It has been a few months since I've bothered to write. During the Fall Season, I got swamped with taking stats, fixing bugs, teaching new statkeepers, and generally having a good time. I got some great feedback from the team of rookie statkeepers that helped mold the shape of Version 2.0.
Since the Spring season won't start until March, I have until the first of February to get 2.0 done and then put it through its paces in early February to shake the bugs out. That means that I'll be a coding fool between now and January.
Additionally, I changed day jobs, which delayed me a bit. But now I can dedicate some time each day to the forward progress of LaxStats.
On to the feature list!
First and foremost is the game screen. Although the LaxStats game screen is highly advanced and literally allows for a statkeeper to know exactly where a person is at anytime on the field, it isn't wanted. One of my new statkeepers was extremely enthusiastic about the flow, and then within 5 minutes of her first game, couldn't keep up with the substitutions on the field and gave it up. Other statkeepers who had spent many seasons with the Pencil and Paper method were hesitant to use something that didn't look familiar. And LaxStats does have an issue with deleting bad recordings, something that also turned off others. I have one statkeeper who just doesn't trust technology in that setting (although she herself is extremely tech savvy) and would rather have just a pure offline version that she could enter the data in at her leisure at a later date. Regardless of my intentions with the software, these are my customers and if that is what they want then I need to provide.
That means that I'll retain the advanced game screen, but signify it as such and not turn it on by default. A new, simplified version of the game screen will replace the default, looking as much like the Pencil and Paper method as possible, while still retaining some of the advanced functionality (such as the FaceOff Win/Loss dialog and the Assist Dialog). This simplified screen can also be used a the offline data entry method, although there will be no way to capture WHEN something was done with this method so games recorded offline will have NO ability to also have a GameCast. Again, small price to pay.
The game screen was mostly hard coded to work on the iPad, especially since we had not had any users on anything else up until that point. Lucky me got a couple of customers using Android and that means that we need to adjust the new game screen to be completely responsive. For that I'm updating the entire site to be Bootstrap 3.0 compliant (everything but the game screen was already 2.0 compliant).
By making a more simple version, many of the stats that were on the board to be reported on (Time Played, Time Per Position, Points per Minute, etc) won't be possible, but the consensus is that no one at the Youth level needs or wants so it won't be a loss and will actually free up some time.
One the Home screen, it needs to become more User centric and focused on what the user can do. Also, we need the ability to find Organizations, Teams, Games in your area so that you can choose to become involved or not. It tends to be a bit of a Black Box currently (although that was on purpose) and it needs to get opened up a bit more. Also, Social Media sharing needs to get incorporated (previously planned but never completed).
On the list is also the completion of the Virtual Game Clock/Game Keeper that will allow clock keepers and fans stay in sync while on the field.
I had planned on converting everything into REST based API's to be a bit more robust and could actually be used by other developers. However, as I planned it out, I realized that my time frame would be pushing March just to do the conversion and not add any new functionality. So instead I'll be organizing into more API like functionality in preparation and will be incorporating AngularJS to start to serve as the front end MVC like application. Converting the PHP to MVC is just too large at this point.
That's it for now. I've got to get back to coding while I have a window today. If you have any suggestions for what you might want to see in the 2.0 Version, feel free to drop me a line.
Thursday, November 21, 2013
Tuesday, August 27, 2013
Men's Fitted T-Shirt (dark) LaxStats Swag
Men's Fitted T-Shirt (dark) LaxStats Swag
Our first shirt at CafePress. We are working on using the CafePress API so that Players can order shirts with their season stats on the back. Now that will be cool.
Our first shirt at CafePress. We are working on using the CafePress API so that Players can order shirts with their season stats on the back. Now that will be cool.
