I Suppose I Shouldn't Expect Anything Else
Ok, so, I'm bored. Waiting for my first day as a PhD student to begin. I must have had some kind of minor brain haemorrhage, or some-such, because I thought it'd be a good idea to look at putting the membership list from today's Squash (which went OK so nothing to worry about there) into the digital format required by the Guild (uh-oh).
To do this, we're provided a MSExcel spreadsheet on the website, which is as easy to navigate as ever (ha ha ha). When I eventually found it, I downloaded and opened it, expecting something at least vaguely, halfway decent. What I found was something that, not to put it mildly, I could do a better job.
The website says 'The spreadsheet uses the same format as the paper sign up form making transferring data as easy as possible', a statement which can only be true if by 'same format' they mean 'table' which is something that isn't exactly difficult to do in MSExcel. The file is just a series of column headings with a border that's way too think. I know that's not a big thing but it just looks ugly.
The columns themselves are badly done too. The first column is 'Society'. Why a whole column? Surely a separate cell for it would work better. Maybe with a drop-down list of societies? Maybe, if there'd be time. Next is 'First Name'. Here, they didn't resize the column correctly so the 'e' and half the 'm' are cut off. Next column - 'Sirname'. I'm not kidding, that's how it was spelt. At least it's still homophonic, but even so, come on!
Next, 'Committee Y/N'. This column is made entirely redundant by the next column 'Position'. In this case, I'd replace both of these with one column called 'Committee Position (if applicable)'. It's efficient. Next we have 'Email' and 'Contact Number'. No issues with these, except that I'd have 'E-mail', but I guess both are valid nowadays. Next column, 'Subject'. OK, this column isn't at all on the membership forms so I/we have NO way of filling this in. Scrap it! (Edit: There is a way of finding it out who's doing what subject, involving the address book on the uni's Outlook Web Access but that's too much work so f**k it).
Next, the 'UG/PG', 'H/EU/Int' and 'Paid Fee' columns. These three are just screaming at me for drop-down lists. They take, what, 30 seconds? *sigh* I also take issue with the titles of the 'UG/PG' and 'H/EU/Int' columns. If you didn't know what they meant by that, it wouldn't be helpful so I'd replace them with 'Level of Study', with drop-down list options of UG and PG, and 'Home' or 'Resident', with drop-down list options of 'UK', 'EU', and 'International/Other'. The 'Paid Fee' column would obviously have 'Yes' and 'No' options.
You may think these gripes are pretty petty and you'd be absolutely right. The form itself is entirely functional and it does it's job. Still, is it really that hard to make a decent form? *sigh* Like the title says, I shouldn't expect anything else really.
It's the Guild.
What can you do?
...
To do this, we're provided a MSExcel spreadsheet on the website, which is as easy to navigate as ever (ha ha ha). When I eventually found it, I downloaded and opened it, expecting something at least vaguely, halfway decent. What I found was something that, not to put it mildly, I could do a better job.
The website says 'The spreadsheet uses the same format as the paper sign up form making transferring data as easy as possible', a statement which can only be true if by 'same format' they mean 'table' which is something that isn't exactly difficult to do in MSExcel. The file is just a series of column headings with a border that's way too think. I know that's not a big thing but it just looks ugly.
The columns themselves are badly done too. The first column is 'Society'. Why a whole column? Surely a separate cell for it would work better. Maybe with a drop-down list of societies? Maybe, if there'd be time. Next is 'First Name'. Here, they didn't resize the column correctly so the 'e' and half the 'm' are cut off. Next column - 'Sirname'. I'm not kidding, that's how it was spelt. At least it's still homophonic, but even so, come on!
Next, 'Committee Y/N'. This column is made entirely redundant by the next column 'Position'. In this case, I'd replace both of these with one column called 'Committee Position (if applicable)'. It's efficient. Next we have 'Email' and 'Contact Number'. No issues with these, except that I'd have 'E-mail', but I guess both are valid nowadays. Next column, 'Subject'. OK, this column isn't at all on the membership forms so I/we have NO way of filling this in. Scrap it! (Edit: There is a way of finding it out who's doing what subject, involving the address book on the uni's Outlook Web Access but that's too much work so f**k it).
Next, the 'UG/PG', 'H/EU/Int' and 'Paid Fee' columns. These three are just screaming at me for drop-down lists. They take, what, 30 seconds? *sigh* I also take issue with the titles of the 'UG/PG' and 'H/EU/Int' columns. If you didn't know what they meant by that, it wouldn't be helpful so I'd replace them with 'Level of Study', with drop-down list options of UG and PG, and 'Home' or 'Resident', with drop-down list options of 'UK', 'EU', and 'International/Other'. The 'Paid Fee' column would obviously have 'Yes' and 'No' options.
You may think these gripes are pretty petty and you'd be absolutely right. The form itself is entirely functional and it does it's job. Still, is it really that hard to make a decent form? *sigh* Like the title says, I shouldn't expect anything else really.
It's the Guild.
What can you do?
...