New Planning Planet Website

Hi,

Good job, nice design and very useful

thanks a lot

Congrats, for the hard efforts to upgrade/update the website. Truly we have come a long way.

Congrats, for the hard efforts to upgrade/update the website. Truly we have come a long way.

Admin, hi

Some observations regading the web site as it has now been around for nearly 2 years

1. Still not very user friendly as per some of the previous comments
2. Too much effort being spent on 3rd party promotions and jobs more should be spent on continuing to gathering white papers, user group development and providing a good data base of production rates.
3. Rates section - old version did provide some guidance for planners and programmes who did not have their own production rates database. I am very concerned when I see programmers relying blindly on any rates they see (if they can actual find them!) without even knowing the source, industry and geographical location of the rate is from. There are so many influences on the rate that when looking at published rates the user must proceed with caution. Obviously in preparing a programme the planner/programmer will discuss with the person preparing the BOQ but certainly my experience, in the construction industry,  has been the BOQ prepared under a standard method of measurement is next to useless when preparing a programme. I will say however that if you are working in an estimating environment the relationship between an estimator and an planner / programme is a great deal closer.

Regards

Doug Wardale

I Like the new site!

Hell of a lot more professional looking than the old one - I agree the removal of comic sans was a good idea.  Now to get rid of the cartoon man in the corner?

Maybe to cheer people up with regard to the colour scheme, perhaps use the old colour orange / yellow in place of the green?  The orange would compliment the blue better than the green anyway.

I like the new site and the new colours.  It looks MUCH more professional than the old site.  To keep people happy WRT to the blue scheme, maybe bring back the old yellow/orange to enhance rather than blind users - orange border or underline or something.

I would like to see more filter options on the jobs page.  I pop over every now and again to see whats out there and am constantly opening job profiles only to find that the description is asking for someone experienced in P6.  Perhaps in addition to the location / industry / job type - perhaps there could be a "Software" one with dropdowns for "Primavera / Asta / MS / Other".  Also maybe an experience one too "Senior / Intermediate / Junior"

@Mike,

I think Ivan was just asking where are the production rates link has gone to? of cource every estimator knows that this rates come han-in-hand with the BOQ, but if you have no references nor access to Means or other reference books or ebooks, how will you fill out and cost your BOQ properly. Planning Planet has help most of us, also it as where we get an ideas of the production rates of a particular job, especially if the job is new to the person.

just my bad 2 cents.... hope i don't offend.

Ruel

Hi Mike

For a long time I had a different approach to get the production rates but thanks to your posts on this topic I finally understand that what you have explained is the best way.

It helps in working backwards to calculate resources required as such the cost calculations add up perfectly.

Thanks once again!!!

Best regards

Shareef A Azeez

Hi Ivan

This is not the forum for a discussion on production rates but you are missing the main point.

Production rates must be tied back to the BOQ - Cost plan - not picked out from an unrelated database.

It is what the project estimator allowed for that must be implanted into the programme.

Best regards

Mike Testro

Good day

Congratulations on the new website. Personally I do not like the colour scheme but can live with it.

Some positive criticism re the rates and productions,

• There are very few rates in the new wiki - Where are all the old rates from the old website? Why did you not use them?
• Previously we had a “fast” “slow” and “average” as well as who posted the rates. – This allowed us to make an informed judgment on which rate to use (i.e. the fast rate might have been  posted by a planner with limited experience – based on his profile – or the rate was posted by someone in a ”first’ world country and might need adjustment for us guys in the “third” world countries)

The crux of planning is production rates and norms (does not matter which software you use) and I find it very worrying that a website for planners gives so little attention to this matter.

Sure, a planner should have his own data base of production, but to promote effective planning we need to share knowledge. To share knowledge was the original goal of this website.

Are you guys still focused on this original goal?

My perception is that currently more effort are channeled towards satisfying the sponsors/partners in marketing of their software than in the expanding of planner’s knowledge (regardless of the software used)

Just my perception; maybe I am wrong.

Dear Admin,

Sorry to be bad but, where are the rates link?

Ruel

I find the new site as cumbersome, difficult to navigate and poorly designed in terms of colours and impact.

The job search and forms are particularly frustrating as they don't allow you to browse without being specific.

Sorry guys must do better.

Regards

Al

Hello PP administrators,

I can no longer save my connexion to PlanningPlanet; on most web site, including the good old PP, I was able to save my connexion; today, the new interface does not allow it anymore; is there a good reason for that?

Another point: I am using Opera as a web browser, currently the 10.62 release; Opera includes a online spell checker, that I can use by right-cliking a underlined word; this feature is disabled in the "Comment" window when rich-text is enabled, and amazingly not in the "Subject" field; any comment?