Wednesday, August 21, 2013
Version 1.5 and Other Topics
I deployed the last of the 1.5 code this morning. 1.5 includes the complete overhaul of the game interface with the additions of the dynamic game timer, faster event UI, Face Off Dialog, Assist Dialog, and dynamic Penalty Timers and ManUp/Down notifications. At this point there are only small issues that I can still see that need to be done, but nothing that would hold up this from starting the fall season. I should note that 1.5 also included a full integration with PayPal that allows for Clubs and Teams the ability to sign up and go. Remember the cost is ONLY $1 per player for the season and if it is your first season (which is will be since only North Paulding Lacrosse Club was there before) you get it for $.70 per player for your first season.
I am very excited about the changes. As the primary user of the software last season, I got to see all of the "flow" issues first hand. Sometimes it would take 7-10 clicks just to record the FaceOff actions. This has been eliminated and I expect that the speed of the software is in step with the speed of the game.
I will now turn my attention to the girl's version so that it is ready by the second week of September. If you need it before then, please let me know and I'll work faster! :)
Since the deployment this morning, I turned my attention back to some of the marketing issues. Many thanks to Dan Wilson who has provided some great information on marketing in general. I regret that I haven't found time to do any of it however. In the meantime, I've been working on increasing the Facebook Fan page. At this point we are at 96 likes. I would like to see that grow 10 fold over the next few weeks as the season progresses. Our Twitter account is growing much faster. We got to 100 followers at the point where we were following 1000, but since then it has taken off and we are close to 300 followers now. Again, I would like to see that number jump exponentially.
I've got to go design my marketing T-shirts to wear at all the games. I feel bad not wearing the North Paulding shirt during games, but I really want this to take off and I need all of the business that I can get. I'm also going to print a shirt for my son with his season stats on it. I'm certain that will take off if any of the boys see it.
I've also spent today connecting up the blog with feeders so that it gets noticed more. I've also set up an auto publisher to Facebook and Twitter (hope you don't get this twice) and connected up with NetworkedBlogs, etc. Need more eyeballs!
That's all of the news for now. See you next time!
I am very excited about the changes. As the primary user of the software last season, I got to see all of the "flow" issues first hand. Sometimes it would take 7-10 clicks just to record the FaceOff actions. This has been eliminated and I expect that the speed of the software is in step with the speed of the game.
I will now turn my attention to the girl's version so that it is ready by the second week of September. If you need it before then, please let me know and I'll work faster! :)
Since the deployment this morning, I turned my attention back to some of the marketing issues. Many thanks to Dan Wilson who has provided some great information on marketing in general. I regret that I haven't found time to do any of it however. In the meantime, I've been working on increasing the Facebook Fan page. At this point we are at 96 likes. I would like to see that grow 10 fold over the next few weeks as the season progresses. Our Twitter account is growing much faster. We got to 100 followers at the point where we were following 1000, but since then it has taken off and we are close to 300 followers now. Again, I would like to see that number jump exponentially.
I've got to go design my marketing T-shirts to wear at all the games. I feel bad not wearing the North Paulding shirt during games, but I really want this to take off and I need all of the business that I can get. I'm also going to print a shirt for my son with his season stats on it. I'm certain that will take off if any of the boys see it.
I've also spent today connecting up the blog with feeders so that it gets noticed more. I've also set up an auto publisher to Facebook and Twitter (hope you don't get this twice) and connected up with NetworkedBlogs, etc. Need more eyeballs!
That's all of the news for now. See you next time!
Monday, August 5, 2013
Fall Ball
Yay! The kids are back in school and I can get back to a normal routine. It was much harder over the summer to keep up the momentum that I had during the fall. In hindsight, I coded about 90% of the site in a month's time and spent the next 4 months with the other 10%. Details are always the hardest and once the heavy lifting was coded that was all that was left.
For the fall I've revamped the Event screen, or the Game screen as some have called it. I modified the core to be Bootstrap compliant, and fixed some of the zooming/scrolling issues that plagued me the first season. I've also increased the speed at which statistics can be gathered. I've simplified the menu to be purely graphical in a wheel shape with key activities along the circumference. I need to add a "Undo" in case the speed gets to fast and the user makes an error. I've decided on this method because the speed gains are very nice indeed.
