1. Home
  2. Model railroading in the UK
  3. Controversial - Rubbish Web Sites

Controversial - Rubbish Web Sites

IMHO, many commercial model railway web sites are pretty toilet when
compared to most other commercial sites. It might be the old "I'm an
engineer, I can write my own web site" ploy but sadly these people can't
always be the best judge of their own work.
I won't name too many names but even the Peco and Lenz sites look like a
sixth-form attempt.
Is this one of the reasons why people outside of the hobby don't think that
model railways are 'cool' because the sites they go and find aren't?
I would be happy to point out some of the classic mistakes made including
images that are too low-resolution, colours that don't mix, massive long
lists of stuff, poor navigation and too many framesets but alas, I guess it
might fall on deaf ears.....
Controversially,
Luke
Reply to
Luke Briner
Loading thread data ...
On the other hand, the best way to eliminate a LOT of people from even _considering_ your web site is to put Flash or ActiveX (or even JavaScript) on it...
Give me substance over flash every time.
Reply to
Joe Ellis
Just because there are ways of making the sites even worse (or at least no better) doesn't make the examples given any better.
Mark Thornton
Reply to
Mark Thornton
Well said. Nothing more annoying than waiting for the new Flash plug-in to download and then another 5 minutes for the animation to download, simply to blat the company logo at several jaunty angles : )
I think some people assume that virtually everyone uses broadband - which is of course not true.
Luke
Reply to
Luke Briner
Hi Luke,
My ears won't be deaf, but don't necessarily expect me to agree with you:
formatting link
you find anything "cool", I shall remove it.
Martin.
Reply to
Martin Wynne
Heljan's site? ;-)
Ian J.
Reply to
Ian J.
Probably because they were built by people who don't understand website design, possibly using poor web design software.
Its quite possible that the companies paid considerable sums for their relatively poor website design; there were and still are a lot of cowboy web designers around.
So, they'd have to spend even more money to get an improved site (by throwing out the old), and the new site may well cost more in on-going maintenance.
Possibly. But there are plenty of bad websites in other areas of interest.
If you want to tell them fine, but I doubt they will listen unless you're offering to fix and onwards maintain for next to nothing. Saying what's wrong is one thing. Saying how to fix it is another, and producing a new working design is yet a third task.
Designing and maintaining a website is not a trivial task, and its very easy for a previously decent design to get out of hand as the site needs evolve. Making the jump to a new design can be quite difficult if there is a lot of time invested in the previous material, or if that needs to move across to the new.
- Nigel (who thinks the 2mm website is quite well designed, but needs a pile of changes which are proving difficult to incorporate without spending weeks re-working all the content).
Reply to
NC
But they are the ones with the most money to spend :-).
Reply to
Larry Blanchard
Not when BB costs more than dial-up, they're not! ;op
Cheers, John.
Reply to
John Lancaster
Not necessarily. Broadband is unlikely to reach this location and places like it for some time to come.
Reply to
Bruce Fletcher
salvé Luke Briner skrev i diskussionsgruppsmeddelandet:cr0te6$8b2$ snipped-for-privacy@titan.btinternet.com...
Dear Like , When I was doing a web master course some years ago it was pointed out that over 80% of people click further if a web side takes longer than 10 seconds to download, I doubt if its changed a lot. Beowulf
Reply to
Beowulf
In message , Larry Blanchard writes
There are still those of us who cannot access broadband at any price :-(
Reply to
Graeme Eldred
I always wondered if they ever monitor the percentage of site visitors who click on the skip-intro link on sites with stupid Flash animations on the front page?
Fred X
Reply to
Fred X
"Luke Briner" wrote
Progress shouldn't stop for those that don't have broadband.
John.
Reply to
John Turner
When I go to a Model Railway website, commercial or otherwise, I go to look at the model railway information not to admire the webdesign. If the site does not allow me to find what I want with minimum hassle then I'm not impressed. If the site is commercial, ie is selling or advertising something then I expect it to show off by making it easy for me to see what they have to offer and then providing full details of anything I select. Not many do this well, some are impenetrable! Keith
Make friends in the hobby. Visit Garratt photos for the big steam lovers.
Reply to
Keith Norgrove
Anyone who wants to sell to me via the Internet had better assume I _don't_ have broadband! If neccessary, that might require two separate web pages, with the full bells and whistles version accessible from the minimal page.
Regards, Greg.P.
Reply to
Gregory Procter
Or after the flash crap - you get NO INFORMATION! it just says Click here to enter MAN I hate that - unless it is a spectacular presentation which I expected or was visiting the site to see.
As a designer AND a Model Rail fan I have to agree that many sites leave much to be desired ...... but then so do the ads for product in the magazines. You need to use a magnifying glass to find out prices. It's like a computer rag we get here in Oz.
Images on many sites and NOT clickable to get higher res. versions. I find this really annoying, as the standard images are terrible. Websites can be fantastic experiences, just like many Model Rail layouts - I see little evidence of thoughtfulness on a lot of the sites, though I totally understand the time/cash constraints most people are under.
To wrap up my sermonising, please allow me to add that Model Rail is not cool, hip, or anything else like that - it doesn't need to be anything other than what it is......
1. Fine engineering in miniature 2. A way express creativity 3. A way to make things that move 4. A way to bring people together to share a passion 5. Bloody good fun 6. Incredibly frustrating 7. Beautiful when done well, and often a great laugh when not 8. Gentle
Keep Steamin on!
Steve
Australia
Reply to
mindesign
Larry I just have to say I love your sig
Not sure if you knew, but when Gandhi got off the Steamer in England on his way to have an audience with the "powers" a reporter stopped him and asked (in ignorance) "Mr. Gandhi, What do you think of Western Civilisation?" to which he replied "I think it is a very good idea"
Your sig made me smile in the same way as when I heard that.
Cheers
Steve The Mild Colonial Boy
Reply to
mindesign
You don't need broadband to achieve great web-design and high user-friendliness
Reply to
mindesign
Actually, he said "it would be a very good idea".
Dis anybody see the b/w train footage they used to show Ghandi's trip to Manchester in the Attenborough movie?
It showed a GWR Castle.
Reply to
Christopher A. Lee

