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You all know what I'm talking about! Miniature Games Websites that sell a great product or range but their Website is awful. My top 2 offenders..

1. KR Multicase (Great product - terrible website, I literally cannot workout what goes with what and even then i cannot be bothered)
2. PETER PIG (Some brilliant models - God awful interface)

I am hoping a name and shame list will encourage some better design and maybe some more business for them. Any others?

http://www.hotzmats.com/ Honestly, does every link on every page have to open a new browzer window? No, it doesn't. Fix your website.

mwnciboo wrote:1. KR Multicase (Great product - terrible website, I literally cannot workout what goes with what and even then i cannot be bothered)

I gave up after 5 minutes. If it takes that long to figure out how to buy your gak, you can keep it. I'll stick with Battle Foam.

Prince August. Great miniatures for the price, but their website looks like it was designed by my grandmother and should be hosted on geocities.

NEEDS MORE CENTER ALIGN AND BLINK TAGS!

I've got to chime in on KR. God, that site is dreadful.
I eventually had to email them to get THEM to tell ME what I needed for my models (which, BTW, would cost nearly DOUBLE the cost of Battlefoam - and the BF will have 2 custom trays & leave me with room to grow).

Eric

Going to have to agree here, if your website looks like it was made in 90's or by a high school kid I am taking my money elsewhere. KR's site is just plain terrible.

KR's tray selector tool is cobbled together, and makes you reset every time you want to change anything.

Good gear, iffy website. Good customer service by email, though.

Similar experience with KRmulticase but then I emailed with a list of what I had and they were very quick to get back to me and to get it posted out.

It's a cracking case too

It's good that they have great customer service, but I bet for everyone that goes through the trouble of emailing, at least 20 say F it, and go elsewhere. A better web presence would mean much more traffic and sales.

Gamesworkshop.com

Agreed on KR Multicase.
"Turrible, just turrible." - Charles Barkley

KR multicase site is horrible, I had to ask them what I needed to buy to make as good a case(s) for my minis.
The customer service is superb though and despite the awful website I will buy from them again since they help you out really well.

I'm a web designer for my day job, and I think this has turned me into a website snob. If I can't find exactly what I want in the first page view, I leave unless it's something I really need. If I were gonna buy something that was on 2 different sites, I'd buy from the site that looked better or was easier to use. And when it comes to smartphone web browsing, if a site isn't optimized for the small screen, I won't even use it at all unless I'm on a real computer.

But, not everyone out there is a web designer and they don't know much more than basic HTML. I do give em credit for at least trying. Their site might have been state of the art in 1998, but if they have a big online store it could be way too time consuming to update it, so they get stuck using the same old crappy site they've always had, and don't make enough money to pay someone to fix it.

Funny story... about 10 years ago I was trying to get some freelance work.. I found a site called worst of the web or something like that, where each day they find a site that really sucks and then put it up there for the world to see. So I would go to those sucky sites and email the webmaster saying something like "since you were listed on the worst of the web maybe you'd like to pay me to redo your site for you" .. got lots of nasty replies I wasn't trying to be mean, I really wanted to help

Necros wrote:I'm a web designer for my day job, and I think this has turned me into a website snob. If I can't find exactly what I want in the first page view, I leave unless it's something I really need.

Exactly. This is why everyone likes Google.

Necros wrote:
Funny story... about 10 years ago I was trying to get some freelance work.. I found a site called word of the web or something like that, where each day they find a site that really sucks and then put it up there for the world to see. So I would go to those sucky sites and email the webmaster saying something like "since you were listed on the worst of the web maybe you'd like to pay me to redo your site for you" .. got lots of nasty replies I wasn't trying to be mean, I really wanted to help

Necros wrote:Funny story... about 10 years ago I was trying to get some freelance work.. I found a site called worst of the web or something like that, where each day they find a site that really sucks and then put it up there for the world to see. So I would go to those sucky sites and email the webmaster saying something like "since you were listed on the worst of the web maybe you'd like to pay me to redo your site for you" .. got lots of nasty replies I wasn't trying to be mean, I really wanted to help

Yeeeah... it probably didn't help that you were the 21,673rd email offer they recieved that day. I think a few others had the same idea

Agreed that KR's website isn't the best. I don't like Wyrd's site either, because of how slow it is most of the time. Mantic is a pain as well, because of it's slowness.

