On my quest to simplify the site layout, and give more of the screen area to the reviews and comments, I’ve just uploaded a new layout for Carsurvey.org. The Motorcycle and Mobilephone sites still have the old layout, if you want to compare. Highlights of this change include:

• The navigation bar area on the left has changed from 336 pixels to 250 pixels wide. This gives more space for content
• On the reviews and comments pages, the 336 pixel wide navigation is gone (including the similar reviews box). Again, this means more space for content
• Search has moved to the top right corner
• There are more ads on most pages, but they are almost all smaller and better blended into the content
• The photos have been removed as a temporary measure. If this layout is made permanent, I’ll make the necessary changes to restore them
• The tabs for the other sites have moved across to the left to make way for the search. Unfortunately I’ve not been able to make the black border under the “Cars tab” disappear across all browsers yet (Internet Explorer is proving difficult)

The new layout has been tested on Internet Explorer 5.0, 6.0, Firefox 1.5, Safari 2.0.3, and Opera 9.00. It also seems to cope with fonts set to one size larger than normal.

Hopefully this new layout will be a big improvement for people using 800×600 and 1024×768 screens.

As always, feedback is welcome, and there is the option for me to revert back to the old layout if that’s what people prefer.

After several months of deliberation, I’ve finally got round to closing down WineSurvey.org. Thanks to everyone for their support, especially those of you who took the time to write reviews.

I’ve come to the conclusion that the idea was fundamentally flawed. It’s very hard for most people to write a review of a wine without actually drinking it at the same time. And most people don’t sit in front of their computer drinking wine. Unfortunately this problem didn’t become obvious to me until I personally tried to write a review. After 5 months and only 18 reviews, WineSurvey.org didn’t seem to going anywhere fast (or slow for that matter).

All the links to WineSurvey.org have been removed from my other site, and the DNS entry will revert back to a Network Solutions default page within 24 hours or so.

Rest assured that my other sites aren’t under any threat. If WineSurvey had performed like my Motorcycle and Mobile Phone sites, it would be around for the longterm.

MotorcycleSurvey.com and MobilePhoneSurvey.com have now had their layouts updated to match the recent changes to Carsurvey.org. There wasn’t any positive or negative feedback on the Carsurvey recent changes, and traffic didn’t alter in any major way, so I’m going with the revised layout as I personally prefer it.

I’ve just made a series of small changes to Carsurvey.org, aimed at making things more clean and pleasant:

• The main content of review and comments pages are no longer in the form of two column tables. This means the text uses up more of the screen real estate. Should be give a much better experience on smaller screens
• Larger margins and more white space in general. Too much was being crammed into the available space
• Various small changes to make things more consistent

If anyone wants to compare the new look to the old look, compare Carsurvey.org with MotorcycleSurvey.com, which won’t be updated to the new style for a few days.

As always, any feedback is welcome. I can easily revert back to the old appearance if that’s what people prefer.

I’ve just added support for displaying the number of words in each review, to the Airline Reviews Site. This feature has been present on the other review sites for ages, and I personally find it useful. I’ve also taken the opportunity to fix a few silly bugs and inconsitencies, which I noticed while I was implementing the number of words feature.

I’ve just a made a set of small changes to Carsurvey.org (and the motorcycle, mobile phone, and wine sites). These changes are somewhat influenced by the current Web 2.0 fashion – cleaner pages with larger text.

• I’ve increased the font size for both the breadcrumbs at the top of the page, and the title text for the main content. I’ve also increased the padding around these items. This is intended to make these important items more visible
• I’ve removed a feature. The previous and next links at corners of the review pages are gone. I wasn’t using them personally, they cluttered up the page, and what they did wasn’t entirely clear to a casual visitor. They’re easy to restore if my instinct is wrong, so please complain if you miss them, but I’ll be surprised if I get many comments or e-mails
• The summary at the top of each review and comments page is now quoted. In my view, this makes its purpose far more clear

Rather than just collecting the month and year of the outbound flight, the airline site now collects day, date and year for both outbound and return flights (where appropriate). Hopefully this will prove interesting and helpful. All the new fields are optional, so it’s not a problem if some one has forgotten the exact details of their flight.

Having not made any significant changes to the flight review site for a long time, I’m making an effort to spend some time on it.

The first two changes are as follows:

• The “International Flight?” question has been removed. As I already ask for the start and end countries, I can work this out automatically
• The “Return Flight?” question has been moved forward by one page in the new review process. This is in preparation for some other changes I’m going to make