Keep going and improving the PP interface

Alexandre (France & Algeria)

This new PP website is crap, whoever design it new to have a rethink, the colour is so dull and unfriendly, try jobsite for a change. Its so Boring

Hi again:

I would add the following to my previous input:

1. Before when I was checking the forums it was easy to go back one step, the structure of forum tree it was visible.

2.  When i read any forum and reach down to the oldest reply / page end,  i would recommend to add at the end of the page one more order allow us to go back page top.

 ****By the way I got tired instant of this guy on right corner since he is keep digging a long time ago (just for joke)

  regards .

mai

Hi pp. administrators:

 Actually, I would love to thank everyone since it looks a hug effort was applied to reach this point:

When I came to this corner to send my comments, I see my pointes it is already commented by other which are;

1. Searching for job by region/location it is too difficult since u have to check the full list to find your region target.
2. the other complication when I am going to send reply I did not find it easily at beginning because  SAVE  & REVIEW and RICH TEXT are confused me ,I would recommend to modified to send , or post ….
3. The third is in finding the updated forums.
4.  and the last one I stop receiving navigation note via my email in case of any updating on the posted reply .

thanks and a best regards.

mai.

Would it be too much to ask that the FORUM tab provide for an obvious option to switch from “Folders” view to a “Latest Forum Discussions View”, giving us the best of both worlds at a single click?

I already set up my PP page link to be the Latest Forum Discussion Page but at time miss the “Folders” view. Usually I do not care about any other pages, the Forums tab is the core of it.

Best Regards,

Rafael

Hi,

Generally I like the idea of a new fresh website, but it isn’t as easy to navigate as the old website, some of features are hard to find and not as intuitive to locate. eg the Wiki rates, durations etc.

The Account page is overly complicated to complete and slow to load.

Would it be possible to be add more than one region? (To allow for networking and because I travel allot)

I can seem to see how you add more than one experience?

Keep up the good work!!

Regards

Ray

great job, Much has improved.

As fas as look is concerned, two colors are enough, one dark blue and one light blue. any other colour would do instead of blue. both blue and green doesn't look good. 

To switch back to another topic a link table or path indicator like forum/forensic/... may be provided for easy surfing.

be proud of your planning or something more motivating should be there.

more comments later.

Carmen is right. The site lacks personality.

A favorable point for the new interface is that it looks more contemporary, more a place where you will find professional people (If it is your first visit). Changing Comic Sans font was a good choice, but the color palette was not. You can have a professional site with warm colors, look at Caterpillar website.

About the typing guy and his friend, I also like them, maybe they could get an update and become mascots for the site: As an animated GIF, the typing guy could get an actual schedule (Activity list - add links - schedule critical path - update critical path - repeat) in his screen and actually bring value as a constant presence and the other guy could be drilling a link to the productivity rates page (to name something, he could be used in many other ways). It's just an idea, there is no need that their precence is forced, they add a lot of personality to the site.

We could even name them.

PP,

Sites has come on a bit the Wiki was being compiled! Good effort.

Comments:

1. The job screen is not a simple in its layout as the previous one. Although the tabbed sorting functions is usable, i dont think it is as quick and easy as the former system. (Probably not helped by the current lack of jobs...i reckon it would come into its own if there were large amounts of jobs to sift through)

2. There seem to be a few people who dont like the colour? An easy change. Im guesssing the shades are too similar to the colour or their bosses suit, or maybe with winter approaching they look for PP to keep the SAD at bay.

3. Maybe group forums should go under the group tab. Most of them are so specific that the average visitor wouldnt ever look into them. (and scrolling through the list makes things more time consuming. I think the majority of vistors log onto the site, click forum and then check the latest posts in the forum to see if theyre interesting then log off. With this in mind, the process should be at least as quick as the last site was.

4. From the point of view of attracting corporate members, i think you should concentrate on being able to upload CVs in word/PDF format. If there was then an option to be actively seeking/employed then the recruitment consultants could search this as well as employers (corporate members).

5. As on the PEO website, it could be an idea to introduce a papers section that provides useful research information. Im not sure how easy some sort of partnering agreement with websites that publish project management whitepapers would be? also, papers on sites like the Society of Construction Law would be of interest to many planners. Of course, PP members could also submit papers in response to forum topics etc.

An important thing i learnt i working in IT is to remember is that software/websites should be driven by user requirements rather than by what technology lets you do...which is something oracle could learn too! :D

Hi Admin,

I wanted to write immediately after opening the new website:

What a change. We have lost two features that make the site unique:

The yellow-orange color.

And the guy in the corner typing and the very important legend: be proud of your planning. I have used this phrase to issue an Official level II schedule and the team was impacted.

Color and quotes are important for ME. The new color: boring, Wat vervelend, aburrido.

Sorry for my comments, but it was my first impression.

Come back with more comments,

Regards,

Carmen

Congratulations & well done lots of hard work must of gone into re-engineering this, the new layout ticks all the boxes for me.  Many thanks.

