North East Buses

NEB News - http://northeastbuses.co.uk/news.php
Bi-weekly, a news update on Arriva North East, Go North East and Stagecoach North East will be provided - containing all fleet and network updates. Working alongside our fleet lists, we anticipate to update our fleet lists when updates occur and summarise these in a report at the end of the fortnight.


The long awaited release of North East Buses' fleet news section (shortened 'NEB News' for all of you cool kids out there!) has come! The section has seen massive updates occur within the last month, changing our plans from a forum-style update to a new page completely - with opportunities to view all news on one page in an organised fashion and also with opportunities to filter by operator which news you read.

I must take this opportunity to also point out that the news section is indeed still a "work in progress", but has been released publicly to allow for feedback. Because of this, you will continue to see minor cosmetic changes occur to the news section over the course of the next few days, until we think it's fully complete.

When originally designing the news section, our primary concern was to replicate what was already available on the market and improve where we believed areas could be improved. Like all other websites that provide a news section, we intended on focusing directly on fleet news. It soon became apparent to us that we needed to be different, and it was because of this, we decided to include general news items also.

After much discussion, we decided that it was not possible to achieve all that we had proposed on a forum post as we had originally planned. As such, we worked from scratch on the new, revised project - making individual pages to accompany our fleet list section, with this news on them.

You will notice that the news section appears to be split in two. One side holds news with headlines and bigger images, and the other side holds news with smaller images and no headlines. This is what we wanted. We wanted users to be able to distinguish between "big news" and "small news".

The big news (an example is shown in the screenshot below) should be the part of the news that everyone will want to read.
[attachment=4564]

The small news (an example is again shown in the screenshot below) is news that perhaps isn't as noteworthy ('minor' network changes etc) as other events that have occurred in the fortnightly period.
[attachment=4565]

Above I mentioned you could filter the results you see. This can be achieved by clicking the operator's button at the top of the page. If you want to see every news article for that fortnight, fair enough. If you don't and would prefer to see news from Stagecoach only - you click the Stagecoach button!
I associate our news section with a real life newspaper. There are some people who will sit and read through every news article, but the fair majority of people want to have a "quick fix" with something that interests them, and they do this by scanning for words/photographs of interest to them.
It is a little harder to achieve that sort of concept on a website, but filtering results was the way forward!
[attachment=4566]

In the future (before the next update), we will update the news page to include an archive. This will hold all previous articles from a specific date (i.e. today's update will be archived as 25/08/13). The styling and general coding of this page is still a "work in progress" and is certainly not ready to be released just yet. When it is, I'll be sure to give you all a link to it

We'd like to know your opinions on the news section.
Do you like the styling of the page? One of our ideas was to have the news linked to the operator's colour, and you can see how we have achieved this on the news page. We're not sure if it's perfect, but we're also out of ideas on how it could be improved if we were to keep it.
Do you like the ordering of the page? All stories are grouped together on the main page by operator, which is also in alphabetical order (ANE, GNE and then SNE). One of our ideas was to have a jumbled up news section, with news from each operator being provided at various parts of the page. At present, Stagecoach will never appear at the top of the main page - that is the problem with ordering them as we have presently. Alternatives, anyone?!
If you have any other comments/suggestions, they'd be greatly appreciated - you can post them below.

Cheers everyone, and I hope you enjoy the news section!

Looks great. The only minor change I'd make is to add a post date to each news item. Helps new or irregular visitors determine whether it's today's news or last week's news.

(25 Aug 2013, 8:54 pm)aureolin wrote [ -> ]Looks great. The only minor change I'd make is to add a post date to each news item. Helps new or irregular visitors determine whether it's today's news or last week's news.

Ta. The fortnightly period date should be given in the current news as well as in the archive too, so Liam will get that done in the next version. :p

Just a small note to say that our News Page has been updated. The new layout provides a simpler experience for the user, with what we feel is a less cluttered page.
The main news headlines for each fortnight are given on the page you will see when clicking on the link on our navigation bar (http://northeastbuses.co.uk/news.php).
On the bottom of the page, you will notice a small button which says "More News". This then allows users to see the minor news happenings of that fortnight, including transfers, withdrawals etc.
As always, you can filter this by operator.

New features in this update include:
- Date added to each article to help determine when the news was posted.
- Ability to see an individual article has been introduced. To view an individual article, you should click the headline.
- "Share on Facebook" button introduced on individual article pages, so you can share a specific news item with your friends or on enthusiast groups.
- "NEB News" RSS feed added. This is still a work in progress on the public version, though the version I have seen in development will be added very soon.
- "Submit News" added. Again, this is still a work in progress, but will be released publicly shortly. This feature will allow users to e-mail North East Buses with a story (and their image) so that we never miss an update!
- Archive added. Archived by month, you can view all articles that have been added in an individual month. A search bar has also been added to the development version, and will be available on the public version shortly.


What are your thoughts on the new version? Any feedback - positive or negative - would be appreciated to help with future releases.

Thanks.

