TFL's journeyplanner-messed up again guys?

[matgb]

I've mentioned the TFL and their sucky journeyplanner before, but now they've gone and done something really daft. I have journeyplanner.tfl.gov.uk bookmarked, as I like the advanced options like 'I only want bus routes' and similar. What do you get if you try to got here now? Under Construction. Um, that's not right, surely?

So I go to tfl.gov.uk and click the link there instead. I suddenly find myself with a new windo open (because I've not set all the options on this laptop properly it seems) and I'm going to a new site, journeyplanner.org. Mixed reactions, because if they've got a new site, they'r eimproving things, right? Except having used it a bit, it appears not. But also? Why will designers insist on opening new windows all the damn time? It remains one of the Top Ten Mistakes in Web Design:

Opening up new browser windows is like a vacuum cleaner sales person who starts a visit by emptying an ash tray on the customer's carpet. Don't pollute my screen with any more windows, thanks (particularly since current operating systems have miserable window management).

Designers open new browser windows on the theory that it keeps users on their site. But even disregarding the user-hostile message implied in taking over the user's machine, the strategy is self-defeating since it disables the Back button which is the normal way users return to previous sites.

It's such a bad idea, especially now with all the different browser platforms out there.

So, not only do approximately 1,780 incoming links to the old site no longer work, but they've broken basic usability rules, messed around with user expectations, yet still not actually improved the site in any way. What are they doing?

For the record, a small wishlist of things they could do to make the site usable:

• Saved searches--it would be nice for the site to remember where I live, the mobile version will save searches, but isn't that a bit less useful given that the mobile version is more likely to be used away from home?
• Easier preferences selection--I use the bus a lot, and sometimes the tube; as I don't go into town daily, I prefer to use Oyster pay-as-you-go, which means I don't take the train in. So it would be nice if I could set it to remember I prefer bus only routes, or bus+tube routes, rather than having to go down and deselect stuff all the time
• Map links to online mapping resources--Making me download a PDF to look at where my local bus stop is is bloody stupid, especially given the preponderance of decent online mapping software these days, and it's of no use at all if I'm on my mobile browser

I could go on, and I've not even mentioned the Oyster log in problem--forgotten your password? After three attempts, it takes you to a lock out screen, that tells you to go to the front page and click the 'lost password' link. Sound plan, except... If you go to the frontpage, it redirects you to the error message you're trying to leave. Lovely.

Massive organisation, big investment budget, huge website with lots of data, and they appear to have not done a basic level usability study. Ah well. mooism? Are you still thinking about that project you mentioned?

Comments

[miss-s-b.livejournal.com]

WHY does nobody know this stuff? Surely it's basic?

[matgb]

Well, yes, you would think so, but apparently not; it's a principle gripe at wpts that even professional sites are bloody awful when it comes to usability. Not to mention some of the sites I look at every day at work.

[miss-s-b.livejournal.com]

How come these tossers get to be "professional" web designers and get PAID for it when they are so clueless?

[matgb]

Because most of them are technically competent at either code or design, and a lot of SMEs haven't understood the need to be aware of other elements as well.

Most companies look at their website as a glorified brochure and sales platform; what they can get from the site, not what their potential customers can find useful.

There are exceptions, but they're a minority; there also aren't that many usability experts around, and they don't tend to win many arguments with the sales and marketing types. That's increasingly not the case, but it's a late start.

[miss-s-b.livejournal.com]

But surely it's OBVIOUS that the point of a sales website is to be as usable as possible because this will generate more sales? Amazon seem to have grasped that from the start...

[matgb]

Well, yes, and Amazon gets huge plaudits for taking usability seriously right from the beginning.

But a lot of the time it's all about the pretty; how many really bad LJ layouts have you seen that make the eyes bleed but are damn pretty.

Then go to MySpace. Then remember a lot of the bosses don't know any better than that, and will get sucked into bleeding edge technology. My favourite 'worst website ever' link:
http://www.whitesnake.com/

Go shudder in horror.

[miss-s-b.livejournal.com]

* lets the icon do the talking re: the whitesnake website *

[caramel-betty.livejournal.com]

But surely it's OBVIOUS that the point of a sales website is to be as usable as possible because this will generate more sales?

Sort of. There are a number of problems.

There are two particular problems with geeks.

1) Many geeks like bells, widgets, and shiny things. Trying to get them to make things simple and easy to use by getting rid of extraneous crap is something they don't understand. See the revolution that was the iPod interface, for example, vs the plethora of crappy interfaces that have existed before and since. "But if I can't get access to stupid-feature-27 from the front page, it won't be efficient!" Another example would be the Google interface. Previous search engines, links and categories aplenty, and all sorts of "web portal" crap. Google - just a simple box to use.

2) Sort of related to 1). Many geeks who write programs think about how they're going to implement it. Everyone else will, of course, know the decisions they took, why, and appreciate the great interface that communicates that precisely! Because they understand the innards of the program, when evauluating ease of use, they'll get it wrong. It's easy to use because they know it backwards.


Marketeers can screw up in other ways. They very often want to control the user's "experience", rather than just letting them get on with it. Which is a bit shit.

