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New ROH website - 2019 and 2022 versions

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Margaret

Margaret

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I've just looked at the new site - what a mess!!!  I used the calendar, and could just about see something underneath the calendar window.  Eventually I found a link to the summer ballets, glad I have done my summer booking through Friends.  Why can't they leave well alone?

 

 

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JohnS

JohnS

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1 hour ago, Richard LH said:

It is on the home page but you have to scroll down into the pink area at the bottom where there is a phone number and an "email us" link.

 

Thanks Richard - I’d been looking for a ‘Contact us’ link as that’s what it used to be called and is still there on other pages.  All very confusing.

I’m afraid I’ve drawn a complete blank with Calendar.

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Beryl H

Beryl H

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A horrible mess, I have found that if you select filters at the start, say ballet/dance, main stage,Linbury, it does speed up all that scrolling, hope they don't mess up the actual booking pages too! I had the chance to give a 1-5 score again today!

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Dawnstar

Dawnstar

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Quite. I found myself wondering, as the ratings box popped up today, if anyone is giving it more than a 1 or 2 at the moment.

 

I decided to have a practice go at the Friday rush at 1pm today to see what that was like on the new website, as I'll potentially want to be doing it next week. I couldn't find any obvious link to the Friday rush page so ended up just going in via one of the Frankenstein performances, which did work. However as none of the rush tickets for Wednesday's performance have sold yet, 3 hours later, I probably won't actually have to worry about being quick next Friday for the last performance!

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JohnS

JohnS

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3 hours ago, Beryl H said:

A horrible mess, I have found that if you select filters at the start, say ballet/dance, main stage,Linbury, it does speed up all that scrolling, hope they don't mess up the actual booking pages too! I had the chance to give a 1-5 score again today!

 

But filters seem only to work for one purchase  - which will be incredibly frustrating when booking for a number of performances when a booking period opens and when ‘Calendar’ is completely blank.

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Geoff

Geoff

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The site is now truly horrible and will end up alienating all those who try and do more than flick (or rather scroll) through it, from first time bookers to the rest. It seems the current design is probably the result of

 

i/ Making top level decisions on general principles (attract new/different customers, for example) while forgetting to include “maintaining or improving current functionality” as a key strategic goal

 

ii/ Prioritising design ideas to deliver (i) while not properly tasking or supervising the web designers (a trade that can get as easily lost in its own not-always-sensible ideas as any other specialist activity) 

 

iii/ Not checking the result against a full list of criteria

 

iv/ Nor doing beta testing with enough different kinds of user (eg teenage and other new users; those who regularly spend thousands a year at ROH; those who book one show at Christmas; those who visit several times a week)

 

Last year’s row about the marketing consultants retained by Lucy Sinclair was a sackable offence in my view. This ill-conceived redesign is bad enough that here too heads should roll. But we know this won’t happen. ROH is a protected third sector organisation (once-in-never-out is the general rule) And Alex Beard’s long experience at Tate is not encouraging: the Tate is an organisation that tries to solve problems by adding new layers of management, just as has happened in recent years at ROH.

 

The alternative? Fewer but cleverer people, less pre-occupied with corridor politics and their own position, could work wonders. Sadly we can’t hope for this given the current managerialism that is running riot at Covent Garden. This is all not going to end well but will nonetheless be determinedly sold as a “brave new world”. 

 

Edited by Geoff
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Richard LH

Richard LH

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18 hours ago, Saodan said:

This is the link for the old style calendar. Who knows how long it will remain accessible. 

 

https://www.roh.org.uk/events/calendar/2019/03

 

So the historic pages are still there,  from which you can still link to individual previous performance/cast details. You just need the right http link details.

 

e.g. https://www.roh.org.uk/events/calendar/2015/11  for Nov 2015  (includes opera as not filtered for just ballet, as previously possible).

 

By the same token, I wonder if  the old "What's On" page is still there  and if so what its http address would be ?

 

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Mary

Mary

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So well said Geoff.

 

Presenting a website that makes it hopelessly difficult to find information and book tickets (having already got rid of  printed information of any kind,  and banished a tiny box office to an obscure corner) is rather similar to presenting productions in which many seats have a poor view, or indeed refurbishing a whole theatre so that the sightlines are worse than before.

 

It suggests an institutional attitude that is inward-looking, barely aware of the audience- whose annoying criticisms can simply be switched off by disabling comments on the few news items still put up.

 

The Royal Ballet deserves better. I think they should look around for a new home. Never thought I would say such a thing!

 

 

 

 

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JohnS

JohnS

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Many thanks Saodan and Richard. Given that the calendar information is still available and really clear and so useful, I take it the ROH could readily provide a link?  I’m hoping the current Calendar link is not what the website designers intended and will be sorted - but as the website has gone through a fair amount of testing this is poor.

