Finding What’s On
Obviously the main reason for visiting theatre websites is to find out what’s on or discover a bit more about a production or show. That is so obvious that it hardly needs saying. Why then do so many make it so flaming difficult?
If I want to find out what’s on at the theatre, I expect to be able to go o the site, click on something like “What’s On” and be taken to a list of forthcoming productions. Then I want to find the production I want, click on that and be presented with the details. Three clicks, that’s all.
A simple enough procedure, you would think. But no: some sites have to make it extremely complicated. There’s one - no names - where, after going past the “splash page” which simply says “Enter site”, you click on “what’s on” and are taken to a choice of various kinds of shows. You then click on your choice and you are taken to a page which gives the barest details (name of play and author, plus date), and then you are asked to click on “More”. Now we have the details of the play: a plot outline, details of the author and possibly the cast and creative team. “Well,” you think to yourself, “I wouldn’t mind seeing this. When is it on?” Oh dear! Another click required, to take you to the “dates and times” page. Five pages so far! Then one more if you want to book. That tells you the number of the box office or, if you want to book online, there’s another link to click on, taking you up to seven.
It would have been far quicker to go straight to the “Contact” page, find out the box office number and ring them. For goodness sakes, websites are supposed to make life easier!
There’s another where clicking on the “What’s on” link takes you to a page where you are given the choice of three different ways of finding out out what’s on: you can search for the show you want, you can look up what’s on this week, or you can ask it to list all the shows in the season. Doing any of these takes you to a page which gives the most basic details, and you have to click on “More” to find out what you want to know. Four pages.
If the site uses Flash rather than straightforward HTML or some of its more complex variants, you sometimes have to double the number of clicks because you have to click on a link before it actually becomes a link - “Click to use this control”.
When I first started to learn how to produce websites (way back in 1996, that was), it was drummed into me that you keep your content as few clicks away from the main page as possible - “No more than two clicks away” was the mantra. While that is sometimes not possible, it’s a good idea to adhere to it as closely as you possibly can. But seven?
Come on, designers, get your act together. And marketing departments: if your web designers have fobbed you off with a site that takes far too long and the patience of Job to navigate through, demand your money back, sack them and get someone who considers the users rather than sees the site as an excuse to show off their skills in Flash, mySQL, PHP, ASP, javascript or any other technique which happens to be flavour of the week.