Rubbish websites

I thought I'd like a visit to Quainton Railway as I havn't been there for many years, and I'd also like to see how they are getting on with restoring their 72xx 2-8-2T. However I take a look at their website to see what other engines they have got and their very very annoying website doesn't tell you (well if it does I cannot find it!). Seeing as they have very little to offer in terms of a running line, I would have thought their collection was kind of important for people to come and see. seeing as they can't be bothered to tell me what they have got, I'll not bother visiting and spending my money.
Anybody else been frustrated with trendy modern (that means annoying and very difficult to use) websites? Perhaps we could list the worst offenders and they might do something about it....

 

I was thinking of starting a thread on this exact subject but thought it might be too controversial!
In my opinion, far too many railways/projects have really hopeless websites that are never updated, yet they still expect donations from website visitors!

I could name dozens of rubbish websites but sadly only a few outstanding ones, unfortunately most railway preservation websites lie somewhere between hopeless and mediocre.

How about a 'Nat Pres website of the year' award? If we can quickly come up with, say 10 main points to judge a site on, we could have an ongoing competition throughout the year (just to make sure a website keeps up the good work!) and in December 2011/January 2012 award a prize for the best/most improved websites? Anyone up for it?


Keith

 

Just to add to this, if a little "Nat Pres website of the year" graphic could be designed it could be included on the winner's site. It could be quite small but designed well - I'm thinking something similar in appearance to those oval blue heritage awards that look really good when placed on buildings etc...

 

well, I haven't looked at the website in general so can't comment on its overall quality but it was easy enough to find a virtual stockbook telling me what's on site......

 

A good thread this and absolutely spot on! If I was to hold up a shining example of a good website - clear and easy navigation that is regularly updated - then the Lynton & Barnstaple's would be my first choice.

 

I signed up to membership of the L&B Trust, without ever visiting the railway itself, purely because of the interest generated by the website. I'm sure I'm not the only one, so having an informative website regularly updated with new information will pay dividends.

 

To answer the OP, Quianton has a separate website for its stock list: http://www.brc-stockbook.co.uk/

 

Well, I have just tried the Bucks Railway centre website, and with two clicks only I was in the stockbook area. Perhaps the problem lies with 'Coboman'?

Regards

 

Here's a rough 'top 10' judging points, remembering that the website has to cater properly for both enthusiast AND visitor:

1. Is the website clearly laid out with good use of appropriate colours?
2. Is the website up-to-date (within 2 weeks)?
3. Does the website load quickly (within 5 seconds on a 1Mb broadband connection)?
4. Are fares and a timetable easy to access and obvious from the front page?
5. Is there a news page for enthusiasts and/or visitors?
6. Is spelling and grammar correct and are abbreviations explained?
7. Does the website clearly show basic details like where the railway/museum is, how to get there, length/time of journey etc?
8. Are all links working?
9. Is there a stocklist available with history and current status of items?
10. Are future plans detailed in an interesting (to everyone) way?

Any suggestions/replacements? We might need to have more than 10 points!
I have attached a suggested award logo - comments anyone?

Keith

 

Me, I would struggle to get past page 1. http://www.bucksrailcentre.org/ Beyond that the detail probably is there under Enthusiasts. Its worse, see the bottom "Train enthusiasts".

Negative marks for Children, Female friendly colours, Thomas (double plus downer), furry toy. references to "educational visits". Coboman has a point. Its a website that ticks boxes for grant givers and school trips.

 

I don't think you can blame Quainton for aiming their website at the vast majority of their visitors (i.e. non-enthusiasts). At least they provide an enthusiasts area.

In my personal opinion the best website of a heritage railway is probably the Gloucestershire Warwickshire Railway's. Clear, informative, enthusiast information readily available without appearing too 'geeky' to the average visitor, latest news obvious on the front page.
The Watercress Line is also good if a bit too gimmicky which makes it slow to load.
As has been previously noted, the L&BR's website is good too.

Problem websites? In my opinion the SVR website has a long way to go yet, having gone from over-basic to over-complicated, with a confusing latest news page and very little information for the enthusiast.
The Bluebell Railway, despite having an excellent website for people like ourselves could go a long way toward overhauling their website for the average visitor, currently it looks a bit dated. The Llangollen Railway site is similar.

