Evans e-catalogue

POHB said the following on 25/05/2006 15:02:

Quoted message said:

http://www.evanscycles.com/news.jsp?item_id=239

What's the point of that? A slow, non-searchable simulation of a paper
catalogue that makes whooshing noises when you turn the page.

I'm afraid I got bored after all the click heres and enter theres and
all the flashy stuff. :-(

--
Paul Boyd
http://www.paul-boyd.co.uk/

POHB said:

http://www.evanscycles.com/news.jsp?item_id=239

What's the point of that? A slow, non-searchable simulation of a paper
catalogue that makes whooshing noises when you turn the page.

Not having sound hooked up I didn't get a whoosh, but I /can/ search it
with the, errr, search feature.

However, I'd agree it's a lot of wasted effort, but then we're clearly
luddite fools who foolishly assume content is more important than style...

Pete.
--
Peter Clinch Medical Physics IT Officer
Tel 44 1382 660111 ext. 33637 Univ. of Dundee, Ninewells Hospital
Fax 44 1382 640177 Dundee DD1 9SY Scotland UK
net [email hidden] http://www.dundee.ac.uk/~pjclinch/

POHB said:

http://www.evanscycles.com/news.jsp?item_id=239

What's the point of that? A slow, non-searchable simulation of a paper
catalogue that makes whooshing noises when you turn the page.

A triumph of sophisticated web trickery (make no mistakes,
doing all that stuff is hard) over function.

BugBear

bugbear said:

POHB said:

http://www.evanscycles.com/news.jsp?item_id=239

What's the point of that? A slow, non-searchable simulation of a paper
catalogue that makes whooshing noises when you turn the page.

A triumph of sophisticated web trickery (make no mistakes,
doing all that stuff is hard) over function.

And it is almost useless.. Why try to present text information as a
graphical image?

What a waste of time and effort.

...d

Quoted message said:

BugBear

POHB said:

http://www.evanscycles.com/news.jsp?item_id=239

What's the point of that? A slow, non-searchable simulation of a paper
catalogue that makes whooshing noises when you turn the page.

Since the content appears to be their printed
catalogue, a "web optimised" PDF
would seem the natural solution,
if they can't create a fully dedicated web site.

http://studio.adobe.com/uk/tips/tip.jsp?p=1&id=100805&xml=acr6kboptpdf

BugBear

POHB said:

http://www.evanscycles.com/news.jsp?item_id=239

What's the point of that? A slow, non-searchable simulation of a paper
catalogue that makes whooshing noises when you turn the page.

<Shamefaced> I rather like it!

bugbear said:

POHB said:

http://www.evanscycles.com/news.jsp?item_id=239

What's the point of that? A slow, non-searchable simulation of a
paper catalogue that makes whooshing noises when you turn the page.

A triumph of sophisticated web trickery (make no mistakes,
doing all that stuff is hard) over function.

I assume that the software (see URL) makes it easy as uploading a PDF

http://www.activepoint.com/publicap/product5.html

--
Ambrose

POHB said:

http://www.evanscycles.com/news.jsp?item_id=239

What's the point of that? A slow, non-searchable simulation of a
paper catalogue that makes whooshing noises when you turn the page.

Clicking on an item brings up a page in the site from which you can order.

Seems not unreasonable to me.

David

--
[email hidden]

Tosspot said:

POHB said:

http://www.evanscycles.com/news.jsp?item_id=239

What's the point of that? A slow, non-searchable simulation of a
paper catalogue that makes whooshing noises when you turn the page.

<Shamefaced> I rather like it!

I can definitely see the point of it. It'd be nice if it downloaded things
in the background, though.

The company I work for has a rudimentary but functional website (I'm not
full time, it's not my primary task, and there's insufficient deskspace for
work requiring actual concentration), and we get requests all the time for
an online catalogue where everything's presented for the user to browse
through.

I guess people want the feedback of what the retailer thinks are their most
important items.
--
Ambrose

in message <[email hidden]>, POHB

(') said:

http://www.evanscycles.com/news.jsp?item_id=239

What's the point of that? A slow, non-searchable simulation of a
paper catalogue that makes whooshing noises when you turn the page.

Do not start me on the general appallingness of the UK 'web design'
industry, or the cluelessness of its customers. I really don't know
which is more depressing - that some idiot 'creative' was clueless
enough to suggest this to Evans, or that Evans were clueless enough to
accept it.

Even better, I cannot possibly read any of the text unless I 'zoom in'.
If I zoom in, the document won't fit even on my very large screen, so I
have to pan around. And, joy of joys, when you zoom in you lose the
controls, so you can't zoom out again!

With competitors like this, life really should be easy!

--
[email hidden] (Simon Brooke) http://www.jasmine.org.uk/~simon/

;; Women are from Venus. Men are from Mars. Lusers are from Uranus.

in message <[email hidden]>, bugbear

('bugbear@trim_papermule.co.uk_trim') said:

POHB said:

http://www.evanscycles.com/news.jsp?item_id=239

What's the point of that? A slow, non-searchable simulation of a
paper catalogue that makes whooshing noises when you turn the page.

