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Firehouse.com Vs. FireEngineering.com

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The all new FireEngineering.com

The all new FireEngineering.com

Two of the largest, most popular, and longest running fire service websites are in the middle of being redesigned. Firehouse.com is still being tweaked while running live online. FireEngineering.com is live, but I believe still being tweaked although the web site does not say anything to that effect.

A while back, I did a critique of FireEngineering.com. It was not a full critique but more so a small idea of how I would change it to better suite ME. Yes it was very selfish. At the time I did not realize that FireEngineering was actaully going through a redesign. Bobby Halton, Fire Engineering Editor-in-Chief, actually left a comment on the post and offered to let me in on the redesign and offer my thoughts. While Halton meant well, I never got to offer my input because the webteam working on the new site never got in touch with me. However, I have since been in contact with him about the progress.

The all new Firehouse.com

The all new Firehouse.com

Fast forward to today and we have two very instrumental, prominent, and popular websites being redeveloped. Understandably they will both be having growing pains as they customize their look and fix any bugs. All in all, both of the sites look decent. I will offer one suggestion on each site, if they want more they know where to find me.

Firehouse.com - Lose the quick links at the bottom. They take up too much space.

FireEngineering.com - There is simply too much stuff on the homepage. simplify it.

As a webmaster myself, it is always difficult in figuring out exactly what to put on the home page. Simply put, we want everyone to read everything! It just isn’t going to happen. You have to make it simple but eye catching. People click on images and videos! Thumbnails are a must! In my experience, there are three kinds of readers….

  1. Regular readers – these are the guys who go to a site on a regular basis and scroll through the new stuff and read what catches there eye.
  2. First time readers – these people end up on your site and just start clicking. If they find it interesting they might become regular readers.
  3. Search engine traffic - these people end up on a specific page for a specific reason, cater the sidebar and navigation bar so that they can continue looking/searching once they get to the site.

I think that the FireEngineering did a better job with the overall look but Firehouse.com did better with the content layout.

What do you all think? Do you like the new sites? What do you like and what don’t you like?

Posted by on November 6, 2009 • Filed under: News, Website Critique • Tagged: , , , , , ,

New Fire Engineering Website

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The new site!

The new site!

You may remember my critique of Fire Engineering’s website a while back (read it here). The whole thing was kind of impromptu at the time and was done because I got pissed off one day. I look at the site everyday and I always had to scroll down just to see what was new. I was surprised to find out that they were actually working on a brand new site at the time. As a matter of fact I got a comment directly from Bobby Halton, the editor of Fire Engineering.

The new site is live. I like it. I feel as though I was the catalyst for change and they listened to my every word. Ok, I am full of s@#$, but the look in the end is exactly what I wanted. I doubt I had much to do with it, but I am happy. As with most new websites or redesigns, there is a honeymoon period where the readers get used to it and find bugs with it.

One thing I do hate is that damn ad that unravels the homepage. I hated it on the old site, I hate it on the new site. However, I understand completely why it is there. It pays the bills. I can only imagine how many accidental clicks that darn ad gets.

I think the new navigation is tops! I think they got the right for sure!

Old Fire Engineering Site...blah

Old Fire Engineering Site...blah

Then there are the guys who just hate change. Any change at all. They get pissed off then they have to change their underwear once a week. Those guys piss me off. They will be there in the forums somewhere lurking wanting the old site back. Blah…

The biggest problem I have seen with sites like FireEngineering.com and Firehouse.com is trying to keep all the information organized. We are talking about 10+ years of information. If you don’t plan well in the beginning you will fall prey to poor navigation and poor organization. I think that both sites have this problem somewhat. Maybe not due to poor planning, but due to having so much damn information on them. How in the World could they have planned 10+ years ago for technology today…I only hope I have that problem with Fire Critic in 10 years!!!

Take a minute to check out the new FireEngineering.com site here.

Then feel free to shoot over to the new Firehouse.com beta testing site here. Let me know what you think.

Posted by on October 8, 2009 • Filed under: News, Website Critique • Tagged: , , , , , ,

Website Critique on FireEngineering.com

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This might become an ongoing column by The Fire Critic, we will see how it goes.

Today, I offer you a critique of FireEngineering.com. Fire Engineering has become a favorite of a lot of the go getters in the fire service. While FireEngineering.com my not compete with Firehouse.com, Fire Engineering magazine spanks Firehouse magazine in my mind. I might not be able to pinpoint it, but it seems as though Fire Engineering has better articles with more depth for the veteran firefighter.

Basically, if I want to read great articles on the Fire Service and our jobs I flip through the Fire Engineering rag. If I want to check out fires I go to Firehouse.com. However, I go to Firehouse.com only after I have checked out the State Fire News sites here and the other blogs etc. here.

I am digressing. The main point of this post was not an in-depth comparison of Firehouse and Fire Engineering. Actually, I started this post because of a HUGE issue I see with FireEngineering.com. I go to the site everyday, and every day I see the same damn thing. The home web page above the fold never changes. “Above the Fold” is a newspaper term for the top of the front page which you see while the newspaper is folded. The term loosely relates to websites in that “above the fold” would be what you see when you arrive at a website without browsing. The next image is what you see. Follow along though because you will have to scroll down to see the rest of the issue and my way of easily fixing it.

What you see

Current site. What you see is what you always see and is pretty boring. I have highlighted the area in question. The stuff on the left is the navigation bar, which might work across the top with the other navigation bar. The stuff on the right pays the bills, no complaint there.

Below is my proposed solution to the issue. Move the more dynamic parts of the site up to the top so when people visit daily they see that stuff has changed and are interested in scrolling down to see what else has changed.

feng2

If you go to the site, you will see that all I did was moved the "Fire Pictures of the Day" to the top along with the headlines. Both of which should be updated daily (and I believe they are). The more dynamic content will draw more visitors and more clicks per visitor.

Posted by on July 30, 2009 • Filed under: News, Website Critique • Tagged: , , , ,