(This is another really, *really* boring blog entry. Why not Google for "noodle mining" instead of reading it?) 

I've just made my first bit of Ajax - I feel so proud! Ok, it's sad and geeky, but I'm happy 'cos I just (a) learnt something new, and (b) it worked.

When I tried to get onto the UPSU homepage earlier this evening, it wouldn't load. It was working fine for everyone else, so I figured it had something to do with a piece of code I was loading for myself, meaning the only suspect was the weather box, which only loads for me (as I'm still testing its reliability).

To fix this, we need to have a way of preventing content which relies on other servers or websites, or which is either bulky, not critically important to UPSU.net (or both) from slowing down page loads. Lots of websites use JavaScript to load content into a DIV after the rest of the page has loaded, for example the BBC news homepage (which loads the "Your local news, weather and sport here" box after the rest of the page has loaded). This means that the non-essential content can be as badly behaved as it likes without breaking the rest of the page, even if it never loads. Google Ads also works on this basis to prevent their adverts from slowing down the loading times of the pages displaying the adverts.

Not really having a clue where to start though, I went off on a Google wander and found DynamicDrive.com's excellent cut-out-and-keep guide which does exactly what I was looking for. So, one quick modification (to let me load the EuroWeather module outside of Mambo - it's not a core component and certainly poses no security risks) and we're up and running.

I'll also be using this technique to load in BBC News headlines onto the homepage in the near future, and I'm already trying to think of other ways we can make use of this. An ideal application would be to use it to load additional homepage content, for example my original but not-very-evil plan of converting the hero advert (the big 450x200 box) into a tabbed area which can show either the hero advert, or two or three other boxes of content - "my forum discussions", "my blah blah...", or "my settings" - etc. While it opens the way for us to put a lot of new toys on the homepage we haven't been able to because of size and space restrictions, I'm going to have to be careful not to fall into the trap of piling crap on top of crap just "because it's nice" ;o)

Over on the SUSU forums, I spotted this discussion claiming that SUSU is the best students' union website in the country. Not sure I agree with that, but it's certainly a good site (as I've mentioned before).

I want to see UPSU.net kicking everyone's backsides as a student website - we need to focus hard on improving the content, features, usability, usefulness and looks (in that order), and since we have a potential base of 16,000 students, that's a lot of different needs and levels of computer ability.

I reckon we also need to start taking a much greater interest in what people would like to see. To that end, tell me!

• What do you think?
• What does UPSU.net need?
• What would you like to see on the site?
• What would keep you coming back to the site?

Answers in the boxes below. Thanks! /al

When I go to the UPSU homepage, I see things a little differently to most people because I have a couple of bits of content loaded in a "hidden" box - great while I'm working on new toys for the site.

One of these toys is the Portsmouth Weather feed, which uses a slightly modified version of the Mambweather module for Mambo (first spotted on Fred Bradley's GapStudentsOnline.com).

I've designed it to fit into a tiny bit of screen real estate, as you can see from the pic on the right, but I still don't know where I'm going to squeeze it into our already packed homepage. For now I might just tuck it under the "directory" links until I create a BBC News headlines box under the current UPSU news boxes.

Any better ideas? The winner gets precisely nothing but a warm fuzzy feeling :o)

(And, in answer to those of you at the back of the class: no, I won't be sticking it there. Eww...)

(If you are one of Portsmouth's students who gets all upset at the mention of anything Southampton-based, you might want to turn off now...)

As part of my web-based paranoia, I spend an inordinate amount of time checking out other Students' Union websites. I mentioned how impressed I was with Cambridge SU's site a while back - pretty, accessible, fast to load and easy to find "stuff" on.

SUSU (Scumhampton Students' Union) have been quietly adding in some very interesting-looking toys over the last couple of months - their i-bar, despite a couple of teething problems, is a nice way to customise the site (although I don't know if your customisations are saved with your account or using a cookie, although for a site like SUSU which encourages people to sign in and get involved, I'd hope it follows you around when you sign in).

In the last couple of days they've unveiled their new homepage and I have to say I'm impressed. I haven't pulled the code apart yet, but it looks like there's a nice bit of AJAX in the directory thingbob on the bottom right, and the graphics - for example the gallery link - are crisp and easy to read.

There are a couple of things I don't like about the new design which strike me as small oversights rather than major problems - the headings, for example "Wessex Scene" - aren't clicky, as you might expect on a "portal" page. The site still makes some use of tables (as does UPSU, I'll happily admit), and a little lateral thought might allow them to be removed without any loss of backwards-compatibility for users of older browsers.

I'm also not convinced they've made the best use of white space at the top of the page - there are lots of snippets of information on their site which could be sliced and diced into the top bar without losing the homepage's identity, for example "SUSU suggests", or a précis (or should it be "prècis"?) of the latest news story from a random news feed... There's plenty of dynamic content on the site that could be chosen, but then there's all the time in the world for them to tweak and adjust, so no worries.

Overall, I must say I'm very impressed - there's clearly a lot of thought gone into the redesign, which has built on their existing homepage's strengths. Their attention to accessibility has been criticised - I would suggest a little unfairly - in the forum topic discussing the new homepage, but there's nothing too serious and plenty to congratulate them on.

I s'pose I ought to pull my finger out now then...!

I always thought AJAX was some kind of Americanised Domestos thingy, but apparently it's not... It looks like a very useful way of letting us create more interactive webpages on UPSU.net, so I'm off to do some reading.

As always, we're keen to get your views and suggestions on how we can improve UPSU.net - do you want to write news stories? Design pages? Or just have a 5-word suggestion for us to take on board? Add your comments, below, or e-mail us and tell us what you're thinking.