New Axminster website - what do you think of it ? POLL ADDED

[RogerS]

If you'd like to air your...ahem...'concerns' then email your suggestions to [email protected]

they also have a feedback thing on the bottom right of the website - well hidden unless you scroll right down to the bottom of the page

Aye..they certainly do love their scrolling. I've nearly worn by scroll button out!

 

[jimi43]

It's like most things these days...the engines are fairly generic and made "dumbed down" for some reason...

I am bemused by the zoom button on the photographs...

The ones I tried at least....they zoom out....to the SAME size! :roll:

They are probably still playing with it.

Thanks be that the shops are FAR better engineered as is their customer service!

Still...all that being said...I can find the "Japanese Hand Tools" section...so job done!

Jim

 

[studders]

I am bemused by the zoom button on the photographs...

The ones I tried at least....they zoom out....to the SAME size! :roll:


Jim

Axminster site often seems to do that? Pointless and annoying. They are not alone in that respect though, sadly.

 

[misterfish]

It looks like the search engine may have improved a bit. I like the drop-down menu idea (as you're typing), which works quite well on some other sites.

I think the phrase 'works quite well on some other sites' sums it up. I'm using Windows 7 and IE8 and as I type in the search box I get a drop down with matching items but I can't actually select any of these,

I think the overall site is improved but needs more debugging - hopefully once it's settled down it'll be OK.

The source code doesn't show an author tag for the site so it may well have been developed in-house which can make rigorous testing difficult to effectively undertake.

Misterfish

 

[RogerS]

.....

I think the overall site is improved but needs more debugging - hopefully once it's settled down it'll be OK.

I don't agree. There was nothing wrong with the original layout. The new layout has far too much white space and you waste a hell of a lot of time scroling all over the place. Things like zooming buttons etc aren't going to be sorted by a debug but a fundamental rethink of the look and feel of the site.

The source code doesn't show an author tag for the site so it may well have been developed in-house which can make rigorous testing difficult to effectively undertake.

Misterfish

That doesn't follow. There are plenty of organisations that will validate code, stress test the site (which doesn't seem to have happened given the slow response) out there. So..no...no excuse.

EDIT: Taken from an online guide on improving readability of a web page

Use columns to control text width. Your goal here is to avoid running your text all the way across the page. Pick up any newspaper. Notice how they place the text in columns. The shorter width makes the text easier to read.

This is what the old Axminster site did. Excellent.

Compare and contrast with the Description box on the new site. I rest my case.

 

[AndyT]

Looks ok, but there are some problems to be fixed, eg

- Start at Home. Type Bandsaw into search box. Bandsaw comes up in list of searched terms, immediately. Click on Bandsaws. Find only 9 models, starting at £899. Conclusion - they don't sell budget or hobby machines any more.

Reality - the search lands you into an 'Industrial and Specialist Machines' category. The ones I wanted were off in 'Woodworking Machinery' which was not visible from the search.

Also:

- pictures have not all been captioned - plenty of placeholder text still there - 'main picture of product' 'alternative' etc.

But was quick and ok in Firefox.

 

[Benchwayze]

The left hand side of the login screen is truncated until details are entered. Then submitting login and password gets no action! Seems Firefox doesn't like the new site.. Or vicky-verka!

I suppose I should tell them, and ask them why they tried to fix something that wasn't broken. There seems to be a lot of that about these days, the BBC being a main defaulter!



John l

 

[Dan-K]

Looks ok, but there are some problems to be fixed, eg

- Start at Home. Type Bandsaw into search box....Find only 9 models...

Reality - the search lands you into an 'Industrial and Specialist Machines' category. The ones I wanted were off in 'Woodworking Machinery' which was not visible from the search.

This is one thing that bugged me about the old site, and doesn't seem to have improved in the new site - it is very difficult to find things. There are too many categories on the left menu and artificial divisions between similar products. I'd like to find e.g all the bandsaws in one place, ideally sorted in ascending price order by default. Then I can take my budget and quickly decide which section of the range I am interested in, not have to first work out whether I want a large hobby machine or small industrial one and whether there will be a few examples in woodworking and others in power tools or industrial or workshop equipment or whatever.

For example Record Power has a simple hierarchy and I can use a drop-down on the homepage to navigate to Products -> Bandsaws ->Machines (or Accesories or Blades). This takes me through to a single page with all the bandsaws they offer in ascending price order. One click. Simple.
Axminster: Scroll down homepage. Click woodworking. Scroll. Bandsaws. Click on dropdown box. Select price low to high. OK thats probably most of them. Then back out to homepage a few times to check they haven't hidden any options in Industrial or Engineering or Clearance. Slow, labour intensive and much more work than it needs to be, especially compared to the one-click simplicity at Record. :?

