What people really want when they browse sundial web sites
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Some time last year I read the NASS survey results of what people wanted from the world of sundials. It ocurred to me that
this was very important information. One element was a low cost booklet on sundials, short, sweet, to the point. It ocurred to
me that we were surveying people alreay in the fold. We were not surveying the casual browser. It ocurred to me to conduct
some tests, and this page is the result.
I produced several small booklets two of which met a comment in the NASS survey
Micro Shadows 14 pages 40%
Simple Shadows 51 pages 60%
[indicates learning vs rote]
At extremely low cost using paypal, not one copy sold, not too surprising since free items are often considered "junk". After
that trial period they were made free. However, when made free they were popular. The printed book Illustrating Shadows has
sold very well as has Illustrating More Shadows, with sales correlating to main web page hits. Most sales are for both books
concurrently. A large percentage of sales are to non NASS and non BSS members.
An interest was expressed in CAD and in programmed systems. To that end sundial programs were written for a number of
languages, C, FORTRAN, Pascal, BASIC were non graphic, java, visual Basic, DeltaCAD and TurboCAD were graphic. Free
easy to use compilers were identified for all but Delta and TurboCAD.
C COBOL dCAD Fortran java jBASIC Pascal tCAD vBASIC
1 - - 34 2 6 21 6 14 16 percentage of interest
[indicates DeltaCAD as clear gnomonic CAD system over TurboCAD, however TurboCAD still popular]
[indicates BASIC (free just BASIC) more popular than Visual Basic (also free)]
[indicates marginal JAVA, and minimal legacy language interest (all have free easy to use compilers)]
I also measure started, aborted, and completed downloads, to measure the strength of interest, however I am still assesing those figures, but
they seem to be equally distributed
The bulk of hits are referred to this web site (www.illustratingshadows.com) by general google search engines, then next they come come from
the infraroth listserv web site, then next from NASS and BSS about equally, and then other dial web sites. That the bulk come from a general
google search suggests a wide demographic group.
This is not fuly scientific since not all documents were available for the entire period, and many other considerations not evaluated. This is raw
data, and presented for your interest only.
2007 percentages (sample was around 10,000 downloads)
(excludes Micro & Simple Shadows, see above)
(programming material, see above)
16 TurboCAD TCW files (not scripts)
14 vrml and CAD
11 pictures of sun dials
8 free books
7 paper pop up dia;s
7 free supplements and articles
5 free software
4 paper cut out sun dials
3 methods of calculating dial plates (vs pure
formulae)
3 case studies
3 what not to buy
3 the astrolabe
3 the EOT
3 lunar dials
3 nocturnal dials
2 free spreadsheets (Excel)
2 calculating wall declination
1 the astro compass
1 making a store bought dial work
1 parts of a sun dial
1 stained glass and the sundial
0 formulae with no usage techniques
0 declination and calendar lines methods
[indicates both pure CAD as well as vrml interest]
[indicates play dials are of interest (paper as well as popup)]
[interest in designing astrolabes]
NOTE: statistically, DeltaCAD and Excel were almost even
NOTE: the case studies have been up for less than a year but are already very
popular.