THE MID-HANTS RAILWAY REVAMPED WEBSITE

Realistically, they're not the priority. The enthusiasts/members could be looked after with a freebie blog at WordPress.com updated by the teams working on locos/rolling stock/pway, although you wouldn't want to be in the mess the Bluebell are (their nerdy enthusiasts' site surfaces higher on Google than their mainstream site, creating a poor impression for potential visitors).

Simon

 

I must say Simon, to someone like myself with only average computer skills it is a bit confusing.

IMHO the old adage applies here, " if it,s not broken, don,t fix it".

Best regards
Chris:

 

Agree. And it's not you that's confused, it's the website that's confusing.

Websites should evolve, gradually improving based on solid evidence of what users are trying to do. Bad websites jolt from one approach to the next with no apparent logic.

Simon

 

Simple comment as per ilvaporista on page 1, where is "loco news" and "Ropley shed stories" ?

Very sad, I agree, why change something that isn't broken, except to ditch enthusiasts to aim solely at the travelling public.

e-mail sent to Mid Hants using the "contact us" facility on the new website. Why not follow suit?

46118

 

Now let's see....

If I'm thinking of visiting the railway, I want the times of the trains....

Lets's have a look at the website, Mid-Hants Railway 'Watercress Line' - no reference to timetables on the home page, hmm?.....

Let's have a look around ... "VISIT THE RAILWAY" - maybe that's it....

Aha! OPENING TIMES & PRICES - that must be it....

Gives me a calendar - looking hopeful!

Let's click on the date I want to visit....

Yuck! It just adds a few lines to the middle of the calendar .... anything there about timetables?

Real Ale Train .... no that's not it....

Watercress Belle .... no...

Standard Travel Open Ticket .... doesn't sound right, but probably the most likely option....

Hurray! Finallly got a timetable....

Hang on - there are two different timetables, but it doesn't tell me on this page which one operates on the date I selected!

Not impressed!

Would it be too much to ask for a clear link on the home page labelled TIMETABLE which takes me to a calendar and then shows the timetable for the date I select?

And no, it's not just the Mid-Hants which bury their timetable in the depths of their website ... some are even worse .... but many are better!

 

I don't understand why they felt the need to revamp it so soon after all the hassle and problems they had last time, not all that long ago either. There didn't seem a great deal wrong with it.

 

On my computer those timetable options are so small as to be almost unreadable. Goodness knows what they would look like if accessed via a tablet or smartphone. The actual "timetables" are strangely tabulated and do not indicate whether times are arrival or departure . In general the layout looks a bit amateur, some very strange line breaks (as for instance the address on the homepage has a line break in the middle of the postcode. The concept of Facebook integration and e-ticketiing is fine, it is just that the whole presentation seems sloppy (including the ludicrously out of date info on the "Preservation" page, showing for instance the Single and multiple DMUs which left the line over a year ago as being "operational" (well they are, just on the GWR) The old website had a simple link that took you direct to a well laid out timetable for the day you clicked. Of course it did not default to booking a ticket, which seems to be the aim of the new site, even though, rather cryptically, I am told that "my cart is empty" I haven't even got a cart!
The new site just feels like a beta test version of a ticketing website with a bit of (inaccurate) info with dodgy typsetting bolted on, which is a shame as the MHR web offering has been up there with the best previously. With a bit of tweaking, I'm sure the new one could be fine, old codgers like me will just have to put up with the prominent Facebook plugs. A picture of a train on the top banner, rather than just a long thin blue and yellow striped space would be nice though!

 

Simon, can you contact via private mail and leave me a contact E-Mail that we can get in touch please?

For some reason I do not have the private E-Mail on my computer to contact you although I can receive.

Many thanks
Chris:

 

That might not be a bad idea Roger

Thank you

Chris:

 

Ohhhh you bitch.

 

Not intentionally. Just highlighting that if, as a member of the public, you google 'bluebell railway', the top result isn't the public-facing site.