The changes at Axi seem to be merely cosmetic, rather than actually trying to improve the customer experience. If they paid someone to do this I reckon they wasted their money.

 

[RogerS]

I've added a poll.

 

[wobblycogs]

LMAO, I just got an email from Axi asking for feedback about the new site. After waiting a whopping 32 seconds for the contact us page to load I entered some feedback and guess what.... it failed to submit and generated a server error ](*,). I hope they didn't pay someone to develop that site for them.

 

[big soft moose]

I hope they didn't pay someone to develop that site for them.

shouldve hired tom

mind you if you think the axminster site is bad you better not go to tilgear
http://www.tilgear.info/ also recently re done but still sucks a fat one

 

[wobblycogs]

They could have hired me - not quite my area of expertise anymore but close enough.

I agree about the Tilgear site, it was never very good but now it virtually makes my eyes bleed.

 

[Benchwayze]

LMAO, I just got an email from Axi asking for feedback about the new site. After waiting a whopping 32 seconds for the contact us page to load I entered some feedback and guess what.... it failed to submit and generated a server error ](*,). I hope they didn't pay someone to develop that site for them.

Same problem too. Also their search engine produced no result when I entered Lie Nielsen! I tried 'Planes' and then had to wde through 6 pages before I found what I was looking for.

So maybe I will get my bevel-up smoother from somewhere else!

Johh

 

[Orcamesh]

I havent read all of your comments so I may overlap, but having just gone to have a quick look I see that the site now is like a narrow gauge model railway! The text is all squashed up (from left to right) and means I have to scroll down for ages to find anything, including searched items. It looks like they have made a major error, it doesnt seem possible that APTC would be happy with this, surely? Anyway, here's hoping that they will sort it out asap.

cheers
HM

 

[Racers]

Hi,

Can't seem to connect to Axminister, it that a good thing? :wink:



Pete

 

[Orcamesh]

OK I take it all back, since I got home and viewed it on Safari browser the new axminster website seems fine to read now, no longer squashed. I dont know what happened when I looked from my work pc. Anyway, in terms of old v new, I think the new one is ok now that it looks right. I havent dived in deeply yet but it all seems ok so far.

I havent read all of your comments so I may overlap, but having just gone to have a quick look I see that the site now is like a narrow gauge model railway! The text is all squashed up (from left to right) and means I have to scroll down for ages to find anything, including searched items. It looks like they have made a major error, it doesnt seem possible that APTC would be happy with this, surely? Anyway, here's hoping that they will sort it out asap.

cheers
HM

 

[Tim Nott]

It's appalling, and I told Ian Styles so.
His very swift reply pointed out that as it is a transactional site it is difficult to beta.
He assured me that the bloody awful mouseover Browse by Category popup will be killed, as will the Capcha thing for leaving reviews

 

[Benchwayze]

OK I take it all back, since I got home and viewed it on Safari browser the new axminster website seems fine to read now, no longer squashed. I dont know what happened when I looked from my work pc. Anyway, in terms of old v new, I think the new one is ok now that it looks right. I havent dived in deeply yet but it all seems ok so far.

cheers
HM

Thanks HM..
I just installed Safari... Quite suddenly, my PC works properly. It is, by comparison to Firefox, like lighting.

Cheers.
John

 

[RogerS]

....
His very swift reply pointed out that as it is a transactional site it is difficult to beta.
....s

But the basic 'design' can be validated etc and some thought given to readability

 

[wizer]

It's appalling, and I told Ian Styles so.
His very swift reply pointed out that as it is a transactional site it is difficult to beta.
He assured me that the bloody awful mouseover Browse by Category popup will be killed, as will the Capcha thing for leaving reviews

I don't see why? I hope they have a proper Web Development team and not getting the IT Dept to do it. I've developed commerce sites and it's completely possible to both test it fully before going live and also to bring in 'Beta Testers' from anywhere on the web to destruction test.

After playing with it a bit more I actually like it less. It seems much slower and clunkier than the old one. I think I miss the old site.

There seems to be a trend with commerce sites, to make them look like content management systems. i.e like a magazine. It doesn't work to my eyes. I'm not keen on the scrolling feature panel. Great for a magazine type site, but not for a woodworking retailer.