London Cycling Campaign

From Paul:

Hello Everyone I assume the new website is our first taster of the re-branding exercise, which appears to be going ahead without consultation even though there appears to be a little recognition that the name change is unpopular with members. A few observations on this (and please add your own as it would be useful to get some ideas for a coordinated response):

1. The logo is illegible and meaningless without the name. A bicycle shape is very simple to suggest, so how did they get it so wrong?

2. The big bit of blank space at the top - presumably for advertising? If so I am not happy - put adverts at the sides but not above the name and main navigation, it dominates first impressions. No-one does that, not even commercial interests such as newspapers. I hope I am wrong.

3. Why launch something half finished? And why launch without asking members to test and provide feedback first?

Not happy.

Paul

ps I couldn't see the LCC 'ads' in Firefox, but they appear in IE8. They are coming from tenalpadverts.com, so I guess a contract has been signed alread...

1. The name change and the re-brand are not interdependent. LCC desperately needed a new graphical look, and we've got one. Sorry you don't like it, but most of the feedback has been very good. Would you really want the new site to be a dirty green colour? Okay, don't answer that... 2. I'm surprised you hadn't noticed that we've been selling advertising for over five years on the former website and in the magazine, both via TenAlps. Advertising helps pay for improvements to both, and helps keep membership subs low. The ad positions on the site are pretty standard. 3. No-one said the website was "half-finished"... there are a few features that have yet to be implemented, but they will be soon. There has been a reasonable amount of testing, with a smaller group of members/users, but exhuastive testing costs time and money, neither of which we had a great deal of. So far it's working very well... 4. The Firefox problem has been noticed. We're working to fix it. Sorry you're not happy... we've been working hard on this project for 6 months, and are ecstatic to see it finally launched. Perhaps as we progress the site over time, you'll like some of the changes we make. cheers Mike Cavenett Communications officer

ps well done Lambeth - great work!

I actually quite like the new website, and I'm looking forward to seeing how the new features such as 'The Map' can be used. Well done Mike and all at LCC! I like the logo too actually; sort of reminds me of the old ATV intro, if anyone remembers that. Luke has also done a superb job with our new website and uploading archive content, and even started a Lambeth Cyclists Twitter account. Check it out!

Well done Luke on the web-site. Also, I think the new LCC site is a tremendous improvement on the old. Every web-site has a 'personality' and it always takes time to move quickly around it. I realise there are some big issues on archives and moving all the old baggage over, but it is certainly easier to find what you want now, and having proper discussions instead of mere 'comments' is most welcome.

Lambeth Cyclists now have a Facebook page!

http://www.facebook.com/pages/Lambeth-Cyclists/195695183811615

I'm told that 25 'likes' will enable to have a proper URL, so 'like' away!

We also have a Yahoo email group for discussions and announcements:

http://groups.yahoo.com/group/Lambeth_Cyclists/

At the moment the Yahoo group continues to be the main forum for discussions for Lambeth Cyclists, but in time this forum is meant to replace it. Until then, we operate with both.