disturbman Posted January 20 Share Posted January 20 2 hours ago, cteno4 said: What a huge step back. Everything is headed for just blind searching. Horrid structure and navigation. Seems most of the older archival stuff is gone. Ok just found after you do a search you have to click on the “Includ out of stock” option in the left column to see the old stuff. A lot of it seems to be there, so that’s good. Just harder to get at. It's optimized for mobile viewing and searching, and horrid for desktop use. I want to get used to it before giving feedback, but the fact that the "See All Pre-orders" page from the main N scale page doesn't arrange viewing of the items by newest or doesn't allow you to reorganize the list is a big downside. I cannot figure out the current logic behind the organization, it's like its ordered by least popular. Their old landing pages made it very easy to see new pre-orders, whereas now it's lost at the bottom. The easiest would be to keep that url at hand, https://www.1999.co.jp/eng/mlist/331/0/1/ But now the titles are too long to make navigation really efficient. Link to comment
disturbman Posted January 20 Share Posted January 20 1 hour ago, bill937ca said: I am noticing 5% off on the product listing page. https://www.1999.co.jp/eng/mlist/396/7/1 But when you go into the item description, it is 14% off. https://www.1999.co.jp/eng/11112185 Well, it says 14% but the reduction is still only 5%. And, what? The price is cheaper on the Japanese shop (https://www.1999.co.jp/11112185). The system must be borking due to the removal of the Japanese sales tax. In the old version, HS always advertised the removal of the Japanese sales tax as a discount they granted from the MSRP, but the new system shows the MSRP with the VAT already removed. Link to comment
cteno4 Posted January 20 Share Posted January 20 10 hours ago, disturbman said: It's optimized for mobile viewing and searching, and horrid for desktop use. Yes even for tablet use. They skipped any good adaptive design approach. I’ve done a few sites where we folded large navigation structures into popup menus for mobile and beefed up search so mobile users could keep navigation out of their way as well as having good content layout for each. But I had clients get lazy and not want to pay for that and just say ok all mobile and screw the rest. Clients that ditched navigation and content organization for search all ended up regretting it later but going back was almost impossible. I warned them the work it would be to reconstitute that stuff but they said search is the future. One main reason I retired from doing the work. jeff 1 Link to comment
katoftw Posted January 20 Share Posted January 20 On 1/18/2025 at 10:36 AM, RS18U said: So HS has announced they are doing an upgrade of both their desktop and mobile sites. I always dread these 'updates' as often they do not provide for an improved user experience. Lets hope this one goes well. Happening January 20, Monday. [Renewal Details] • Design Updates: A complete refresh for both mobile and desktop versions. • New Comprehensive Homepage: An intuitive, centralized starting point for navigation. • Improved Search Accuracy: Quickly find what you’re looking for with improved precision. • Better Accessibility: A more inclusive and user-friendly experience for everyone. https://www.1999.co.jp/eng/infodetails And they are also noting shipping delays with orders taking up to 7 business days to ship rather than the usual 2-3. The new websites are terrible. The navigation to sections requires more effort and clicks. 1 Link to comment
Kamome442 Posted January 20 Share Posted January 20 I guess the it ties in with the name you really do have to do a lot more searching for your hobby now. 1 Link to comment
Kingmeow Posted January 20 Share Posted January 20 24 minutes ago, Kamome442 said: I guess the it ties in with the name you really do have to do a lot more searching for your hobby now. Maybe they should change the name to HIS, Hobby Impossible Search. 🤪 2 Link to comment
bill937ca Posted January 21 Author Share Posted January 21 The new listings bury the manufacturers product number right at the bottom of the listing which is the opposite of how many of us buy trains. Useless. Link to comment
cteno4 Posted January 21 Share Posted January 21 Yes I think they just plugged the data fields into a set template. It was not designed to be the nice dense block of data previously presented at the top of the page, all together in a very tight format. Everything is a pre done template these days and pour your data into it and not much care how well it fits. again why I left the biz as no one seemed to care much about this sort of detail, it was make it look like this site mostly. In this case probably plaza. No thought about their data and presence and history. Follow the lemming… jeff Link to comment
disturbman Posted January 21 Share Posted January 21 Yes. I still hope we can give them some constructive feedback so they can implement changes. 1 Link to comment