Clearly there has been huge amount of work and effort been expended on the new site much to be commended, however, i may be wrong but the site has one overall purpose. This seems to be to create a community for planners to share views and experience and move them to a more recognised proffessional platform. To this end the hook for Planners are two fold 

1. A strong forum covering wide ranging issues that draw in the Technical experts to share their knowledge base who stay because they recognise the value of their shared knowledge.

2. A central resource of Planning and Project Control vacancies worldwide to assist planners on identifying trends in employment opportinites and keep them in new and challenging areas leading them to stay and use the Forums and build their knowledge and skills.

To this end the new site misses completely on the second point the new job search lacks the previous functionality that highlighted new opportunities as soon as you went into jobs and then proves cumbersome when trying to identify where the opportunities now exist and in what number. the old filtering system allowed you to drill down very quickly while also highlighting jobs in areas you may not have automatically considered. For new users or casual users i think this will lead to less traffic and planners who are in the main experts on cutting through the dross and wanting to get direct to the relevant answer being switched off from becoming more regular users.

So while i think the new look is effective the tools being used may have an adverse effect.

Hi Admin

Some more points to consider.

1.  When I respond to an email telling me of a new message on a thread I am following it used to take me directly to the thread - now it just goes to the forum head and I have no idea where to look.

2.  I am not getting any email feed back on threads - this happened once or twice in the old system so I don't know if it is a glitch or normal.

3.  Moderators have lost the Edit - Lock - Delete functions - so why be a moderator.

4.  In the jobs section can we have a multi search facility on several topics ie Rail > UK > Permanent - also can there be a search on software type.

Best regards

Mike Testro

Hi Steve,

Hope you are fine. I agree with you. It is a huge effort to improve such a platform. But I agree also with Rafael.

It took me more than an hour to adapt to the new interface and I already manage to remove myself from the Regional Consuls members. Of course, by accident. Still there is a need to make several adjustments in order to make user friendly the platform and to facilitate the communication. The long lists of topics and replies are difficult to be followed.

I liked the previous interface because was easy to be used and to find whatever.

Maybe a discussion with the web designer will solve the issues.  

Look forward to enjoy Rafael’s posts on PP web site.

Best regards,

Augustin

Hi PP users and administrators,

as usual when a good old tool is being reshaped, many users or readers do find the new look unclear, offending, difficult to use and find their way in, ...

I am much closer to Mike than to Rafael, and I will not cancel my subscription to PP, all the contrary, I was usafe this morning with the message saying the site was closed for maintenance work

I do not feel comfortable today with then new colors, I did like the different tones of yellow very much, nor with the unusual sort order of the forums or the unnecessary number of new forums

I am sure the staff will stay at work and do everything possible until the forum is as nice and easy to use as it was, or as we were accustomed to

Anyway, keep going, the life would not be the same without PlanningPlanet

Cheers,

Alexandre (France & Algeria)

The path of progress requires both quantum leaps and little tweaks.  It's nice to see the effort at the quantum leap -- now we can concentrate on the tweaks.

What Mike said, exactly.

Plus, when posting a reply, it would be nice if the system:

1.  Filled in the "Subject:" line, and

2.  Had a "POST" option in addition to "SAVE" and "PREVIEW". (I guess "SAVE" is actually "POST", but it's not very clear.)

Overall, I think the PP community should exercise patience when we see efforts clearly intended to lead to improvement.

Fraternally in project management,

Steve the Bajan

I AM GETTING LOST, IS HARD TO NAVIGATE, IS UNFRIENDLY, IS DULL.

KIND OF A WASTE OF TIME

HIRE A TIME MANAGEMENT CONSULTANT TO HELP YOU DEAL WITH THE CUMBERSOME INTERFACE.

WELL MY FRIENDS LAST WEEK I TRIED LINKEDIN AND LASTED 4 DAYS NOW I AM LOOKING ON HOW TO UNSUBSCRIBE, PERHAPS SHALL LOOK ON HOW TO UNSUBSCRIBE PP.

ANYWAY IF I DECIDE TO UNSUBSCRIBE I WANT TO THANK ALL MY PP FRIENDS FOR SHARING THEIR KNOWLEDGE.

I WAS HOPING FOR THE NEW INTERFACE TO BE BETTER ORGANIZED, I WAS HOPING FOR THE FORUM MAIN PAGE TO BE SOMETHING MUCH BETTER THAN THIS LONG LIST, I WAS HOPING TO BE ABLE TO SEE ALL TOPICS IN A SINGLE SCREEN YOU WOULD NOT HAVE TO SCROLL.

IS THE DESIGNER OF THE INTERFACE DALTONIC? IS HE COLOR BLIND? THIS IS TOO MONOCHROMATIC, BACK TO THE BLACK AND WHITE ERA.

BEST REGARDS,

RAFAEL

Hi Admin

Comments

1.  There are too many pre set forum topics.

2.  Topics with live posts should be at the top of the list in date order - as before.

I'll come back with some more later.

Best regards

Mike Testro