Further Reading

  • Heat Transfer Web Sites

  • Hi there,I'm looking for any web sites related to heat transfer.I'm...

  • Jim Guthrie's web sites

  • Hi JimYou had som very good articles on your web site on constructing...

  • Good MR Web Sites

  • I decided to check in on some web sites I haven't visited for awhile that I...

  • Auto Body Web Sites?

  • Yeah, I'm really getting into cars these days. As is typical of myself,I...

  • Important Painting and Modelcraft Web Sites!

  • Are there important web sites reguarding colourship, paintings, federalstandards...

  • Good web sites for armor modeling?

  • When I got my new computer I evidently failed to trasnfer my favoritemodeling...

  • Hydraulic power textbooks or web sites?

  • Can anybody recommend a good textbook or web site for intro to hydraulic drive...

  • RCU AMA discussions and other web sites

  • RCU has offered sub-forums to the AMA discussion forum to the candidates forAMA...

  • Web sites introducing metallurgy and materials engineering

  • I an giving a talk to a group of high school students about materialsscience and...

  • Any good DCC web sites around?

  • Good selection of useful sites here Eddie, many...

  • Introductory web sites about materials science and engineering

  • I an giving a talk to a group of high school students about materialsscience and...

  • Sites listing gas engines for sale?

  • Other than RC Universe are there any other sites that have a number of...

  • INFOMAT - info sources for MSE databases, web sites

  • The August, 2004 Issue of JOM has an article about this database ofinformation...

  • Sites

  • Qu'est ce qu'il y a comme sites et blogs nuls c'est effarant

  • sites

  • Hello am going to join electrical engg.Can sum 1 plz give links to somegood...

  • Is there a uk.rec.models.rail FAQ?

  • I've seen several fairly similar questions on this group (I've probably posted...
  • « previous thread

  • Heljan website rehash

  • The new improved Heljan website is now up and running at the same address ()....
  • next thread »

PolyTech Forum website is not affiliated with any of the manufacturers or service providers discussed here. All logos and trade names are the property of their respective owners.