Sunday, February 27, 2011

Do they have basic programming on the Wonderlic?

Note to NFL.com: your new combine results website is awful.  A basic case of putting style over substance.  Check it out for yourself, and you'll quickly know what the problem is. 

In years past the results for each event and position were listed simply and cleanly.  Apparently that format was a little too good at fulfilling its basic purpose of transmitting numerical information in a convenient format.  This year, we get a much bulkier interface which will only list 5-6 players at a time.  Instead of neat tables which transmit a few dozen scores per screen, we get over sized, unnecessary bar graphs comparing scores.  And the bars aren't even proportional or helpful.  Quick tip: graphics are most helpful when they make complex information easy to read and compare.  In this case, I know that 15<25<35.  No bulky bar graphs are needed.

What's worse than this is the interface for sorting through drills and positions.  There is a button for each drill, and as you might imagine you click the button to see the results.  There are also buttons for each position grouping.  However, when you click on a group button is blocks out that group, leaving all the other un-clicked groups for comparison.   So on the same console we have one system where pushing a button brings up data and another where pushing a button in the same way hides data.  Finally, instead of simply sorting as the buttons are clicked, the user must click an "update" button to see the desired groupings (after figuring out the backassward button system).  This is a pointless step.  We aren't comparing mutual funds here, it should be able to update after being clicked. 

For example, in order to see the bench press results for offensive lineman only, you click the bench press button, then you must click every other position group in order to hide them.  After that, you must scroll up and down, making it harder to see and compare the whole group.  So instead of pushing 2 buttons and seeing one chart, you press 10 buttons and get to see only a fraction of the group. Whoever approved this system ought to be reprimanded.  

Fix your system, NFL.com.  In the future, when in doubt, keep things simple. 

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