Since the content appears to be their printed
catalogue, a "web optimised" PDF
would seem the natural solution,
if they can't create a fully dedicated web site.

http://studio.adobe.com/uk/tips/tip.jsp?p=1&id=100805&xml=acr6kboptpdf

Since they almost certainly sell more over the Web than from their
printed catalogue, that would before the horse be the cart to put. PDF
is a useless bloody abortion of a text format, anyway.

--
[email hidden] (Simon Brooke) http://www.jasmine.org.uk/~simon/

...but have you *seen* the size of the world wide spider?

Simon Brooke said:

in message <[email hidden]>,

bugbear ('bugbear@trim_papermule.co.uk_trim') said:

POHB said:

http://www.evanscycles.com/news.jsp?item_id=239

What's the point of that? A slow, non-searchable simulation of a
paper catalogue that makes whooshing noises when you turn the page.

Since the content appears to be their printed
catalogue, a "web optimised" PDF
would seem the natural solution,
if they can't create a fully dedicated web site.

http://studio.adobe.com/uk/tips/tip.jsp?p=1&id=100805&xml=acr6kboptpdf

Since they almost certainly sell more over the Web than from their
printed catalogue, that would before the horse be the cart to put. PDF
is a useless bloody abortion of a text format, anyway.

..PDF is a poor format for text. It can be a very good way to render
marketing material.

Pendantically, given that it was always intended as a means of sharing
layouts, I don't see that there was any abortion of a plan to use it as a
text format. If you meant abortion in the abomination sense of the word,
then *please* say abomination. I find it has less unpleasant connotations.

It would indeed be foolish to replace their website with the a web friendly
PDF, but it there are plenty of customers who want to browse, not to search,
and to see things constrained by the order the shop chooses to put them in.
After all, the shop knows its product range better than its customers do.
--
Ambrose

Simon Brooke said:

in message <[email hidden]>, POHB

(') said:

http://www.evanscycles.com/news.jsp?item_id=239

What's the point of that? A slow, non-searchable simulation of a
paper catalogue that makes whooshing noises when you turn the page.

Do not start me on the general appallingness of the UK 'web design'
industry, or the cluelessness of its customers.

The software's made in Israel.

--
Ambrose

David K said:

Clicking on an item brings up a page in the site from which you can order.

Seems not unreasonable to me.

A bit like it did in the old on-line catalogue, which required much less
bandwidth and didn't need you to zoom and pan and scroll to read things.

They've taken something that already worked and made it harder and
slower to use. That's the problem.

Pete.
--
Peter Clinch Medical Physics IT Officer
Tel 44 1382 660111 ext. 33637 Univ. of Dundee, Ninewells Hospital
Fax 44 1382 640177 Dundee DD1 9SY Scotland UK
net [email hidden] http://www.dundee.ac.uk/~pjclinch/

POHB said:

http://www.evanscycles.com/news.jsp?item_id=239

What's the point of that? A slow, non-searchable simulation of a paper
catalogue that makes whooshing noises when you turn the page.

It's a bit of fun. You don't *have* to use it.

"Al C-F" wrote

Quoted message said:

Quoted message said:

It's a bit of fun. You don't *have* to use it.

Not my idea of fun.
Indeed you don't have to use it because their "normal" website is just fine,
which makes the flash thingy even more pointless.

POHB said:

"Al C-F" wrote

Quoted message said:

Quoted message said:

It's a bit of fun. You don't *have* to use it.

Not my idea of fun.
Indeed you don't have to use it because their "normal" website is just fine,

provided you mean fine in the "[censored]" sense

Quoted message said:

which makes the flash thingy even more pointless.

makes the website look good by comparison

best wishes
james
bitter that a new Evans store could put my lbs out of business

Peter Clinch said:

David K said:

Clicking on an item brings up a page in the site from which you can
order. Seems not unreasonable to me.

A bit like it did in the old on-line catalogue, which required much
less bandwidth and didn't need you to zoom and pan and scroll to read
things.
They've taken something that already worked and made it harder and
slower to use. That's the problem.

They've not replaced it. I reckon that it's very good for some customers.
However, the intersection of the customers who like it and people who use
usenet is likely to be vanishingly small.

Evans want to sell to the customers who like it, but they needn't stop
selling to people who can use a normal website.

And yes, over 50% of the customers whose opinions I hear about the online
shop I'm responsible for ask for something like this.
--
Ambrose

Ambrose Nankivell said:

And yes, over 50% of the customers whose opinions I hear about the
online shop I'm responsible for ask for something like this.

Be careful making wishes, you might get what you ask for...

Pete.
--
Peter Clinch Medical Physics IT Officer
Tel 44 1382 660111 ext. 33637 Univ. of Dundee, Ninewells Hospital
Fax 44 1382 640177 Dundee DD1 9SY Scotland UK
net [email hidden] http://www.dundee.ac.uk/~pjclinch/