My New Bushcraft Resource Project

[Nightwalker]

Im very happy to announce, my new website: www.naturalbushcraft.co.uk

The website is non-commercial project and my aims are simple: To centralise useful information in a clear, easy un-cluttered format. And to promote and help the Bushcraft Community as a whole. Of course the first thing I thought of promoting was the best bushcraft-info-tool around; BCUK!

The website first started as a small project centralising some peices of info/videos/links for friends & family, but I soon found that it was growing and I enjoyed the thought of centralising a lot of information regards bushcraft/outdoors/campnig etc. Please have a good look round the website and let me know what you think, I'd really appreciate some feedback. I dont really know what to do with listing the articles, the menu so to speak, any idea on how to order or categorise the menu at all? Any recommendations on new content for articles will be much appreciated, also if you want to add your own content/article to the site just get in touch. Some stats on the website: NaturalBushcraft has been running properly for 29 days. So far without any promotion its had 343 unique visitors and 484 visits in total.

Thanks for your time and I hope you find the site useful.​

 

[Tadpole]

Im very happy to announce, my new website: www.naturalbushcraft.co.uk

The website is non-commercial project and my aims are simple: To centralise useful information in a clear, easy un-cluttered format. And to promote and help the Bushcraft Community as a whole. Of course the first thing I thought of promoting was the best bushcraft-info-tool around; BCUK!

The website first started as a small project centralising some peices of info/videos/links for friends & family, but I soon found that it was growing and I enjoyed the thought of centralising a lot of information regards bushcraft/outdoors/campnig etc. Please have a good look round the website and let me know what you think, I'd really appreciate some feedback. I dont really know what to do with listing the articles, the menu so to speak, any idea on how to order or categorise the menu at all? Any recommendations on new content for articles will be much appreciated, also if you want to add your own content/article to the site just get in touch. Some stats on the website: NaturalBushcraft has been running properly for 29 days. So far without any promotion its had 343 unique visitors and 484 visits in total.

Thanks for your time and I hope you find the site useful.​

As a coloured blind person, can I ask you to think about the colours of your homepage, without highlighting any all I can see is the pictures and the shout box. The rest is just a black page

 

[Shewie]

Well done Ash, it`s looking good so far.

I`ll be keeping an eye on the progress over the next few months.

Maybe one suggestion would be to move some of your content off the home page and into different sections, that way it would look less cluttered. It`s probably not too bad at the moment but later on it could get messy.


Rich

 

[Dr Onion]

I like the colour scheme a lot - very easy on the eyes (or at the very least on my eyes!) and easy to read.

One thing I note is that the layout is a bit messy - the navigation and location of items could be more logical. Maybe go for a "column" style with each "colums" housing a different section of links i.e 1 column for menu, then 1 for your vids and music player then 1 more for your comments.

Just one way of doing it - there are many others and this is just off the top of my head but a gut feeling is to improve the layout.

Other than that though, a very good effort all round with lots of good information just one click away from your front page.

Nice one!

 

[Nightwalker]

Thanks for feedback, much appreciated.

As a coloured blind person, can I ask you to think about the colours of your homepage, without highlighting any all I can see is the pictures and the shout box. The rest is just a black page

Tadpole, I apologise I dont know much at all about coloured blindness and im sorry if I seem silly. I was surprised that you couldnt see the other text/menu, I thought it had alright contrast. I presume that all people who suffer with this differ in what colours and contrast they can see effectively? If thats correct, how could I possibly cater for everyones needs? I'll have to learn more about the condition I suppose.

Well done Ash, it`s looking good so far. I`ll be keeping an eye on the progress over the next few months. Maybe one suggestion would be to move some of your content off the home page and into different sections, that way it would look less cluttered. It`s probably not too bad at the moment but later on it could get messy.
Rich

Thanks for the support Shewie! Great to hear you'll check back in the future I appreciate that. I hear what you say about taking some of the content off the main-page to reduce the clutter. Yes, I think its soon going to get to cluttered, if not already however I really like the direct, quick access to the information, one click away so to speak. Any more layout ideas?

I like the colour scheme a lot - very easy on the eyes (or at the very least on my eyes!) and easy to read.

Thanks! I tried to tweak the colours to what I liked and I thought it was pretty clear so far.

One thing I note is that the layout is a bit messy - the navigation and location of items could be more logical. Maybe go for a "column" style with each "colums" housing a different section of links i.e 1 column for menu, then 1 for your vids and music player then 1 more for your comments.

:thinkerg: Yeah, I've tried moving it around a bit to suite what you said, take a look now let me know what you think.

a very good effort all round with lots of good information just one click away from your front page. Nice one!

Thanks!

 

[malente]

Hi!

Nice effort!

Just one tiny weeny thing...Switch off the darn music! (!!!!!!!!!!!!)

Maybe you didn't know this, but this is one of the most annoying and frowned upon things encountered on the web.

This technique is just bad, intrusive and clogs up bandwith, also it can make browsers and or music players crash... visitors will potentially never come back to your site when that happens (it's just not worth it). That would be a shame, as the idea and the content are really cool, at first glance!

After all, I listen to my own music thank you very much.

Also, is it intentional that the link section is somewhere below the content, after you scroll down a lot?

If you need some help with the presentational coding and stull, I can give you a few pointers...

Keep it up!

Mike

Edited to add: Bookmarked!

 

[KNC]

Looks great, lots of useful information.
Just my opinion but I like the music.

