2002 Survey Results

pullbuoy has been providing swimming news, features and meet listings to the UK swimming community for over 2 years. Over that time the emphasis of the site has inevitably changed as new features have been added and others faded away. This was your chance to influence how pullbuoy shapes up in the future so what did you have to say?

the results:

1. What is your overall view of the pullbuoy website?


excellent – 22%


very good – 43%

good – 29%

not very good – 5%

poor – 2%

pullbuoy response: Thanks for your support – we will endeavour to maintain an improve the standard we have set!

features:

2. Which of pullbuoy’s features do you think are most interesting or useful (check all that apply)?


News – 16%


Interviews – 9%

Meet Reviews – 13%

Other articles – 8%

Technique – 16%

Job Listings – 4%

Meet listings – 12%

Time Conversions – 12%

Clubfinder – 8%

Text Alerts – 2%

3. Which features would you like to see more of (check all that apply)?


News – 17%


Interviews – 9%

Meet Reviews – 12%

Other articles – 12%

Technique – 23%

Job Listings – 5%

Meet listings – 11%

Time Conversions – 4%

Clubfinder – 5%

Text Alerts – 2%

pullbuoy response: It’s clear that people want more technique articles and we will try and offer those more regularly and across a broader range of topics over the coming year. You can also expect the same range of news, features and interviews as well.

4. Is there anything else you’d like pullbuoy to offer?

Thanks for all your suggestions – many are dealt with in other parts of this page, but those that aren’t are responded to here:

How about a forum for swimmers and coaches to contact each other and share information & ideas?
Try the excellent Swimclub.co.uk

Review your time conversions are they correct? Pullbuoy is the only website that produces time conversions, but in one instance I found the long course time for a 50m event was quicker than a short course time.
You’re absolutely right – this was a flaw of the conversion method being used for 50m events. The method used for 50m events has been altered to match that used in the ASA’s equivalent performance tables and the results are now more realistic.

More up to date and comprehensive meet listings and entry forms.
It will of course extremely useful to have more comprehensive listings but we will need your help to provide them – if your club is hosting an open meet, post it in our listings! Listings for 2003 will be available shortly, and certainly no later than the end of November. You will see below that the meet listings are being reviewed and the facility to post entry forms will be incorporated if possible.

More masters pages.
Once the redesign of the site is complete, pullbuoy will have a dedicated masters section.

Rankings of swimmers in Britain or Scotland
For British rankings go to the ASA rankings site where you can also get Scottish, Welsh and Regional Rankings using the British Rankings Online Database.

5. Would you be interested in any of the following (check all that apply)?


BAGCAT points calculator – 15%

Meet Results – 28%

Speedo League tables – 26%

Group purchasing – 19%

Pullbuoy T-shirts – 11%

pullbuoy response: Meet results it is! The meet listings section is being completely rewritten to allow posting of meet results and meet reviews. The new service should be up and running fully by the end of the year. As you may have seen we have already launched a BAGCAT points calculator, both in conjunction with time conversions and as a standalone feature, and hopefully it has proved useful. Pullbuoy will not now be carrying Speedo League Tables, but these are available on the web at www.speedoleague.org.uk. As for the other items – watch this space or sign up for the pullbuoy newsletter for details soon.

general:

6. The site design is visually appealing:

Agree Strongly – 11%


Agree – 59%

Neutral – 22%

Disagree – 6%

Disagree Strongly – 2%

7. The site is easy to navigate:


Agree Strongly – 40%


Agree – 48%

Neutral – 8%

Disagree – 5%

Disagree Strongly – 0%

8. How often do you visit the site?

every day – 6%


a few times a week – 22%

a few times a month – 65%

less than once a month – 5%

when I receive an e-mail update – 2%

9. How did you find out about pullbuoy?


followed a web link – 65%


word of mouth/e-mail – 14%

search engine – 14%

other – 6%

pullbuoy response: It seems that you’re on the whole happy with the way pullbuoy works at the moment, and many thanks to those brave souls who visit every day! There is a redesign in the pipeline, but it will be very much an evolution rather than something completely different. We’ll try and make things even easier to find and tie individual sections better together.

10. Any additional comments? What needs the most improvement? What’s working well? Don’t be shy!

Loads of comments were received, but most are covered elsewhere on his page – those that aren’t are answered here:

Maybe it would be an idea to construct a “What happens Where Category” Example: What happens in Australia?
This is a good idea and we’ll investigate it further in the new year. Provided we can actually find out what happens elsewhere it will make for an interesting feature

Pullbuoy could do with an article archive so I can find old articles of interest more easily.
As part of the site redesign, we’ll try and organise the articles better

Your new links page can be confusing for people wishing to add a link or put yours on their site
The links section is undergoing a complete review at present and will be relaunched imminently. We’ll make sure that there’s no confusion on the new pages.

Finally a big thank you to everyone who responded to the survey – all of the comments received were useful and will go towards improving the site in the future. Congratulations also to Alan Reed of Black Lion Swimming Club in Gillingham, who was first out of the hat and receives a pair of Speedo Goggles.