OT: Website makeover - bugs? suggestions for improvement? comments?

[violinconcerto]

Hello!

Some months back in spring from one day to the other I found the look of my old website cheap and antiquated. I also thought about some functional improvements others told me over the years and so I made a complete makeover.
Now the site looks more up to date, I added the two lists for "in my collection" and "not in my collection" to one list which now gives (hopefully) an immediate overview about the violin works composed by one composer. The whole database now lists 4391 composers with 6908 works for violin and orchestra composed between 1894 and 2006. The new site also holds now a search function, which is quite useful when looking for performers or work titles.

So I would be pleased and grateful if you find the time to stop by at:

www.violinconcerto.de

check the new possibilities and give an honest feedback. Of course no major reconfigurations can be done now, but maybe you find the one or other small suggestion that could make the site better.

Thanks and best wishes,
Tobias

[Amphissa]

 
You have put a great amount of work into this database and it is an amazing resource. My congratulations and thanks to you for your contribution to the world of music research.

A quick note -- the link you provide is set as an email link rather than a web link. Perhaps you can edit the link. In the meanwhile, we can copy/paste the text of the link into our navigation bar to get to the site.

I have one usability recommendation -- the main graphic is very large (250+ kilobytes). It loads slowly and must reload on every page. If you reduce the pixel count to something like 72, it will load much more quickly.

I have one recommendation for improving usability of the database. It is currently displaying results back and forth across the screen like this:

Aa   Ab
Ac   Ad

But most people tend to "expect" the natural order to be in vertical columns, like:

Aa
Ab
Ac
Ad

Yes, this makes longer pages, but it is easy to create a quick navigation at the top of each alphabet, like:

Aa  Ab  Ac  Ad  [linked to alphabet sections lower on the page]

Aa

Ab

Ac

Ad

Of course, we are happy to have the database in ANY format. It is so comprehensive. And I think all of us are smart enough to navigate the site, even if you arrange it backwards and upside down. So, this is not a real "problem" with the site.

Thank you again for creating this useful database.

[violinconcerto]

Hello Amphissa,

thanks for the kind words and of course for the "link" problem. It is now correct.

Thanks also for the advice with the "name sorting". I thought about that befroe as well, but I will do it again. Maybe I am going to change it. I will see how "easy" that is or not.

Thanks and best,
Tobias

[Alan Howe]

Well done, Tobias. A great improvement and a superb resource!

[chill319]

Fun to use. Glad to see your site listed, as it should be, in the Wikipedia entry for "violin concerto."