cteno4 Posted January 21 Share Posted January 21 I fear it will fall on deaf ears, but we can hope. Clients after sinking a lot of time and money on a revamp of a site are usually unwilling to do much of any modification to the new site. Once deployed, other than technical issues, the site redesign contract is usually over, design changes at that point becomes new work or change of work orders and expensive. I’ve had clients berate the folks complaints as old farts and not seeing ahead to me. It was sad and a lot of what I was raising my had about in design loops, but there is such a desire to follow rather than look at what you need and what is best for your org, not the other lemming they were trying to follow. Mobile also is such a bright shiny object that tends to blind. It really wore me down fast and I had worked on huge, complex projects with ease compared to these. Trending and high volume tends to rule even if you have a huge data set that the small volume greatly exceeds the big volume stuff. I don’t get it. The culture is now just put in a few words and expect to be given what you want. While that works for some things I think most of us have learned in our hobby here it takes a bit more detailed research as you get into it that some good navigation and more narrowed searches help. A lot of the learning is in your research process and that is lost with just doing blind searches. The old HS site was very easy to navigate and do research on easily and quickly. Not now. jeff Link to comment
disturbman Posted January 21 Share Posted January 21 (edited) The fact the item number is not shown anymore at the metalevel is actually an issue to figure out which addon one needs 😅 Edited January 21 by disturbman 2 Link to comment
RS18U Posted January 22 Share Posted January 22 On 1/17/2025 at 4:36 PM, RS18U said: I always dread these 'updates' as often they do not provide for an improved user experience. Lets hope this one goes well. Sigh....did not go well at all. At least 'my Wish List' is intact so can see some items that way, but searching is only marginally better than PJ now when it used to be night and day difference. And I agree with Jeff, feedback is unlikely to change anything but worth a try. Link to comment
MeTheSwede Posted January 22 Share Posted January 22 Horrible! 😭 Why must contemporary website design always be so shit? Oh well, I guess at least I will be saving money and have less unopened products lying around. 1 Link to comment
bill937ca Posted January 22 Author Share Posted January 22 Could this be death by design to the overseas division? Link to comment
cteno4 Posted January 22 Share Posted January 22 No bill, it’s the fad the last 5 years or so. I think it was plaza Japan’s new website and the usual we’ll we have to look like them reflex. I went around this tree about a dozen times before I said no more. It’s labeled innovation and make it look fresh! No reason for functionality (maybe to add some adaptive design to gracefully fold menus and nav into a mobile system), but generally it’s this notion of be a lemming and do what everyone else is doing, it must be right, but not reasoning thru any of this on their business/org’s actual needs. But generally its a large investments in an idea that customers will perceive an older site that has good navigation and functionality as crap and not stay. I heard tons of excuses and reasoning give to me for this stuff and none stood up to a quick question or two, but by the time it was to me it was damn the torpedos full speed ahead and no one would listen to alternative ideas. I would try to say well let’s keep your content, structure, and navigation as they are tried and true and just refresh the layout and skin some. We can also do content housekeeping and a little clean up of structure and nav as well (good to do periodically) No! No! No! Slash and burn content ditch nav for search and totally rearrange the page layout so it looks nothing at all like the old one. I would try to explain that all these things each cost way more in time, money and headaches to do but no just do it. And these were from mainly small to mid sized non profits who did not have the money to burn (for years I got then along on the cheap as they would plead so poor and I would do things in efficient ways and give discounts and much of it gratis, but they would get to this and it was just throw cash at it. One client who was gratis for almost 30 years had the gall to do all the above and expect me to do it all for gratis. I said goodbye, only to be called back with begging from them when the new rollout crashed and burned and I propped it all up until the new developer could finally patch it up but then they went poof. Oh and I told them when hiring a developer don’t hire some gig guy to do it and what do they do hire a guy who wants a few thousand up front and then goes poof on them and they lost their money and they went and did it the second time and got a half assed job! All in the name of Innovation! I retired when this crap became the norm within a couple of years. As soon as I would hear “innovation” I would scream inside. I still don’t get why sites will dump 90+% of their good content to the point where there is noting on the site anymore. Why have a website if customers can’t get information on your products/projects? Web sites are the main way to distribute all that bulk, detailed stuff at a very low price. I had many clients say let them email or call! I would then say well that’s going to cost you about $5 per email and call in the long run. I’ll stop… I still have fresh wounds from this crap. jeff 3 Link to comment
