link to the ECF website would do).
4. Would you like to see any current features built up more?
4.1 Games
• Yes – but I do not want to see a Rule eventually appearing which states that all game scores must be submitted.
• I’d like a game feature where you can play through games. It’s a good learning tool, especially for beginners. Maybe using a database of games or book openings. This might encourage more people to play and improve their games, especially those who don’t get to play in matches.
4.2 Links
• These are always useful.
4.3 League documentation, including AGM papers and minutes
• Good idea. Necessary for key information / decisions about the League.
5. Does the site need to preserve fixtures, results and tables from previous seasons?
• Yes definitely. Always good to see past results as it can become a historical reference for players.
• An archive of previous seasons is a good idea.
• Possibly a very good idea. The Senior Recorder has a collection of records going back many years but paper versions will not last forever and may go missing anyway.
• I found access to last season’s results and tables very useful (especially early in the season), but although the information is still there (with last year’s date), I only found that through Google. If there is a link to it, I didn’t find it.
• Yes, but maybe in an archive somewhere.
• It’s probably worth keeping a few seasons’ historic results so long as this doesn’t impinge significantly on webspace / costs.
• It would be really valuable to preserve all results in detail so as to see how some players performed against others in previous years.
6. Should the site use images more, or less, or is it about right? Should there be a CSCL picture gallery?
• Yes, pictures are always good to disperse the text. Too much text is always bad and tedious to wade through. Pictures attract more people to the site. A picture gallery would be good as well.
• Possibly a picture gallery for presentations at the AGM, special events etc.
• I would prefer not to have more images because I sometimes check the site in my lunch-hour and departmental internet access is very slow and clunky even with mostly text-only.
• I’m not a great fan of excess images generally as they tend to slow down accessing pages on the site – certainly suggest not adding to total already there.
• Not really interested in images but maybe some pictures of the League's administrators would be good.