 

The Bluebell has a seperate site for the visitor bluebell-railway.com

The bluebell-railway.co.uk site ( which comes up first in searches) transfers you to it for visitor information.

 

After going back and messing about I did manage to find it, under train enthusiast? give me a break pleeeeese! It screams kiddies playtime to me.

 

It seems to me that along with the NRMs new idea these places are desperate to try and seperate themselves from enthusiasts and appeal to the kiddy market. They seem to have forgoten that railway enthusiasts are actually human, not some other species, and very often have families of their own.

 

As someone who has to pay the bills for a railway the Quainton Road website is spot on. Commercial reality is that families and kids pay the bills. This website is optimised to help them do that. It has a google page rank of 5 which puts it at the top of the heritage railway website tree.

 

So being positive, whats the best aspects of a preserved railways' website.

My thoughts are:

1. Logo loads first
2. Timetable and Fares are very obvious links to find on the page
3. Directions to the main station & parking as a key link
4. map of the line with key attractions
4a. Each station should be a URL pointing to a home page for the station with key aspects of it, including a map / directions etc.
5. A Headline news banner advertising upto date latest information

anything else should be a link off the front page for more information.

Adverts for other products, links to surveys, where people are from, twitter links, appeals, warnings etc all just eat valuable front page space and detract from what the site is all about.

The easiest mistake on a website is information overload...

Everything on the front page should be either informative, directive or aimed to make revenue.

Finally the page should be quick loading (detailed pages can be elsewhere), but if your waiting more than a few seconds for the front page to load.. patience will run out and people will scan elsewhere.

Put it another way..

If I go to BA.com how hard is it to find a flight, flight info etc... but if I want car hire, win the lottery, see who sponsors me and find out what happened 3 months ago... Ive got to go elsewhere on the site. Ryanair is different however.. try to find a link which doesnt involve extracting money from you... which again is it's aim.

thats my opinion anyway, and ive been involved in site design and HCI projects for 17 years.

 

As one or two people I know are still on dial-up, rather than soopppeerr-doooper faster than light broadband....

I would suggest that "flashy" (in both senses of the term) home pages are not a good idea. Even with a "skip intro" button!

My preference would be for a home page that loads quickly, with a link to the main index page then to the actual pages containing the information. (and each page must have a link back to the main index) Three Clicks rule

I'm not too impressed with brightly coloured and complex background images overlaid with text in the 'handwritten' fonts, I feel that they have accessablity issues.

I think Keith (ghost) has the right ideas, as a starting point. I would just add that the information provided should be correct.....
But we should also have a "passed at a good standard" award in a similar way.

We do need to be aware that not every organization can afford the sort of fees that some web-designers charge, so the criteria of "fit for purpose" should be bourne in mind - just who is the target audience, families or "puffer-nutters" or ........

StoneRoad

 

One of my favorites is the unnofficial West Somerset one which has a much more contemporary feel to it than the official one.

Agree that while the SVR one is better than it was, there is still something not quite right about it.
I quite like Epping & Ongar for its simplicity although no doubt that will change when they have to start attracting customers.
Swanage packs a lot of info into what seems a small website.

My pet dislikes for websites are those that don't have an enthusiasts section or if they do its so hidden it takes ages to find (often via a none too obvious link to another 'society' webpage) and those they don't have a map or diagramatical representation of the line showing where stations are in relation to their hinterland.

 

as most people who use the net do have broadband i think railways should concentrate on having a webpage that attracts as many customers as possible. and put the other bits that us enthusiasts want to one side but still accessible. don't make it all obsessed with what us geeky people want to know as that Will put of Joe public. if most of the railways want to keep alive they should look professional. they are after all a tourist attraction. i do like the none official web pages for the enthusiast as they can be for us. would that be the way forward with the none official ones updated more often with news that is just interesting for us and the main. page just updated with big news

 

I would agree. Additionally, I think there are quite a few websites out there for heritage railways that are exactly the opposite to the web-designer approach, i.e. sites created and maintained by one enthusiastic but essentially amateur individual, usually a volunteer who was persuaded to set up the site when the net was still gaining popularity!

My group's website is an example of this, I look after it but I'm certainly no web designer!