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

[RogerS]

Only just taken a quick peek at it and I admit I am a coservative. I think that there was nothing wrong with the old site. It's like an old friend has suddenly departed.

I don't like the layout of the new site (an observation not affected by my other post re Axminster). In particular the layout of the product description field spreads right across the screen and I find it much, much more difficult to read. I really preferred the old description layout that was more vertically oriented. This new layout is horrible.

 

[Noel]

Looks nice and fresh and modern to me. Big improvement.

 

[RogerS]

The Signing-In page doesn't render properly in Firefox on a Mac. Truncated on the LH side.

Information seems to be spread out all over the page. The old site seemed much 'tighter' somehow.

EDIT: Search is excruciatingly slow

 

[Peter T]

The Signing-In page doesn't render properly in Firefox on a Mac. Truncated on the LH side.

Information seems to be spread out all over the page. The old site seemed much 'tighter' somehow.

EDIT: Search is excruciatingly slow

What he said

but I haven't tried the search function yet.

 

[RogerS]

Anyone else lost their Saved baskets?

Ah..looks like that very useful feature has gone.

I went through a trial to buy some stuff. What is the point of that window popping up telling me it's been added to my basket? I can see that from the top of the screen. So I have to waste time clicking yet another button to continue shopping and I don't recall it working like that in the past.

I know I'm going off on one but this new site is for me unusable and guarantees that I will now try and shop elsewhere in future. It is so painful to use.

 

[wizer]

I've just had a quick look. Apart from the search, the old site worked fine for me. I understand what they've done, but it looks a bit like 'Fisher Price's First Website' to me.

I'm sure it will grow on us. It's no where near as bad as TilGear

 

[wobblycogs]

IMHO, some good improvements but they really should have tested it before releasing it on the general public.

I really like fact that the reviews, descriptions are as wide as the page now but the order is wrong. The customer reviews should be last, the description should be first. The old box was far too narrow which meant constant scrolling. The key features could do with a little re-styling, there's too much space between each bullet point which leads to excesive scrolling and the last feature is always slightly covered by the fade in effect.

The biggest problem I had was a totally failure of the shopping basket on Firefox. After 90 seconds I gave up waiting. I did eventually get a few things in the basket but boy is it slow. As others have said the sign in page isn't rendering correctly on Firefox (I'm running Windows). The search is also painfully slow, at least 20 seconds to load each page.

 

[RogerS]

.....The old box was far too narrow which meant constant scrolling. ......

I find the opposite and wonder if it's anything to do with ones preference/ability to read say a novel on screen. I can't get on with it. Those sites that are easy to read have their text in a column width that requires minimal eye movement.

 

[disco_monkey79]

Maybe it's just my machine, but the new site seems terribly slow.

 

[9fingers]

Where have they hidden the download section ?

Bob

 

[big soft moose]

Where have they hidden the download section ?

Bob

here bob

http://www.axminster.co.uk/product-manu ... downloads/

I had to look on the site map to find it tho , which isnt great web design

 

[9fingers]

Thanks Pete.

I was always obvious before. I use it a lot when folk ask for help and I download the manual to help answer the question.

Bob

 

[RogerS]

Now what was that phrase?

Remind me again?

Ah yes...'If it ain't broke, don't fix it'.

 

[studders]

It irritates the hell out of me when boxes, menus etc. pop up left, right and centre when the mouse crosses over parts of the page; it seems to be prevalent these days, I wish it wasn't.

 

[wizer]

Whist I do use popup menus in my sites, I agree with you Studders. They are overused here and it's annoying when you are trying to get somewhere with the mouse and they're going off like land mines.

 

[OPJ]

It looks quite similar to the current Brimarc site, which was updated several months ago now.

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.

 

[big soft moose]

It looks quite similar to the current Brimarc site, which was updated several months ago now.

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.

arent axminster and brimarc related somehow - i think one owns the other

 

[WellsWood]

Looks horrid on Firefox on my machine (pc), but it may be my settings as it works OK on IE8.

I liked the old site - fast, familiar and effective - the new one is none of those things and has the added annoyance of those infuriating flyouts as the mouse rolls over the screen :evil: :evil:

Classic case of reinventing the wheel, a massive thumbs down from me.

 

[RogerS]

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

 

[big soft moose]

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