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Post by cavocado on Jan 20, 2023 12:40:13 GMT
I see the National has had a website redesign. It was needed, but I'm finding the new version a bit confusing and cluttered. I went on to look for Dancing at Lughnasa tickets. The front page shows productions up to March, including tours and co-productions, but no Lughnasa. If you click on 'location' you get a map... It would be nice to have a button for 'in our building'. I found what I wanted eventually (on page 2 of 'theatre shows'), and I can see why they want to show that they have a larger impact than just their home building. But it doesn't seem like an improvement for the National Theatre website to make it difficult to find details of all productions in the building that is called the 'National Theatre'.
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Post by emmy on Jan 20, 2023 12:59:55 GMT
They certainly seem to be making aspects of their website a lot harder to use - they used to have one of the best and easiest to use young people ticket schemes in entry pass and now getting the 16-25 tickets is unnecessarily convoluted and unclear (I can never find the page on the website, so you have to search directly for them, log out of your account, release tickets, log back in, etc). Can't see how it's helping build their audience reach.
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Post by cavocado on Jan 20, 2023 13:19:39 GMT
They certainly seem to be making aspects of their website a lot harder to use - they used to have one of the best and easiest to use young people ticket schemes in entry pass and now getting the 16-25 tickets is unnecessarily convoluted and unclear (I can never find the page on the website, so you have to search directly for them, log out of your account, release tickets, log back in, etc). Can't see how it's helping build their audience reach. It's odd that any large organisation gets this kind of thing wrong. Surely they do a lot of research, focus groups of users, look at any issues reported with the old website, as well as things they want to change (presumably giving more presence to tours, online, cinema screenings, etc), and a lot of testing before it goes live. The Almeida and Southwark Playhouse also have new websites, which both seem to be improvements and are clear to use. |
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Post by showgirl on Jan 21, 2023 5:04:04 GMT
Didn't know about this but it doesn't sound encouraging! I waited ages for a reply to my email asking why there was no longer a "matinee" filter for booking tickets and whether they could restore it. Goodness knows they have umpteen other filters, some arguably less useful and surely matinees are the only safe option when booking before a running time is announced and/or for those with concerns about travel back by public transport?
To my surprise the reply I eventually received said it was not straightforward to add this filter but they would request it. I did point out that having one would probably reduce the queueing time on busy days (eg when new booking goes live) as identifying suitable performances would be easier and quicker, and that other theatres offered this option.
It would be interesting to know why the NT changes things when they do - and helpful if they first sought feedback/suggestions from users, or at least asked for views afterwards so they could tweak settings if necessary - but that seems to be a communication gap.
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Post by Deleted on Jan 21, 2023 7:34:31 GMT
Cut and paste your feedback from here and email it to: feedback@nationaltheatre.org.uk
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Post by Latecomer on Jan 21, 2023 14:27:32 GMT
Didn't know about this but it doesn't sound encouraging! I waited ages for a reply to my email asking why there was no longer a "matinee" filter for booking tickets and whether they could restore it. Goodness knows they have umpteen other filters, some arguably less useful and surely matinees are the only safe option when booking before a running time is announced and/or for those with concerns about travel back by public transport? To my surprise the reply I eventually received said it was not straightforward to add this filter but they would request it. I did point out that having one would probably reduce the queueing time on busy days (eg when new booking goes live) as identifying suitable performances would be easier and quicker, and that other theatres offered this option. It would be interesting to know why the NT changes things when they do - and helpful if they first sought feedback/suggestions from users, or at least asked for views afterwards so they could tweak settings if necessary - but that seems to be a communication gap. Of course it’s easy to add this filter….it’s hardy rocket science is it!!!!! Of course the new website doesn’t have matinee filter. I have also emailed to ask for this (fully support showgirl on this!) . It’s annoying when people state things are “impossible” or “really hard” when you know full well that what they mean is they can’t be bothered. And they sometimes think you are a lone voice. Whereas they should think “if this person has taken the trouble to email perhaps there are more people being annoyed by this who just haven’t had the time/been bothered to email (because it takes a lot of effort to be bothered and most people won’t), so maybe it would be good to implement it!” …… |
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Post by Jon on Jan 21, 2023 15:20:20 GMT
I'm not sure why people complain about websites being redesigned, these refreshes are necessary, you can't have website looking like ones from the year 2000.
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Post by cavocado on Jan 21, 2023 16:53:51 GMT
I'm not sure why people complain about websites being redesigned, these refreshes are necessary, you can't have website looking like ones from the year 2000. Because organisations have websites to help their customers access the information and services they provide, so surely they want to know when a website redesign makes that difficult? I don't dislike upgrades and resdesigns that are functional (as with the Almeida and Southwark Playhouse), but there's nothing wrong with regular users of a website pointing out when something isn't user-friendly. |
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Post by n1david on Feb 3, 2023 12:24:14 GMT
Is it just me or has Running Time vanished from the NT website? Can't find it, even on shows that have already opened.
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Post by mkb on Feb 3, 2023 14:43:39 GMT
I can't find it either. Colour me surprised. Not.
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Post by evilmat360 on Feb 3, 2023 19:55:39 GMT
Seems to be showing on the pages for The Ocean at the End of the Lane and The Lehman Trilogy under the dates buttons. |
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Post by n1david on Feb 3, 2023 20:19:19 GMT
Thanks, it's on those two shows playing outside the NT, but oddly for Phaedra at the Lyttleton it's not there. Guess that's because it's still in Preview. Rather odd at the NT at the moment - as far as I can see none of the three auditoria have a show that is actually running not in Preview at the moment. Guess Running Times will appear on the website after Opening Nights for the future shows (although for something like Sky's Edge they should have an idea now given it's a transfer - I got it from the Sheffield website, but you'd think the NT might be able to show it on their website even if they hedged it with an "approx")
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Post by n1david on Feb 6, 2023 14:58:42 GMT
Nice e-mail back from the NT confirming that running time will be on the website for everything when confirmed, but because Phaedra is still in preview the director is still working on it and preview running times have varied between 2h45 and 3h15. SATSE they quoted the running time from Sheffield (2h50) and said it shouldn't change much, and Romeo & Julie is still too early in development to quote.
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Post by mkb on Feb 7, 2023 13:52:01 GMT
Nice e-mail back from the NT confirming that running time will be on the website for everything when confirmed, but because Phaedra is still in preview the director is still working on it and preview running times have varied between 2h45 and 3h15. SATSE they quoted the running time from Sheffield (2h50) and said it shouldn't change much, and Romeo & Julie is still too early in development to quote. Would it be too much trouble for them to say exactly that on their website? Knowing that it's at least 2:45 and possibly a lot more is incredibly useful information for those of us trying to plan a journey home or maybe book a hotel. |
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