If a company cannot be bothered to make a decent website, I will not give any of my money to them.

I think slow sites aren't necessarily the site owner's fault, they probably picked a cheap ISP when they first started out and that cheap ISP is just slow all around. This happened to me a few times with some sites I've done. Host Gator is one of the biggest and they're really slow, sites can be down for no reason for a few minutes at a time. Also slowness could be from where the server is located, like if you're in the US but going to a European server or vise versa.

Geiko's website.

It takes me 15 whole minutes to save 15% or more.

I kind of want to mention soda pop miniatures here. Their webite isn't bad, but it's more how they manage it. It is never updated. For instance, they never even posted their gencon attendance there, nor the exclusive model they sold.
I love the products they make and how friendly they are as a company, but I really wish they would stop ignoring their website and posting everything on facebook.

Enigma miniatures website.

I am so fed up with half finished websites that actually hide half the products available, especially when you consider what a great product this one is.

Seconded on the Holtz mats, that site is rubbish, again hiding the good looking product.

Quite a few historical mini websites (cant remember the exact names though, been a long time)

Gee guys, you know it helps to put actual picture of your product eh?

Sites that need attention- FRP games. http://www.frpgames.com/ You have stuff up there for sale that is out of stock when you order it. Then have the brass to not say anything until its time that it is supposed to get to you. Waited almost a month on some of those Pirate figures for Cutlass, to be told that "Not in stock. You have to wait till we get them restocked." Or pulp city stuff. We don't have that in stock, and we don't know if it is coming."

Another site. Craptastic design- Malfaux's site. http://malifaux.com/ It isn't user frendly at all.

And still another- Gamesworkshop- http://www.games-workshop.com/gws/home.jsp Sucks isn't the word for this crazyness.

and finally- Excalibur- http://www.excalibur-miniaturen.de/ I don't know whats going on, if its even still working, or just a remenent of a bygone era... Theres some minis in there, somewhere... I just know it.

So what site(s) would peopel say are exemplars?

I'd say sites like thewarstore.com have a decent format that is rather straightforward.

Avatars of War is a decently designed site that is pretty easy to navigate. If you want pics, go to the SHOP tab, if you want news it's right there on the front page.

KR multicase could use a bit of work, but I can navigate my way around it. It can be a bit of a hassle when trying to figure out which foam trays are in each option, but that's really only because there are so many choices!

This thread has had quite a few off-topic posts removed.

Please remember that if someone is CLEARY trolling, by saying, for example that any country has an 'epidemic of stupidity' that by responding to that person you are giving them what they want.

In the future, please do not respond to trolls, no matter how outrageous or infuriating you find their claim. Instead, click on the 'notify moderator' button next to their post and let a moderator decide if their post is considered trolling.

Similarly, calling someone a 'troll' will almost always insult them if they weren't trying to actually troll (and again gives an actual troll what they're looking for, a response) so please do not take the time to tell someone you think that they're trolling...it does NO GOOD for anyone.

Just report the post and then ignore it and move along with the conversation.


Thank you, and please return to the topic at hand.

I second Peter Pig. The colors, the layout--I just get aggravated surfing that site--which is unfortunate considering some cool stuff is on there.


I consider MiniatureMarket the gold standard;

http://www.miniaturemarket.com/warmachine_hordes


Surf around on their WM/Hordes--it's like the Warstore--except less scrolling (They actually place more than one product in a vertical space!)

AgeOfEgos wrote:I second Peter Pig. The colors, the layout--I just get aggravated surfing that site--which is unfortunate considering some cool stuff is on there.

I'll third this.

When I decide to get my 3rd FoW army, I'll probably go with Peter Pig and Plastic Soldier Company.

For KR Multicase, It took me three clicks to get a Dark Eldar carrying case into my cart from the home page.

Yeah, it is ugly, but it isn't hard to understand.

I think the point is that a site is supposed to HELP your business, not confuse or offput your customers. Sure some will figure it out easily and have no problem, but for those who do get confused or lost, odds are it is money out the door that could be in the till.

And in this day and age, getting an online store designed is practically copy and paste. So many home shops have the same site designed by the same person, and it's a format that works well. ChaosOrc is one such site.