(22 Sep 2013, 8:43 am)Daniel wrote [ -> ]Just a small note to say that our News Page has been updated. The new layout provides a simpler experience for the user, with what we feel is a less cluttered page.
The main news headlines for each fortnight are given on the page you will see when clicking on the link on our navigation bar (http://northeastbuses.co.uk/news.php).
On the bottom of the page, you will notice a small button which says "More News". This then allows users to see the minor news happenings of that fortnight, including transfers, withdrawals etc.
As always, you can filter this by operator.

New features in this update include:
- Date added to each article to help determine when the news was posted.
- Ability to see an individual article has been introduced. To view an individual article, you should click the headline.
- "Share on Facebook" button introduced on individual article pages, so you can share a specific news item with your friends or on enthusiast groups.
- "NEB News" RSS feed added. This is still a work in progress on the public version, though the version I have seen in development will be added very soon.
- "Submit News" added. Again, this is still a work in progress, but will be released publicly shortly. This feature will allow users to e-mail North East Buses with a story (and their image) so that we never miss an update!
- Archive added. Archived by month, you can view all articles that have been added in an individual month. A search bar has also been added to the development version, and will be available on the public version shortly.


What are your thoughts on the new version? Any feedback - positive or negative - would be appreciated to help with future releases.

Thanks.

The only comment I have to make, is down the fact a 'fleet news' section is within the major three operators.
When I logged on this morning, I saw 'blue'. Anticipating a mass discussion or debate, on checking each thread - although there had been some posts, the only reason it was blue, was because 'fleet news' had been updated.

I had to click and check every operator, incase something else had been posted.
If I clicked the read all button, I would have missed other posts.

(22 Sep 2013, 8:58 am)Andreos1 wrote [ -> ]The only comment I have to make, is down the fact a 'fleet news' section is within the major three operators.
When I logged on this morning, I saw 'blue'. Anticipating a mass discussion or debate, on checking each thread - although there had been some posts, the only reason it was blue, was because 'fleet news' had been updated.

I had to click and check every operator, incase something else had been posted.
If I clicked the read all button, I would have missed other posts.

This was always proposed to be done so that users could have a direct link to the operator specific news.
In the revised news, we felt it would also be more appropriate to include a summary of the news too, with links to the sources of information where appropriate also. We've noticed that confirmation on orders for example (given by our company representatives) has gone unnoticed, and our company representatives have had to repeat themselves time and time again - to the point where it becomes irritating for them and makes them reluctant to want to share this information with us enthusiasts.
These locations serve as a place to source original information (so perhaps should be referenced when seeking confirmation of something like an order, as we anticipate a link will always be there) as well as serving as a place to provide individual links to both major and minor operator filtered news.

I personally find that the minor operator filtered news is quite hard to get to, so having a link really does help - though it should be held within the layout of the news page admittedly.

I agree with everything you have said there, but when opening the forum home page this morning - 4 out of the 7 threads which were blue, were all relating to the same thing.

Whether a member is interested in the fleet updates or not, they need to click on each and every one of those 7, to see what else has been posted in the sub-threads/child forums.

(22 Sep 2013, 9:14 am)Andreos1 wrote [ -> ]I agree with everything you have said there, but when opening the forum home page this morning - 4 out of the 7 threads which were blue, were all relating to the same thing.

Whether a member is interested in the fleet updates or not, they need to click on each and every one of those 7, to see what else has been posted in the sub-threads/child forums.

I understand that completely, but don't know what the alternative solution would be to achieve this?

In future, it should only be three threads which are updated bi-weekly (I don't anticipate for updates to the format of the news page to happen every fortnight too, and therefore this thread won't need to be updated), and it should be noted how quickly these threads have disappeared from the main screen, as two of the three have all had posts in the main discussion thread.

Honestly have no idea what the solution is or if anyone else has the same viewpoint.

(22 Sep 2013, 8:43 am)Daniel wrote [ -> ]New features in this update include:
- Date added to each article to help determine when the news was posted.
- Ability to see an individual article has been introduced. To view an individual article, you should click the headline.
- "Share on Facebook" button introduced on individual article pages, so you can share a specific news item with your friends or on enthusiast groups.
- "NEB News" RSS feed added. This is still a work in progress on the public version, though the version I have seen in development will be added very soon.
- "Submit News" added. Again, this is still a work in progress, but will be released publicly shortly. This feature will allow users to e-mail North East Buses with a story (and their image) so that we never miss an update!
- Archive added. Archived by month, you can view all articles that have been added in an individual month. A search bar has also been added to the development version, and will be available on the public version shortly.

Both have been added to the public release. Search Bar will follow soon.

I certainly am liking the new style! Looks a lot more 2015 now  

Unfortunately i'm not, it looks messy.

Edit: it seems a couple of posts have being duplicated. 

Looks modern and tidy, it would be good if the larger photos weren't blurry.

Just spotted a mistake in 'Recent Repaints', two people are credited for one photo: Daniel Graham, Steven Hodgson. 

(05 May 2015, 9:43 am)Scott wrote [ -> ]Noticed the same error. New style didn't load properly. Had to refresh the page a couple of time to get it to work. Even then the layout was rather confusing.

If the headlines had the operator in a small font just above the headline would be good, because newer members or people from other areas might not think that a black OmniCity is a GNE vehicle, blue makes it out to be an Arriva news thing.

