"Which Manufacturer has the Worst Website?" Topic

I had intended to order some figures from a manufacturer because they were having a sale. The website was so dire in the end I gave up. (At one stage I even discovered Julius Ceasar amongst the French napoleonic Personalities… I think this site probably holds the record.. but I may be wrong..
Top Ten Worst Wargames Manufacturers Sites anyone?
C

Without question, the worst is RH Models

rhmodels.com

- Limited pictures of figures that are separate from the figure lists, so you need to cross reference to find anything (you won't)

- Absence of an online ordering system

- 30 rules for what NOT to do when you order

The figures are great, but the website is a train wreck.

Shoot, that website is still announcing the shows they will be attending in 2011.

Peter Pig's site is pretty rudimentary. I've seen worse, but still… It's bad.

Any website where you can click on the smaller image to make it larger so you can see the details better, but the new image is the same size as the previous image.

If you are going to include that option, include a larger pic!

Yes the PP website was "bashed" by Henry Hyde in his magazine twice now. He really does not like it at all. Now it is also "bad". I like the site, but then I am the writer not the customer. The intention is to make the site straightforward.
I would argue that the site is clear, very well illustrated and logical to navigate. The photos show the the castings in close detail. What else is important to customers? I am not being defensive but am genuinely interested.

thanks

martin

My personal bug bear are sites that give no contact address.

That has got me thinking…
The PP website allows a sight of about 30 pictured items on the screen at the same time too. I really like that. Which site is the gold standard?

martin

Well I really like the PP site Martin, it's simple, easy to navigate and not fancy or pretentious.

I'm sorry if I offended you, Martin. Since you've asked, though, here is some feedback that I hope is constructive and helpful.

1. Organization: The site feels cluttered and haphazard. One immediate improvement would be to move the "Things, Links, and Information" box to the bottom and put your products at the top. The products themselves are in no particular order other than by "Range" number, a number which has no meaning to anyone besides the shopkeeper. I'd eliminate the Range numbers, ruleset names, and numbers of packs, and the reorganize the product ranges chronologically. If need be, add subheadings to help group things together:

Days of Yore

• Ancients
  
• Dark Ages
  
• Wars of the Roses
  
• English Civil War
  
• Pirates
  
• Pirate Ships (1/450)
  
• Samurai
  
• American War of Independence
  

Age of Steam

• Odd Napoleonics
  
• American Civil War
  
• ACW Naval
  
• British Colonial
  

Industrial Warfare

• World War I
  
• Spanish Civil War
  
• Etc.
  
• Etc.
  

Within each range's page, then, I'd start with a description and link to the rules, then add internal links that point to anchors within the page. So you may have 50 factions within the WWI page, but a person wanting to find the Polish would see that link right at that top instead of having to scroll endlessly.

2. Colors: The "Italian crème soda" theme of the site is visually jarring. I'd tone it down with a plain white background and use pics or sidebars/banners to add color. Or, a very subtle, very light single monotone like here on TMP.

3. That "Things, Links, and Information" box is a mess. I'd reorganize it into columns, with headings like "Ordering", "Shows", "Distributors", "News", and "Links", and then sort out everything in that table into the appropriate columns. "Ordering" could include the subheadings on items like VAT, shipping, special orders, the PDF catalogues, etc., for example.

4. Tables: Tables are great for organizing content, but the heavy black borders can be distracting. I'd honestly go with Border="0" and then use a light color fill to distinguish between alternating rows.

5. Fonts: It looks like you're using fonts around the 28 to 32 point range. I'd recommend dropping that to 14 or 16 point for body text and 20 to 24 point for headings. Also, serif fonts like Times are very visually distracting; personally, I'd choose a sans-serif font like Tahoma or Arial. Comic Sans, however, is punishable by death.

Also, on the text: centering is okay for headings, but for body text, it's really difficult to follow and unpleasant to read. I would left-justify all the body text.

There are other things I could suggest, but I think those changes would show immediate improvement in the site's usability. I did web design for a few years when I was in graduate school and at a dot-com, so I do have a bit of experience to draw from.

OK i will try some of that out

Thank you

martin

Are you kidding me?!?!?! I agree with foxweasel, the peter pig site is VERY good compared to so many others: clear categories, good pictures of the product that can quickly be enlarged.
You know, there are actual miniatures sellers that do NOT INCLUDE ANY PICTURES (or just a few or terrible ones) of their product on their website. RSM95 miniatures and Spenser Smith spring to mind. Two ranges that when I have seen pictures of their product (from blogs), I drool over, but when try to go, cash in hand, to buy them, I literally cannot because I can't figure out what to order. Seriously…

I am a developer and I endorse almost everything javelin98 says (I think organizing by rules is a valid method.) Thete is easy CSS to do the alternating table rows, which I'd be happy to show you, Martin.

Yeah, CSS and server-side includes can really reduce the amount of repetitive work for the developer.

OK chaps.I have started to make a few upgrades, Maybe this will get me off being the worst website? Well at least by one place?

thanks

martin

Don't remember names, but there's a few sites I've come across when someone suggested this or that line of mini's and there's no photo of ANYTHING and the order option is some variation of "email us with your credit card number".

I'll buy stuff if SOME of your range have some photos, but nothing at all? Get out of here.

Not a manufacturer,but I really wish TMP would come into the 21st century.

Why? What's so great about the 21st century?

Yes, it seems pretty rubbish so far.

I want my 'post fall of the Berlin Wall' 1990s days back, when knew we weren't actually all going to die in nuclear fireball, history had ended and someone had figured out all these clever financial products which made us all rich for the next fifteen years.

That's a good start, Martin!

hat.com

HaT has an awful site IMO.

Need to ask which dealer/store has the worst website.