Also with routines, comes my regular blog posts. I'll continue my discussion of what goes into the software and when using this blog. As always, your questions and comments are encouraged so that I can make sure that I'm addressing the issues that are foremost in your mind.
I'll be back in a few minutes with an updated priority list.
Thursday, June 13, 2013
Development Priorities
| Feature | Priority | SP | Release |
| Assist Modal | A | 5 | 1.5 |
| Man UP/Down | A | 13 | 1.5 |
| Wire up Team Buttons | A | 20 | 1.5 |
| SEO - Part 3: Rich Snippets | A | 8 | |
| Activity Stream | A | 8 | |
| Add Team Data recording to the Game Screen | A | 8 | 1.5 |
| Team Reports (once data is being recorded) | A | 8 | |
| FaceOff Modal | A | 5 | 1.5 |
| Shot Location Modal | A | 5 | |
| Add Feedback system | A | 8 | |
| Eliminate Blank records in datatables - give zeros instead | A | 8 | |
| TeamPlayer Page needs works | A | 8 | |
| SEO - Lacrosse Link Pages, link up all lacrosse sites in one location | A | 8 | |
| SEO - Create Amazon Lists for all Lacrosse items drive back to site | A | 8 | |
| SEO - Alexa | A | 8 | |
| SEO - Squidoo | A | 8 | |
| SEO - Yahoo Answers | A | 8 | |
| SEO - Google Groups | A | 8 | |
| SEO - ePinions | A | 8 | |
| Add StatKeeper code to team | B | 1 | |
| Link Team to Org so can see full org | B | 1 | |
| Offline Data Entry | A | 13 | |
| Add Timer to Game | A | 13 | 1.5 |
| Add Forums/Community | B | 13 | |
| News - better AdSense coverage | B | 3 | |
| Offline Storage - return when internet exists | A | 20 | |
| SEO Friendly URL's | A | 20 | |
| Time Played for Person/by Position | B | 5 | |
| Recap/Boxscore - Scoring Activities only | B | 5 | |
| TeamPlayer Page - redesign | B | 5 | |
| Links to Resources - Modal with all links | B | 5 | |
| Google+ Follow widget | B | 8 | |
| GameCast - refresh | B | 8 | |
| "Borrow" Player | B | 8 | |
| Allow Comments on Pages | B | 13 | |
| Competition Comparison | B | 13 | |
| Realtime Facebook Posts - mix with Twitter | B | 13 | |
| Game - Middie Lines | B | 13 | |
| Game Variations - Box, 3v3, etc. | B | 40 | |
| Unavailable Players | B | 13 | |
| Flickr or other Photo Service | B | 13 | |
| YouTube - demo the software | B | 13 | |
| Lax Wiki | B | 13 | |
| Girls variations | A | 40 | |
| FAQ | B | 20 | |
| News Feeds 2.0 | B | 20 | |
| Help | B | 20 | |
| Club Payments - Paypal | A | 5 | 1.5 |
| Custom CSS for Orgs | B | 20 | |
| ADMIN Tools - Dashboard | B | 40 | |
| FeedBurner | C | 8 | |
| Social Links (other than Twitter and Facebook) | C | 8 |
Release Notes
1.080613 -
1.080113 -
1.061413 -
- Added new FaceOff dialog
1.080113 -
- New Game UI
1.061413 -
- SEO - Part 1: Title Names and Meta Description
- Create Team - Match US Lacrosse
- SEO - Part 2: Sitemap
- Add Privacy Policy Page
- Examine Stripe as a replacement for PayPal - examined, will require SSL key, future enhancement
- Identify additional SEO needs and prioritize
- Remove ShareThis code from footer
- Remove ShareThis code from News
- BUG - No Up on Goalie Stats
- About Us Page
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