Like some critiques on our website…

thanks HurriRV7 fan

we try to be very active and work on 1-2 events per month when possible.

Glad you like the Newsletter, the editor is Denny May (son of WOP May!)

The Kelly D has a great home and right now is in Peace River waiting us to complete the Fort Vermilion Mercy Flight. then 2 more historic flights by September. Great airplane, flys nice, just alittle cold to be flying in winter (lol).

You must be one of the Lyncrest gang…pass on my thanks once again to everyone there.

Currently in Ottawa at the Smithsonian Mutaul Concerns of Air and Space Museums conference…learn learn learn.

Tom

I liked the layout of your newsletter. You have a lot of events planned well into the future, your museum must be very active. Glad to see that the Kelly-D now has a good home, it was sure cold when it left Winnipeg.

I think your comments about the enthusiasts wanting content and the non-enthusiasts wanting to be entertained is spot on. A difficult juggle.

Regards,

It’s really interesting to see the way different demographics view the site.

I appreciate all the input and look forward to seeing you HurriRV7.

Aviation enthusiasts/activists (?) tend to look for hard content, non aviation types and younger folks tend to look for the flash bang.

Seems the same with our flight sims as well, Aviation enthusiasts seem to not gravitate to them at all, non aviation…especially younger glom on to them and have a gas.

Other computer interactives seem to have the same reactions.

From my stand point I want to get as many new enthusiasts as possible and it seems that once we get them in we can get them excited by all facets…but it takes some unique thinking to get them in.

Our mini theaters seem to be the only electronics/AV area that all sides enjoy. Each sits 6-9 and reside in the lee of aircraft on exhibit, they feature a 5-7minute bite of Canadian/Albertan aviation history.

Visitors, enthusiast and non enthusiast, enjoy them.

Anyone check out the Education program or Newsletter?

Tom

Hi Tom,

Nice job on the site.

I found the “splash page” animation distracting and would remove it. Good point others have made about the noise it makes being a problem if you are viewing at work (Lucky for me I only use headphones and it was after 5pm when I clicked on the link).

I found your sites layout logical and easy to use.

For some reason I found the red on the right hand side of your pages made it more difficult to navigate? Colour selection seems to play a big part with me on whether I get the impression a website is worth investigating further or all flash and no useful information. The red, yellow, orange and blue of your pages is too much colour for my liking and distracted me from the content. (Animation of any sort makes my subconscious think a site is all flash, If you hadn’t asked for an opinion and had come across your site by accident I probably wouldn’t have navigated further).

I did have difficulty finding photos which show overall views of what’s inside the building. It was only after looking at the pictures of the Mosquito that I realized you had quite a few aircraft on display.

Next time I am in Edmonton and the wife is at the Mall I will have to drop in.

Regards,

As a website designer for an aviation museum myself, I would have expected most people – casual and enthusiasts – would be put off by the intro. If I had gone to the website whilst I was at work, everyone would have glared at me for the sudden loud noise, and it wouldn’t have lasted half a second. Maybe that says more about the people I work with…

Secondly, I couldn’t figure out how to buy items from your shop.

Great content though.

Andy

Looks good to me! 🙂

Don

It looks very comprehensive and clear.

Others have already mentioned Flash, which I loathe with a passion, but if it gets results for you that’s a good enough reason for having it.

Thanks again Sagindragin

I will look him up when I have some time.

Ron Cuskelly and all

What we have discovered over the last 3 years you might find interesting.

Over 75% of our visitors would be those of casual, or before coming, minimal interest. Enthusiasts, veterans, active aviators make up roughly 25%, the balance. (these are rough numbers).

So while we always protect the core museum (preservation, restoration, archives and library) we also have to strike a balance between the types of visitors we get and how we interact with them, this of course includes how we market to them.

As you can imagine, not an easy mission. As an aviation freak myself I tend to lean towards the enthusiast, but the majority of our visitors are not and we need to continue to attract them as well as educate them once we get them in. (we are sneaky, if we can get you in we will make you an enthusiast…seems to be working).

As a result we try to balance flash (the animation) with content. The flash works for many of the casual visitors and gets great comments. Doesn’t mean we won’t change it as time passes, just trying to find the right balance.

Which is why we have the fast link to get folks by the animation

I do appreciate the comments and they are all taken into account.

Tom H

Tom

Because many websites use Flash for advertising, a lot of Firefox users like myself will block any Flash elements. Any visitor who has done so will see only a black screen with an empty frame with a small Flash logo in the centre. They can click the logo to play the Flash but I rarely do because I’m usually disappointed with an ad. Too bad if the Flash element contains your site’s navigation. Fortunately you have included a navigation text link at the foot of the page so all is not lost.

All this can be likened to automated telephone call centres. One airline used to answer its phones with the statement “Push 1 for a menu”. They wouldn’t even give you that for free! Hope this is helpful.

Regards
Ron (I don’t do cool, I do content)

hi Tom,

go here,

http://www.seawings.co.uk/

bryan is one of the nicest people on the internet, and of it, he will welcome you with open arm.

thank you for the input gentlemen.

Appreciate the comments on the animation, I will say that non aviators and the casual buff seem to like it, as well as most on this side of the Atlantic, but true enthusiasts and the hard core aviation following don’t.

We are going to play with it some more but it sure does have its pros and cons.

sagindragin

I don’t know the gentleman on seawings and to be fair our Viking is a replica and still a work in progress with the cockpits needing completed. I will try to keep you posted on it.

Thank you everyone.

Hi Tom

I was once told by a web designer that if a site takes longer than 10 seconds to load, most people will go elsewhere… 🙁

Ditch the animation, and go with a nice static main page… 😉

Hello Tom,
Have to agree with the above comment the animation must go. However the site is really looking good now well done!

hi tom,

just one point, get rid of the stupid animated opening page, people want a site that open straight away without all the fancy do da , a static main page is just as good and looks more professional.

second thing, do you know bryan ribbans over on seawings, i’m sure he would love a walkround of your vickers viking.

Hi Tom,
Looks good to me! Must have been a lot of work put into the website.

Looks good to me.
Nice Mossie by the way.

Hi Tom, never saw the original site but what you`ve got now looks pretty good.I`m no computer expert but I think it`s ok.