Melbourne Vixens Website

The first thing I did when I went onto the Melbourne Vixens website was to attempt to find out what Net Ball was. I didn't find anything on the website, and at first I was a little annoyed. Then I compared this to the Green Bay Packers website; there is nothing on that website explaining what football is. Here are some of my thoughts of this website. 

Here is the link to the website: www.melbournevixens.com.au

Ease of Accessibility/Navigation
The website is pretty easy to get to. It loaded quickly and seems to be organized, even though it is not the way I would organize it. Everything you need is on the front page, or there is a tab that directs you to a certain area. The site is pretty easy to navigate. There are different news stories on the front page that rotate. I would have liked to have an easier time finding the tab for the roster and coaches. It is under a tab called "2014 season". I am used to these things being highlighted on college and professional teams websites in the US. Also, with how big social media is today, I would move the Twitter feed to top of the front page, instead of the bottom. They do have links to their social media (Facebook, twitter, Instagram). The mobile site is pretty standard, nothing too special about it. Navigating it is average compared to other teams. 

Use of Interactivity
There is nothing on the website that engages fans to stay. This site is good for information, but not much of anything else. There isn't even a schedule or results tab that for fans to look up results and box scores. There is nothing that grabs my attention to continue to look around. 

Use of Video
This area is probably the most lacking. There is no video that creates an identity for the Vixens. The video links are to the league site, which has video of other teams in the league. The Vixens need to generate more content to put on their website in terms of video. The video they do have is more player interviews than highlights. The video screen on the front page takes me to another website. It is a little frustrating when I am trying to watch video and it keeps taking me to a different website that takes a while to load. The promotional video is good, it caught my attention. But I wonder how many people didn't waste the time going to the other site. 

Quality of Content
There are a lot of different areas to this website that gives a fan insight into what the Vixens are all about. The tabs are unorganized, in my opinion. There is a membership tab, but it doesn't say what the membership is, or the benefits from being in it. It also says to email a list of things (name, phone, birthday, location, etc) to an email address. This could be the perfect place for text boxes that can be submitted, so it would be much easier on fans to become a member. 

The biggest change I would make to this website is the video content. Netball seams to be a game that is fast paced, and I would have like to see that on their website, and not have to go to YouTube to see highlights. The lack of interactivity wouldn't make me want to stay on the site for very long. Also, I am still confused as to where the schedule is for the team. Upcoming games and past results should be highlighted on the home page. 

Technology Deprivation- Thursday May 29th

Disclaimer: I tried to plan out my day so that it wouldn't be as hard to not use technology. I kept my reading assignments for today. Planned out lunch with my friends yesterday. Turns out, it is still hard. Regardless of what I had planned where I didn't need technology, I still normally would have used it in those situations.

9:30am Woke up, I usually check all of my social media and email, but instead I didn't. So that was different. I am home at my parents’ house and in the mornings usually look through the paper. But today I actually read a lot more of it because I didn't have anything else to read when I was "waking up".

10:30am I was watching TV and I found myself during commercials itching to use my phone and go on social media. So I actually had to listen to the commercials.

11:00am My friends and I were in a group message about where we were going to eat, and I just called one of them instead of responding to the messages

11:20am I wanted to look up what time a restaurant opened. Instead I pulled out the phone book (I was surprised to see my parents had a phone book) and called.

Random thought #1 I think it's more difficult to not use the Internet or helpful apps rather than not using social media. I look up EVERYTHING on the Internet on my phone

Random thought #2 Any little bit of down time I have that I'm not doing something I pick up my phone, and then remember I am detoxing.

12:00pm I am going on the river all day tomorrow, and I was going to check my phone to see what the weather was going to be like. I instead checked the newspaper to see if her weather was in there, and it was! Sunny and 84 tomorrow in Dubuque, IA if anyone is curious.

1:30pm I went to go get something from my dad at his work and I was going to text him telling him I was on my way then I realized I was texting and I just called him.

2:30pm Mistake #1 I use an app on my phone to track my spending so I can attempt to budget. after I checked out and target I put the amount in my phone and then realized I was using my phone for more than a phone. I didn't event notice it. I think sometimes we use technology without even notice it.

3:10pm I am watching lecture from this morning and it is much easier to listen when I am not distracted or tempted to use my phone. I always know my phone is distracting, yet I still use it all the time.

3:45pm I am a person who can't have any notifications on their phone. Right now I have 7 emails and 1 snap chat and it bugs the crap out of me that I have those notifications on there. It isn't the unknown that bugs me; it's just the notification. Maybe I have OCD?

4:40pm Mistake #2 I sent my first text of the day. My boss texted me, so I decided to respond, rather than calling her. It was only a small detail and I only sent one text and the conversation was over. These are times texting is extremely convenient.

5:45pm one of my friends called me to go out to eat tonight. He told me the place and then I usually would have gone to the Internet to look up the menu.

I went out with some of my friends and it was really easy to not be on my phone. That is one thing that I have gotten better at over the past year is not using my phone when I am with other people. One thing that bugs me about our generation is when we are constantly on our phones in social settings. Not to say that I am not guilty of this, but it is something I have gotten much better at.

I realized that I missed using the Internet on my phone and computer the most. I didn’t check social media the entire day and that didn’t bother me at all. At the beginning of the day, I thought not checking social media would have been the hardest. I use Safari on my phone to check or confirm EVERYTHING. I guess I am happy that I could live without social media, for at least day.