brill27mcb Posted January 22 Share Posted January 22 My weekday morning ritual has included a quick check of the Hobby Search website, making an easy review of new arrivals, new reservation items and new re-stocks, then checking the beginnings of the Japan Trams/LRVs, World Electric Cars and a few other category listings for changes. Can't do that any more, sad to say. I came to the same initial conclusion that Jeff did when I spotted the larger item pictures and fonts - it's geared to smaller smart phone screens. That comes with the corresponding trimming down of useful content in favor of format and appearance, which has become so prevalent on websites these days. And that seems to lead to people's depth of knowledge and attention spans also shrinking... Rich K. 1 Link to comment
Sascha Posted January 23 Share Posted January 23 Nope,nope,nope. I really don't like it. It's very boring. It's no fun to browse anymore. Link to comment
lighthouse Posted January 23 Share Posted January 23 In the mornings on the computer, I liked to take a quick look at the website to see what was new (pre-orders, restock, etc.). I can no longer really do that, as the easy one-click path between restock, new and pre-order has been removed. I didn't find the old website layout particularly annoying on my mobile phone, although it sometimes didn't work with my thicker fingers. The database style was also greatly reduced, as you need more clicks for a more precise search. The old layout was very well set up, even if it was no longer up to date and exuded a touch of nostalgia. As I have rarely ordered from HobbySaerch in the past, I will probably invest my money in smaller shops in the future. Link to comment
bill937ca Posted January 23 Author Share Posted January 23 (edited) You can still see the reservations, new items and restocks, but you may have to bookmark the page. It's still there as I go into the site, but at the lower on the N Gauge page. I to used to check these three pages, also. https://www.1999.co.jp/eng/rail Reservations https://www.1999.co.jp/eng/more/reserve/rail New Items https://www.1999.co.jp/eng/more/new/rail Restocks https://www.1999.co.jp/eng/more/restock/rail Below these is the sales ranking. Edited January 23 by bill937ca Link to comment
cteno4 Posted January 23 Share Posted January 23 The medium is the message. McLuhan saw it coming. jeff Link to comment
katoftw Posted January 24 Share Posted January 24 23 hours ago, bill937ca said: You can still see the reservations, new items and restocks, but you may have to bookmark the page. It's still there as I go into the site, but at the lower on the N Gauge page. I to used to check these three pages, also. https://www.1999.co.jp/eng/rail Reservations https://www.1999.co.jp/eng/more/reserve/rail New Items https://www.1999.co.jp/eng/more/new/rail Restocks https://www.1999.co.jp/eng/more/restock/rail Below these is the sales ranking. No one has said they aren't there. We have said the ease of assess isn't there anymore. Link to comment
inobu Posted January 24 Share Posted January 24 I think it is an ADA (Americans with Disabilities Act) issue. Notice how everything is row and column driven. You see more and more sites complying. There is a Website Accessibility Checker. Its easier for us to adapt then leaving it as is. Inobu Link to comment
cteno4 Posted January 24 Share Posted January 24 No most of these issues are not ada, I’ve been around that tree a lot with gov sites. Designing your content layout to be logical format and layout actually helps in the ada review. It’s usually from using a pre designed template and not taking the time and effort to modify it to fit your content better. I’m noticing many of the final content pages are having similar layouts now even through different content. I’ve had clients just say shoehorn it in to the template. It’s a short cut. jeff Link to comment
inobu Posted January 24 Share Posted January 24 Go look at Tomix, Kato. Look at the Images. They all have the Large image format. To think all of them said "shoehorn" is highly unlikely. lol....I just checked.......https://www.skynettechnologies.com/blog/japan-website-accessibility-jis-x-8341 Inobu Link to comment
Tony Galiani Posted January 24 Share Posted January 24 Since I used to work in this area, I ran the site through an accessibility checker for WCAG2.2 and it got a score of 68 with 265 identified issues. However, this is not an American based company or web site so HS is not required to comply to ADA standards. (Heck, many American companies do not manage to comply.) They should meet Japanese requirements but I have no idea how they relate to our ADA. In my travels I see quite a bit of accessibility options that may be good for that country but do not comply with our standards. And, of course, US requirements are constantly evolving - often technology is put in place first and then issues sorted out after the fact. Tony 2 Link to comment
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