Simon

 

Dear All

Thank you all for the feedback about the website. The website has been updated so that we now have one single integrated site for the Railway. The existing branding style has been kept and the main difference you will see is to the menu system. The three sections allow us to separate out the commercial, educational and preservation information, precisely because there is so much we wish to add to the latter. The Loco News and all other blogs are now to be found under 'Preservation News', with a link through to an archive of the old site for past blogs. Unfortunately the archive is throwing up an embedded message about out of date browsers, which is currently being dealt with.

All of the loco, diesel, wagon and crane information has been copied across from the old site, which will include any inaccuracies. These pages are currently being worked on to bring them all up to date. In addition pages will be added for MHRPS history, stations and each department within the Railway.

At the moment the image galleries within the blogs do not work in the same way - you cannot move from one image to the next - this is not currently built in to the software but will be looked at in due course.

Please do feel free to email your comments and feedback to me directly!

The Marketing Manager.

 

The previous version allowed movement from one picture to the next and was an important function of the blog. Why did you not delay implemetation of the new site until you can at the very least replicate its basic functions?

 

So I'm guessing you mean that you've binned the old ticketing site (Mid-Hants Railway 'Watercress Line' > Shop Unavailable - you should get that to redirect to the new site). It's hard to imagine that that was a problem that needed solving, but I guess if you're changing suppliers…

The big question though is whether that's what the site users want? Not the enthusiasts so much, but the average visitor?

Simon

 

The old site had actually got to a stage where it was well worth looking in on regularly for the blogs from the various departments (athough some depts/groups such as signalling/75079 rarely had any new news).

However I have to agree with other posters - what was the point in launching the new site when it obviously isn't finished and had very obviously not been tested - very shoddy and if the MHR is paying a commercial company for the design and implementation of the site, I would definately be looking for a refund!

It might be helpful to put a name to your posts instead of everyone addressing you as "The Marketing Manager"


Keith

 

Anna Wilson- Barnes is the Marketing Manager.

Regards
Chris

 

Thank you for posting that, but you are still avoiding the issues raised on here - it is very difficult to navigate for the most part and appears completely dis-functional - to put it bluntly it is an embarrassment to the railway or to put in layman's terms a load of C R A P!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Who the hell decided that this was the way forward (never mind who authorised the site going live without making sure all the problems were ironed out!) - they need shooting or locking up back in their kindergarten, as from where I'm sitting, it looks like something designed by and for a five year old, with no thought having gone into it what so ever!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Why oh why, could you not have just added these new divisions/sections to the old website and left it at that?????????????????? This 'new' sectional site is a good idea in theory, BUT in practice is proving to be a laughing stock!!

PLEASE - JUST PUT THE OLD WEBSITE BACK UP UNTIL THINGS ARE SORTED OUT PROPERLY!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

OH, AND WHILE I'M AT IT - CAN WE HAVE THE STAFF NOTICEBOARD BACK, PLEASE????????????????????????????

 

Wow, caps lock and bold, someone is angry!

The rule of thumb for any website, especially those with a commercial arm, is if it takes more than 3 clicks to find the information you want, people will give up. Within three clicks on the new site you can get to the timetable, select a date, check the train times and book a ticket. All that with the information that the average visitor to the site would want, and with a unified branding across all digital and print media, creating a "brand identity" with the general public. This is basic stuff you get right when you're marketing anything. I think what some of you forget is that first and foremost a website is for marketing, not for information for enthusiasts.

How many of these angry people work either in marketing or website design? You're approaching this from an "enthusiasts" angle, rather than a general public angle. They just want to be in and out of the website as quickly as possible.

The design of this site is far from crap, and to be honest it puts most other railway websites to shame. It might not have the information YOU want, but it does its job, and it does it very well.

I am not doubting nor denying that there are problems with the site, but the foundations are most definately there and it is certainly not "caps lock and bold" bad! Calm down people!

 

Just to reiterate, the popular blogs, like Ropley shed news and loco news are still all there under the "Preservation" header. Looks ok to me.

As an aside, a prompt and polite clarification was received from the Mid Hants marketing lady when I emailed my concerns.

46118

 

There is something both amusing and offputting about any diatribe that contains the phrase "Why oh why....."
I suspect the point was lost even before caps lock jammed on! <insert smileything here>