 

[Nightwalker]

Thanks malente & KNC for your input. Its interesting with the music.. I think you either love it or hate it. Being a techie I understand that it uses bandwidth and not everyone likes having music on websites, but I loved the piece and thought it makes a lovely intro to the site, making it a bit different with lovely music, but that was just my opinion, I understand some find it annoying, I'll listen to a few more comments and act accordingly. Thanks for bookmarking it!.. much appreciated.

 

[malente]

Thanks malente & KNC for your input. Its interesting with the music.. I think you either love it or hate it. Being a techie I understand that it uses bandwidth and not everyone likes having music on websites, but I loved the piece and thought it makes a lovely intro to the site, making it a bit different with lovely music, but that was just my opinion, I understand some find it annoying, I'll listen to a few more comments and act accordingly. Thanks for bookmarking it!.. much appreciated.

Hi Nightwalker!

Had a better look around, so much valuable content! Love the site!

And I couldn't resist to digg out a reference re: music on websites, there are tons more out there...

10. Do not play music: on the early years of the Internet web developers always tried to successfully integrate music into websites. Guess what, they failed miserably. Do not use music, period.

11. If you MUST play an audio file let the user start it: some situations might require an audio file. You might need to deliver a speech to the user or your guided tour might have an audio component. That is fine. Just make sure that the user is in control, let him push the “Play” button as opposed to jamming the music on his face right after he enters the website.

this is from 43 Web Design Mistakes You Should Avoid...

Don't get me wrong, I actually like the tune that you offer, it fits the mood and I can see what you want to accomplish!

How about having the music and have it switched off by default, but featuring it on the top of the website?

Anyway, it's your web, your decision.

Mike

 

[Nightwalker]

Thanks for that Mike, im glad you find the info valuable/useful that all im trying to serve.

Good advice about the music also. To be honest I didn't know how to have a audio file paused, ready to start, but I just learnt!.. so the music player is still there at the mo, but its paused by default. I think most people will miss the music player and wont even know its there to play and its obvious the put it in a more visable place like the top but I dont want to ruin what little clarity of design I have going hmm, duno, anymore suggestions? :thinkerg:

 

[Nightwalker]

Oh by the way, my friend mentioned to our local farm shop that we had put up an article on NaturalBushcraft about making Rabbit Stew (of which the Rabbit we bought from them) and complemented them, they took a look at the site and loved it and linked to it without me even hearing about it first! Chuffed:http://www.trevilleyfarm.com/?q=node/8 Also another website has linked to us: http://www.natural-pathways.co.uk/links1.htm Any support is greatly appreciated and I would love to return the favour by linking back where appropriate.

 

[Humpback]

Tried twice to view site but it locked up on my vista pc both times
regards Alan

 

[big_swede]

suits you right then..

Works fine on my red hat enterprise client station.

 

[oetzi]

Thats a great website of yours, I like it!
The video makes for good watching and the green and black main page is a killer for my eyes!
Whats more, once you click on any link, there is this contrast with the upcoming white page.
How about, for the main page, some not too dark green for the background and black for the letters?

 

[JonnyP]

Tried twice to view site but it locked up on my vista pc both times
regards Alan

I am on vista and have just got on there ok...Good site that Ash. Watched your video, nice shelter...

 

[Paullyfuzz]

What a superb site, keep up the good work.

Paul

 

[Nightwalker]

Thank you greatly for your positive comments, its encouraging!

I noticed this evening whilst at my Dads the site seemed to load slow, it almost froze for a few seconds before loading any of the page content. I think I narrowed it down to the YouTube video loading slower than normal and it was lagging the complete page down I think. I'll keep an eye on it I know its probably not best to have a video on the front-page, looks a little tacky in design maybe, but I like initial appeal it might make to users, straight away gives them something interesting to do/watch.

I look forward to getting more relevant articles up there like a guide on making Charcloth and Collecting Birch Sap in March. It'll be nice to centralise a vast amount of articles about the wide variety of stuff we folk get up to! Time is the only issue. Do you think its worth me asking others to contribute articles and content if they wish?

 

[Bogman10]

Like the site so far, keep up the good work!

 

[mace242]

That's a good site and another addition to my ever expanding list of bushcraft favourites. Well done.

 

[malente]

Good morning.

The freezing might have to do with the audio, but that is just my guess..

I like the video, keep it on there IMHO, well worth the wait!

Re asking others to contribute stuff? Why not, in any case you can control what goes on there, edit it, you'll have all the power of censorship ... And a site with more content is a better site, in any case! There are too many empty shells of websites out there

I like the general black/ green theme of the home page... What editor/ program do you use to make the pages? You can pm me as well (I know a few things about webdesign ), I might have some design ideas... no need to bog this forum with techie stuff.

Thank you greatly for your positive comments, its encouraging!

Mike

I noticed this evening whilst at my Dads the site seemed to load slow, it almost froze for a few seconds before loading any of the page content. I think I narrowed it down to the YouTube video loading slower than normal and it was lagging the complete page down I think. I'll keep an eye on it I know its probably not best to have a video on the front-page, looks a little tacky in design maybe, but I like initial appeal it might make to users, straight away gives them something interesting to do/watch.

I look forward to getting more relevant articles up there like a guide on making Charcloth and Collecting Birch Sap in March. It'll be nice to centralise a vast amount of articles about the wide variety of stuff we folk get up to! Time is the only issue. Do you think its worth me asking others to contribute articles and content if they wish?