[miss-s-b.livejournal.com]

Yeah, Mat has a bit of a problem with installing five million firefox extensions so that he can do things with one click that would have previously taken two, so I can kind of understand what you're saying with point one; although he does that to HIMSELF. He understands that other people don't necessarily want that kind of "functionality".

So yeah, both of those are problems with SOME geeks, rather than ALL geeks, I think. It's just that the geeks with the problem seem to be the ones that get the jobs.

[innerbrat]

I admit the tone doesn't come across well with text, but somehow you seem surprised.

This is TfL you're talking about. You want user-friendly service, value for money or any sort of treatment other than that you're a waste of their time?

Move to a different city.

[matgb]

Oh, I'm not really surprised, merely a little frustrated; they're obviously doing some work on it, so why not actually make it worth using?

It does, unfortunately, remain better than many other attempts I've used. Besides, I might send them a link to this (if I can be arsed), so a reasonably polite tone might get a better response, even if I think it's unlikely...

[miss-s-b.livejournal.com]

LMAO so I commented above and it loaded to this, and Shrub saw your icon and went "YAYYYY! UNDERGROUND EARLY!!!" (Because, for some reason, the irony of calling Underground Ernie "early" doesn't strike the four year old brain). It's a good job she can't read much yet...

;)

[mooism.livejournal.com]

The old journeyplanner site is still there when I look at it, behaving the same as it ever did. Maybe it was just a glitch when you looked at it.

I am still thinking about my project, but I am lacking tuits for it :-(

[matgb]

Try:
http://journeyplanner.tfl.gov.uk/

That used to redirect to xxx/users/sessionsomethingorother but now it just does as above (for me, anyway). Weirdly the bookmark on my other machine, which goes to the /users section works fine, and I can get around the site. So they've done something daft with the frontpage.

Anyway, if you're lacking tuits, shall I see about sending you a round one?

[mooism.livejournal.com]

Yes, it redirects to http://journeyplanner.tfl.gov.uk/user/XSLT_TRIP_REQUEST2?language=en for me, just as it always used to.

Round tuits would be wonderful :-)

[eldar.livejournal.com]

I think the designers of an extranet I've been using this morning went to the same school as the TfL people.

[matgb]

The scary thing is I've seen much much worse. From companies that, among their other services, offer web design. Which is even scarier.

[eldar.livejournal.com]

I've just attempted to install the latest greatest software update from this same company.

It was downloaded as an iso image and burned to CD (never mind that it would've been quicker to drive/take a train to their offices, pick up a CD, and get back here than downloading the 400Mb+ of this release - and we're not talking about a company based in London or even the home counties here).

First I updated the client software. No problem. It complained it didn't like the server: no problem, that's next to be updated!

Except the server bit is screwed to high heaven with corrupt files all over the shop. Attempting to copy the whole lot to my local drive only highlighted even more corrupt files that my PC don't think are there. So now I have a client that won't talk to the server any more so there goes the rest of the day's planned development work.

(Never mind the reservations and gripes I have with this particular bit of software as a whole. I don't have a choice in the matter, we have clients who want us to interface with it so I have to work with it.)

(Sorry about the rant. I've spent the last few days banging my head against various people here with respect to this product and I'm getting very, very, annoyed.)

[matgb]

Oh, don't apologise; I'm not in your field, but I've worked alongside people doing it, and sometimes the frustrations do hit.

At work I'm trying to run the basic level website, so I install all the PHP scripts onto the host server, to find it's not compatible; it'll run PHP, but not versions 4+. Um, 4.0 was released, what, ten years ago? Ouch...

[caramel-betty.livejournal.com]

Only 7 but, even so, if people insist on running PHP running a supported version (with, you know, security patches and things) is nice.

[rho]

TFL also hits my own personal pet peeve of web design. The online form for registering an oyster card has a phone number field. Which is perfectly standard. And it has a check to make sure you input a valid phone number rather than "fuck off, you don't get to telemarket at me". Which is also standard enough. The problem is that it insists that my perfectly valid and functional 10 digit phone number can't possibly exist. If you're checking whether something is a valid $whatever, then for the love of all that is good and holy, please check the specifications for that whatever first, so you odn't piss people off. (This problem is far more common than it ought to be. TFL is merely one such offender. But like I said, it's my pet peeve.)

[matgb]

Oh, agreed; I ring companies all over the SE, and get that sort of shortened number regularly, that sites insist on X digits when X clearly isn't possible is daft.

Even more annoying, one site I use has a post code validator that will reject a code that has an errant space. So if I copy a full code, then copy the end bit into the second box, I have to go back and make sure to delete the middle space from the first box. Bloody stupid.

[davidnm.livejournal.com]

Sounds like TfL could do with getting their internet act together...

[matgb]

Well, not just their internet act but, well, y'never know...

[recursived.livejournal.com]

Can I be an apparently lone voice here and say that I quite like the TFL journeyplanner? Sure, you need to play around with it a bit and be aware of its limitations (which is also true of, say, Google's search form), and it could be a bit better constructed usability wise, but then that last bit is just a corollary of Sturgeon's Law.

My particular gripes are the default setting of "walking" as being at the pace of an arthritic pensioner and cycling at an optimistic 10mph (irrespective of distance, terrain and traffic lights).