UKC

We have made a significant upgrade to the section of the site formerly known as 'Databases'. The Crags section has been moved to now be part of Logbooks (which it already was really) and the listings of shops, walls, clubs, etc. have been moved to the new all-singing and all-dancing Classified pages.

The new Classifieds section is here - http://www.ukclimbing.com/listings/ - and linked to on the right-hand side of the menu bar above.

UKC Users
You can now use a much more sophisticate searching system to locate Shops, Walls, Clubs, Guides, Instructors, Companies and Accommodation providers in any area by using the map. Alternatively you can use the search boxes to refine your search and drill down to suit your requirements. A useful way the UKC users can help to promote the system is by pointing it out every time someone posts a "where is the nearest climbing wall to Bognor Regis" type question.

UKC Listing Owners
The data currently in the system was part of our long-standing 'Databases' section which contained over 1000 listings for the various businesses, individuals and clubs in it. Over the years the Databases area of the has been viewed over 2 million times in total and register over 70,000 views in an average month. Some individual listings have been viewed over 6,000 times.
If you have an entry in the old Database system then you should receive an email explaining what you need to 'claim it' so that you can then be directly responsible for updating the information. You will already be provisionally assigned to it but we need to link it up with a UKC User Profile to make the system run properly. It will also be a good time to check the data is up-to-date.

Premier Classifieds
The new system now has second level of listing included called the Premier Classified. These listings offer significantly enhance coverage across the UKC site.

Details of benefits here - http://www.ukclimbing.com/listings/premier.html

Alan James
UKC

In reply to Alan James - UKC:

I must be thick. When I was testing this for clubs it says there are 350+ showing first 50 but cannot see a button to find next 50 etc. Same with the accommodation section, not looked at any more.

I know you can click on the map to find some things but not have an overview of them.

In reply to sutty: That's a good point sutty. With so many hundreds of listings in the database, I was trying to get away from the "endless list of clubs" that you had to scroll through or keep clicking 'next page'.

Instead, you can use the search form to narrow your search by the name of the club, or the region you want to search in. So if you get a lot of results, try just searching within 50 miles of your home. For example:

• search for all listings within 25 miles of Hathersage
  
  
• search for indoor walls in North Wales
  
  
• search for instructors/guides in the Lake District
  

You can also use the map to zoom into a particular area, and see all the listings there, but it can be quicker to just type your address or postcode into the 'Search by Location' field. You should be able to enter your full postcode, or just a town/city name, or indeed your full address if you like.

Cheers

In reply to Nick Smith - UKC:

How do you find a the crag page through the logbooks bit without a climb name?

In reply to galpinos:

There are 2 ways currently to find a crag:

1. Use the Logbooks -> 'Find Climbs by Crag' page, which lets you search by crag name

2. Use the Logbooks -> 'Crags Advanced search' page, which lets you search by crag name, rocktype, country, or location

We are planning to thoroughly upgrade the logbooks/crags system later this year so that they are properly integrated, with many more easy-to-use searching options. Please post or email any suggestions that you have!

Cheers

In reply to Nick Smith - UKC:

It sort of works but seems a bit clunky at the moment to me.

Let's see what others think though, they will need it more than I do, though if they cannot read a bus or train timetable all is lost.

In reply to Nick Smith - UKC:

Found it. Cheers Nick. I never look at the menu on the left for some reason!

In reply to Nick Smith - UKC:
>We are planning to thoroughly upgrade the logbooks/crags system later this year ...

Can I request a feature ?
On wap.ukclimbing.com I go to the DB section and enter a crag name, then hit enter and nothing happens. Same with the find climbs by region,find by distance and the same with indoor walls etc. Can we have a "go" button, so once a selection is made we hit the go button and things happen ? This is on a pocket PC phone running Windows mobile 5 (OS 5.1). Don't know if anyone else has that problem.

I can get to the crag finder ok via the www. version and I can enter the crag name and hit the "locate" button, but it is a bit slow and doesn't look very nice.

In reply to Alan James - UKC:
Every time I click on 'Classifieds' it crashes Safari - (1.3.2) - Mac OS X 10.3.9 -
Ok in Firefox though.

In reply to digby:

Ok thanks.

In this case it is probably a lot easier for you to download the free updated version of Safari than for us to adjust the system though.

http://www.apple.com/safari/download/

Alan

In reply to dread-i:

To be honest our WAP site is less and less popular each year, as more phones can browse normal websites. It was busy in 2003/4, but since then it has halved in popularity each year! For those users who haven't seen it:
http://www.ukclimbing.com/general/wap.html

A few users have reported a missing 'go' button in the past, but there is a lot of variation in WAP browsers on phones, and most of them seem to work fine with the site. Can you point me at a few other WAP search pages that correctly work on your phone? I might be able to see how their code differs from that on UKC.

Many thanks

In reply to Nick Smith - UKC:
>Can you point me at a few other WAP search pages that correctly work on your phone? I might be able to see how their code differs from that on UKC.
I cant, as I don't really play with WAP sites

Just a submit button like the "list crags" button would do it I think. I'm not sure if there is a WAP version of of submit.

In reply to Alan James - UKC:

It looks good. 2 comments.
- The map shows a white circle when the current zoom level is insufficent to show the details at a given point, and the tooltip shows how many entries are at the point. But this means you have to zoom in to that point to find out what is there - it would be much better if the tooltip showed some more info, e.g. the title of the hidden entries.

- Searching for "North London Mountaineering club" at the top level of he Classified page does not find anything, despite this being findable via your general search page. The London Mountaineering club is found though.

- I like the incremental display of search results as you type!

Keep up the good work!

David.

In reply to David Barlow:

That was what I found clunky, the sudden loss of clubs etc you know exist but till you find the right tooltip you are driving blind.

In reply to Alan James - UKC:

Losing the database tab seems like a bad idea to me. The crag database is a great resource, and deserves its own tab. Those new to the forums are going to take a lot longer to realise it exists if it's hidden away.

This is one of the best things UKC gives to the climbing community, why make it harder to use?

In reply to robin mueller:

The changes were necessary since we needed to separate out the different types of data in the Databases to create the Classified section. This new section is now much better and more useable than the old system that had great data but poor searching and usability.

For the next few months the Crags Database will remain buried a little, although it is still there and just as data-packed as it ever was. Once we upgrade the Logbook system to incorporate Crags more prominently then it will be back and even more useable than it ever was.

With complex web sites it is sometimes necessary to step back slightly in order to move forward.

Alan

In reply to Alan James - UKC:

Fair enough. Great that you are keen to keep the site moving forwards.

In reply to Nick Smith - UKC:

The on screen response returned to the user when searching for all clubs is confusing because you can't view beyond the first 50.

<Search results397 matches found (showing first 50).>

You may want to not show an endless list of clubs, but your users might view this requirement differently. If users don't really know what they looking for, it can be difficult to narrow a search. Viewing everything allows the option for users to scroll or even export to Excel or another database for easier viewing.

If there are technical reasons you can not display them all, that's a different story. But if that is the case, then please add some help text to inform users they can't do it, either that or explain how they can if it is buried away somewhere! Help can be a textual response to a users question. Leaving users in the dark and not communicating key usability issues is the best way to frustrate them.

In reply to ClwydTraveller: Good points. We'll be adding the ability to view the rest of the search results in the near future.

Cheers