New re-formatted Irish Rail Website

dublinman1990 · 12-02-2014 02:00PM #1

To my complete surprise; Irish Rail have re-formatted from their previous look on their website.

http://www.irishrail.ie/

The home page and it's text looks pretty big to look and read through it.

What does everyone on C&T thinks of the new design? Do you like it at all as I think they have done a nice job on it.

And it is my 1700th post on boards today. Happy Days.:)

bk · 12-02-2014 02:11PM

Wow, I think it is pretty awful!!!

What the hell are they thinking, way too big, most of the site is hidden below the screen on a standard laptop.

The old site was actually very nice, it was a website I often praised. Really there was no need to change it, I've no idea what they are thinking with this!!

BabyBirch · 12-02-2014 02:14PM

The difference is it's responsive, so it works on phones and tablets. And it's so much better! But I agree it's very plain and boxy on a regular computer screen now.

symbolic · 12-02-2014 02:34PM

I like it, looks great on phone too.

Judgement Day · 12-02-2014 03:18PM

Rubbish, just like the old site.

AngryLips · 12-02-2014 03:35PM

Looks very 'Windows 8 Metro'. It's obviously been redesigned for touch interface. I like it. I liked the old one too.

L1011 · 12-02-2014 03:43PM

Matches the childish logo now. However, if it does work better on phones it'll save me from using the horrendously unreliable NTA apps.

TheBandicoot · 12-02-2014 04:03PM

MYOB wrote: »

Matches the childish logo now. However, if it does work better on phones it'll save me from using the horrendously unreliable NTA apps.

In fairness, I've found the Android NTA Journey Planner app very reliable. It reliably force closes the first time I open it, every time, just have to open it again to use it. I appreciate the consistency.

bk · 12-02-2014 04:21PM

Yes, it does look good on the iPhone and iPad *

However no excuse for it looking so terrible on a laptop/desktop. Just use a different CSS for these, optimised for these devices.

* Though the live map did manage to crash Safari on my iPad.

GTE · 12-02-2014 04:31PM

bk wrote: »

Wow, I think it is pretty awful!!!

What the hell are they thinking, way too big, most of the site is hidden below the screen on a standard laptop.

The old site was actually very nice, it was a website I often praised. Really there was no need to change it, I've no idea what they are thinking with this!!

bk wrote: »

Yes, it does look good on the iPhone and iPad *

However no excuse for it looking so terrible on a laptop/desktop. Just use a different CSS for these, optimised for these devices.

* Though the live map did manage to crash Safari on my iPad.

Give it a chance for heavens sake. Before the weather warnings went up, those orange banners were used for saying they want feedback from everyone to improve the design since moving to a touch orientated interface.

n97 mini · 12-02-2014 05:50PM

Not a fan. Looks like it's for simpletons.

bk · 12-02-2014 06:49PM

bbk wrote: »

Give it a chance for heavens sake. Before the weather warnings went up, those orange banners were used for saying they want feedback from everyone to improve the design since moving to a touch orientated interface.

Well that is exactly what we are doing now, giving feedback.

Though how any designer would leave the desktop website go out looking like this is beyond me!

GTE · 12-02-2014 07:10PM

bk wrote: »

Well that is exactly what we are doing now, giving feedback.

Though how any designer would leave the desktop website go out looking like this is beyond me!

The quality of feedback leaves a lot to be desired at times :pac:

Ahh well.

Victor · 12-02-2014 07:12PM

TheBandicoot wrote: »

In fairness, I've found the Android NTA Journey Planner app very reliable. It reliably force closes the first time I open it, every time, just have to open it again to use it. I appreciate the consistency.

Can you drop a line to info@nationaltransport.ie ? Include phone / operating system and app details and what happens.

devnull · 12-02-2014 07:13PM

The current IE site and the previous one are 100x better than what went before it by a country mile.

AngryLips · 12-02-2014 08:04PM

n97 mini wrote: »

Not a fan. Looks like it's for simpletons.

Surely, that's kinda the point?

cgcsb · 12-02-2014 10:11PM

the previous one was too wide, you had to scroll across. They've removed some of the information from their projects section, including the Navan rail extension, Interesting. Does anyone know an alternative source for this information?

LXFlyer · 12-02-2014 10:17PM

I'd let them know that the drawings/schematics are missing - I'd say it's just an error.

GTE · 12-02-2014 10:24PM

That or it will take time to process the older material into the new site.

xper · 12-02-2014 10:49PM

AngryLips wrote: »

...for simpletons

Surely, that's kinda the point?

Agreed. Clean, consistent design. Most commonly used features easily found.

My initial impression is that it is a good implementation of responsive website design. Adapts well to various device screen sizes and orientation.

I think the layout and text size is pretty good on my desktop although maybe a small, low-res laptop screen might jar with it. However, I think they should go with either a slightly smaller full-width picture cycler or the smaller one immediately below it instead of both and give more prominence to the News and Service Updates section.

Looks very good on the iPad, adapts well between portrait and landscape orientation. I suspect the devs concentrated on the tablet experience!

On the phone, spacing could be tightened up a notch as it's a bit of a scroll and the main nav bar (Home-Fares-Timetables-Info) needs to be reproduced in that same place at the top of the page as in the other layouts and not relegated to the very end in a completely different appearance.

I'm sure there are other snags and refinements to work out but, out of the gate, this is pretty good in my opinion.

sdanseo · 12-02-2014 11:17PM

The largest banned ad needs to be removed or re-positioned. It's too big and empty and takes up too much of the initial view while conveying almost no information due to the size of the text.

Maybe place the booking section in a column to the side - everyone is on widescreen now.

The site looks better at 80% zoom than at full size, everything is a tad big.

Looks very,very nice on iPhone/mobile though.

New re-formatted Irish Rail Website

Comments