I must say I love the new fleet news section

Fleet News Section Update - May 2015

It's been a long time since we last updated the 'Fleet News' section, and Liam and I decided that it was long overdue, given that the section had only seen one minor cosmetic change following its release in August 2013.

The new-look 'Fleet News' section is almost at completion. Key features in this release include:

• Opposed to having "important" news and "less important" news, all fortnightly news for each individual operator is shown on the individual operator's page.
  
• All articles now show the headline only on the operator's page - readers must click headlines of interest to read the article itself, similar to the online edition of newspapers.
  
• There is now a greater focus on photographs: the main news homepage shows two large photographs, and the size of the photographs on the individual articles has also been increased. The largest photograph on the main news homepage is now colour co-ordinated, allowing readers to easily identify which operator the news article is relevant to.
  
• Better mobile optimisation, following removal of RSS Feed feature.

We still need to add the 'fleet news archive', displaying news from previous months, but the current public release fulfils the 'needs' of most readers.

We'd warmly welcome any constructive criticism (and positive comments, too, of course).

It looks and feels a lot more modern, and although I haven't tried it, can imagine it'll look great on a tablet too.

Viewing the fleet news on my mobile and the first article for each operator the text underneath is white and the rest of the page surrounding the first article is a very pale grey so it is very difficult to read the title. This is on my mobile so I don't know if it is the same on other devices.

Also on mobile the images on look rather large and have to scroll sideways to view the photo even still have to if I turn it sideways.

Also don't know why but it feels like there is stuff missing from the Arriva news section. Also 3872 was on-loan? to Deptford, caught a photo of it on service 20 on April 22nd.

(10 May 2015, 9:17 pm)Jimmi wrote [ -> ]Viewing the fleet news on my mobile and the first article for each operator the text underneath is white and the rest of the page surrounding the first article is a very pale grey so it is very difficult to read the title. This is on my mobile so I don't know if it is the same on other devices.

Also on mobile the images on look rather large and have to scroll sideways to view the photo even still have to if I turn it sideways.

Also don't know why but it feels like there is stuff missing from the Arriva news section. Also 3872 was on-loan? to Deptford, caught a photo of it on service 20 on April 22nd.

Have a look at the attached - this is how it should be displaying.
[attachment=6679][attachment=6680]

All of the noteworthy information that has been posted in the "Latest" threads for Arriva NE since April 19th was gathered and added to the news articles. I've combined quite a bit of the information together into the article about Sapphire, so perhaps this is the reason why it looks less than usual.

Apologies about 3872 - I tend to go through the "Latest" threads to collate the information, so if it was only noted in the "Rare & Odd Workings" thread, that's the reason why. I have edited the article to include this information.

(10 May 2015, 9:41 pm)Dan wrote [ -> ]As 

Thankfully it's now showing in colour like in your screenshots.

Another issue viewing on my mobile at present is the Sapphire article isn't appearing in the Arriva section and the X66 StreetLite's article doesn't appear in the GNE section either.

Only seeing these two articles if I press news at the top of the screen and get the page where I get one article with the 3 operators below.

(10 May 2015, 10:03 pm)Jimmi wrote [ -> ]Another issue viewing on my mobile at present is the Sapphire article isn't appearing in the Arriva section and the X66 StreetLite's article doesn't appear in the GNE section either.

Only seeing these two articles if I press news at the top of the screen and get the page where I get one article with the 3 operators below.

The same applies to the "Transit Fleet Movements" article in the Stagecoach section, too.

Liam already knows about this - he's just deciding the best way to match the design from desktop view to mobile view. If he was to include the photograph again, it would be quite a lot of scrolling which isn't particularly user-friendly on mobiles.

Will the fleet news ever reappear?

(19 Sep 2015, 11:33 am)NK53 TKT wrote [ -> ]Will the fleet news ever reappear?

See here.

(19 Sep 2015, 11:44 am)GX03 SVC wrote [ -> ]See here.

Thank You

Where's Scott Cooper (tyresmoke) when you need him? Usually he is good at this he used to do something similar on his old site I sometimes used to share the links very often whenever there was an update

I miss Jeff's Bus Lane that site I enjoyed

(20 Sep 2015, 1:33 am)Diamond One wrote [ -> ]Where's Scott Cooper (tyresmoke) when you need him? Usually he is good at this he used to do something similar on his old site I sometimes used to share the links very often whenever there was an update

I miss Jeff's Bus Lane that site I enjoyed

Scott couldn't update the Fleet News even if I asked him to do it - the system behind the scenes is undergoing reconstruction to allow a new and improved system to be implemented.

The new system will automatically update the fleet news and fleet lists together as one, and updates won't occur on a set day when the new system is rolled out. It will be a live news feed.

That fleet news page though 

(20 Sep 2015, 1:02 pm)S813 FVK wrote [ -> ]That fleet news page though 

Whats on so far, looks good, its better than i thought it would be.

(20 Sep 2015, 1:02 pm)S813 FVK wrote [ -> ]That fleet news page though 

I cant see it as I'm on 4001 again by coincidence.