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David

David

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I agree with Geoff and Mary above. Any other organisation that at a time of financial stringency devoted resources to activities unrelated to its primary function  and embarked on marketing strategies designed to alienate its key client base would be deemed unfit for purpose. This at a time when other Arts companies including our struggling ballet companies are  desperately underfunded and working so hard to maintain their clent base.The question has been raised elsewhere whether an organisation that relies entirely on buying in performers for each individual event can truly be called an opera company; on the other side of the House the Royal Ballet is firing on all cylinders at present but how long can that continue under an umbrella management that clearly lacks understanding of basic management skills and has become reliant on incompetent external consultants for whom the Arts objectives are subservient to other ill-conceived considerations.               

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bridiem

bridiem

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48 minutes ago, Mary said:

The Royal Ballet deserves better. I think they should look around for a new home. Never thought I would say such a thing!

 

As long as they can take the (main) auditorium with them!!

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capybara

capybara

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Your analysis/comment is 'spot on', Geoff.

So far, not one of the major new initiatives has been clearly founded on serving the primary purposes of the ROH. I am thinking here, in particular of course, of the misguided marketing statements, the priority afforded to 'the look' (rather than sight lines) in The Linbury, casting information (or lack of) which is discourteous to dancers and unhelpful to audiences,  the website re-vamp,  the ticket price decisions, and the inadequate communications with 'stakeholders' about the changes. Moreover, many of the 'mistakes' indicate a lack of management experience and flimsy decision-making processes.

There has been no attempt to use 'focus groups' or run proper 'trials' and I have yet to see much evidence of improvements resulting from feedback. I wanted to be supportive but, six months on from the launch of 'Open Up', some things seem to be getting worse, not better.

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penelopesimpson

penelopesimpson

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Brilliant analysis, Geoff.  It strikes me that you could apply everything you have said to the whole Open-Up project.

 

I know others believe Alex Beard is a good egg but I have long felt that he is detached from day-to-day management and seems to either not know or not care about the nuts and bolts that make an organisation work.  I felt from the beginning that the Open-Up project was a mistake as it clearly lacked any strategic objective, being more concerned with virtue signalling.  The result is a hopeless mess of money spent to create areas that are not, in their turn, producing revenue for the Opera House or, at the very least, building audiences for the future.  Some areas, notably the Ampitheatre Restaurant, have been reduced to a shadow of their original presence with the resultant negative impact on the bottom line.

 

Quite what we are to make of a marketing department that doesn't understand that the first priority of a website is to be functional, is hard to say.  (the same can also be said of the beige carpet)  The new design nightmare doesn't work on any level; if you want tickets to a specific event you have to wade through oceans of stuff, much of it peripheral or strictly niche market, and if you are new in town and want to see What's On, well, you'll probably give up and go elsewhere. 

 

Meanwhile, ticket prices rise to stratospheric levels, core audiences are no longer communicated with in any meaningful manner, and now we have Frankenstein unlikely to even break even.

 

Yes, heads should certainly roll but the tumbrils are still in cold storage.  Nobody seems even to be asking the questions, let alone analysing the answers.

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Bruce Wall

Bruce Wall

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1 hour ago, penelopesimpson said:

The result is a hopeless mess of money spent to create areas that are not, in their turn, producing revenue for the Opera House or, at the very least, building audiences for the future. 

 

Had to laugh last night --- I was enjoying some Boots sushi in the student cafe - (oh, sorry, the new 'opened-up' ROH main lobby) - and sat next two girls I did not know.  This was - I looked at my phone - at 7.08 pm.

 

One turned to the other and said ... 'It was so much more quiet the last time I was here.  There weren't all these people milling around going to some show.'

 

Her friend turned and said:  'Yeah, that would be better..  Let's leave.'

 

So much for new audiences.  

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Richard LH

Richard LH

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Posted (edited)
4 hours ago, Richard LH said:

By the same token, I wonder if  the old "What's On" page is still there  and if so what its http address would be ?

 

To answer my own question.....not sure about the links thereafter though... 

 

https://webcache.googleusercontent.com/search?q=cache:__eYUES-YFAJ:https://www.roh.org.uk/events+&cd=1&hl=en&ct=clnk&gl=uk

 

Edited by Richard LH
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onemouseplace

onemouseplace

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Just had a look at the new site and, my goodness, it is awful isn't it?  The ultimate irony for me is that to get a decent overview of what is going to be on and that I might like to see in a coming season will be via the Friends printed magazine and will not be by looking at the website. Hardly encouraging new audiences and participants. 

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David-G

David-G

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On 14/03/2019 at 13:54, Rob S said:

I propose you open up an ‘incognito’ tab on your browser so that every time you refresh the page a new ‘feedback’ pop up....err...pops up...and you can stress the point an appropriate number of times in different ways 

Very good suggestion.  Everyone please do this.

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