Bathing made easy development blog

Better reviews

2007-10-13T04:36:00.000-07:00

We have been trying out some different protocols for accepting product reviews. Mainly we are concerned with balancing the level of security and validity of the reviews with the number of hurdles for the reviewer. Too many hurdles and the reviewers get put off or confused. But few hurdles and everybody has a go at submitting reviews, especially some unscrupulous suppliers and retailers. This is not what we want, but finally we think we have got it right. We now ask for email and name. After a review is submitted, an email is sent to the email address and the review must click on the link included in the email. Until the review is validated we leave it in a holding pen. We then moderate the review. This scheme is not perfect but I think it is a big improvement. Watch this space - or the review section :) - http://www.bathingmadeeasy.com/latest_product_discussions.php

testimonials and site search

2007-08-13T11:16:00.000-07:00

Marketing asked or user feedback on Bathing made easy a while ago and quite a lot of people responded with some really touching stories about BME helping them. I thought they would be really helpful on the homepage to let people know what kind of problem with site aims to solve. Have also added sitesearch , which has been missing since the site had its final design added. check out the latest version www.bathingmadeeasy.com

One of the testimonials was too long to post on the homepage but it is a great story so I am posting it here:

“I directed my parents to the new site ‘Bathing made easy’, when I discovered that they were planning to rip out their existing bath and replace it with a large walk-in shower as my mother can no longer get herself safely out of a standard bath. She missed having a bath but had been told by an architect that there was no other choice. I had told them about other options but until they had looked on your site and seen for themselves they did not believe. As a result they have had a bath lift fitted, which means that they can both continue to enjoy a soak, have not had to cope with having major building work being done and saved money. In addition, previously my mother in particular was feeling down and saying such things as “this is the beginning of the end”. Your site helped so much, as it was informative, gave a variety of options and solutions so that they could choose one that best suited them and allowed them to decide without pressure.” – M. F.

supplier information now online

2007-08-03T09:56:00.000-07:00

At long last we have included information that suppliers have sent us via our self-service system. selfservice.dlf.org.uk. We have a lot of products to update and we know suppliers can sometimes be frustrated with delays in seeing new information online. self-service means they can see changes immediately. Mangar's Archimedes bath lift is a good example.

If you are a supplier that wants to use our self service system then go the self-service website for details of how to create your account.

David.

Pages viewed hits half a million

2007-07-19T07:09:00.000-07:00

Great news, in the first half of the year, we were just short, by a whisker of, half a million pages viewed on http://www.bathingmadeeasy.com! Visitors are growing every month as local authorities, government and other non-profit organisations point to use as a useful resource.

Thanks to everyone that is supporting us!

Usability tweaks

2007-07-16T13:10:00.000-07:00

Finally fixed breadcrumbs and accross the site and added a sitemap!

Changes to the design

2007-06-14T17:17:00.000-07:00

Finally, after loads of changes we have managed to adapt to the our designers' look and feel.

We have also added images to represent product categories, which everyone thinks look great.

There are still a few items to get right in the new design. We want the product images to appear bigger in product lists. We also want the helpline number up in the top right corner to make it easy for people to get Telephone help should they need it. And we also want the search bar to appear on every page.

We go into the second round of testing soon so we hope most of the usability and accessibility issues are fixed up! Please post if you encounter any!

Advice added to product pages

2007-05-29T14:51:00.000-07:00

We have added advice on baths and showers on detailed product records. This means when finding Bathing made easy listed products with Google, relevant advice appears straight away.

David.

More advice

2007-05-06T02:54:00.000-07:00

You may have noticed we are adding advice from our Bath, Shower and Grab Rails factsheets into the category pages in a new 'Advice' panel. These factsheets are downloads a lot from our main website, but they have only been available in PDF, but it makes sense to break them up and add them into categories to give people snippets just when they need it.

If you think we could add any more advice post a comment and let us know!