Osmotion Web Design » North QLD Cowboys 2006
To celebrate their first NRL Finals appearance in club history, the North Queensland Cowboys decided to completely re-vamp their web site. A list of goals for the new web site was drafted and Osmotion set to work designing a new interface for the site's existing content as well as its new features.
Out with the old...
The previous web site had been in existence in one form or another since 2002. As such, it was designed at a fixed width for smaller screens. Small fonts were used to make most of available space. The layout's main strength was its modularity. Constructed from different sized boxes, additional components — such as spot advertisements — could be added easily.
However, this was also one of its biggest weaknesses. The layout was built-upon over the years in an ad hoc manner and the end result didn't use the available space as effectively as originally planned. The result was an uneven group of elements without a clear delineation between site content and advertisements. And since familiar elements could easily shift position on the page, even long-time users could become confused when visiting the site again.
...and in with the new
The new web site features some distinct advantages over the previous one. The layout has been designed for a larger screen size, now common on the web, so fonts are large enough that most people won't have to hit the "make font bigger" button at all. It also flexes when you resize the browser window, allowing users with big monitors to use them as such. Best of all, the layout is consistent; you will only need to figure it out once.
Powered by Osmotion
Behind the scenes, Osmotion's GCM Content Management system works to allow the NQ Cowboys staff to update nearly every part of the site's content. News articles can be added and photo galleries can be uploaded. "Sticky" news articles remain visible even after their expiry date. Round Up, the club's HTML e-mail newsletter, is created and sent out to the club's online members.
Poll questions are added easily, and the voting totals are generated automatically when the poll is closed. The Advertising Campaign Manager allows clients to log in and see reports on how well their web adverts are doing.
Web Site Features
Drop-down menus are no more
The old Javascript drop-down menus have been replaced with a column of text links, so you can immediately see everything the site has to offer.
Multi-function Page
The Draw & Results page combines information from many different sources. At once, visitors can see the entire Cowboys game line-up for the year, as well as special events like State Of Origin. Home games are colour coded so fans can prepare in advance for their next trip to Dairy Farmers Stadium. There are links to every kind of match-based information including Team Line Up, Game Day Information, Match Preview and Match Reports. The match result is also displayed and coloured appropriately.
Meet the Players
The Players Profile section now shows thumbnail portraits of all the guys (and gals in the cheer squad section) giving users the rare ability to see the entire team side- by-side.
Advert-Free Zone
In order to overcome the problem of adverts intruding onto site content and possibly confusing visitors, all adverts are presented in a column on the far right-hand side. Rather than being "demoted", we felt that advertisements given their own space were presented more effectively to viewers. The results speak for themselves – total ad click-throughs for June 2006 were higher than page views for Match Reports and the popular Photo Gallery.
RSS News Feed
Osmotion made the top ten news stories available for RSS News Readers. After a modest start, the RSS feed quadrupled in popularity in the three months after the new site's release.
Cross-Platform Compatibility
The previous site was designed for maximum compatibility with Internet Explorer 6 for Windows and IE 5 for Mac OS 9. Today, IE 6 for Windows is still by far the dominant web browser, but there are now standards-compliant alternatives. While the new web site layout achieves more through its complex use of CSS, it still maintains compatibility with Firefox 1.5.