New Hattons Website

[Hattons Dave]

Morning all,

 

Today I’m pleased to be able to show you our new site that we have been working on.

 

We’re now at a stage where we’d love to get your feedback into how things look and feel in terms of browsing the site and placing orders.

 

You can find the new site at: www.hattonshobbies.com

 

We’ve made an array of improvements when building the new site, including:

 

• Enhanced search features - faster and smarter, our all new search is intuitive and easy to use.

• Active filters - When searching through products you can now easily apply filters to more accurately find exactly what you’re looking for. Filters include: scale, brand, type, livery, era and many more.

• Improved mobile experience - Our new site is designed with a responsive layout which means it will have much improved performance and visuals when browsing on your tablet or smartphone.

 

There’s still much more to come but I hope this gives you a good idea of where we’re currently up to.

 

Feel free to have a look around and let us know what you think so far. As always, we really value your feedback and want to ensure that we continue offering the best possible service to you all. Rest assured that whilst we’re testing and gathering feedback then the regular Hattons website at www.hattons.co.uk will remaining unaffected and can still be used as normal.

 

Cheers,

Dave

 

[Rowsley17D]

My log-in details from the old site are not accepted on the new site. Should they have migrated?

[Gareth Collier]

I've had a quick play and here are my initial thoughts.

It could be because it is still in development but it is even slower than the current site. Lots of pauses before new pages upload after making selections.

I peruse the 2nd hand N on a daily basis but this is now a lot worse. It isn't obvious what has just come in and selecting from the date menu doesn't seem to do anything. Also a lot of the items listed are sold out whereas on the old site they are deleted once sold.

To search, for example, for a new N gauge wagon there is at least one more step to get to where you want to go which is compounded by the speed or lack of.

Placing orders etc is easy enough but it doesn't recognise my account.

 

I'm trying not to be a luddite but my honest opinion is the older site is quicker and easier to use. Over the years I've seen numerous websites 'improved' when in reality they are no better than the original and often worse. As the old adage goes 'if it ain't broke....'.

[Hattons Dave]

My log-in details from the old site are not accepted on the new site. Should they have migrated?

 

Hi Jonathan,

 

The passwords are not able to be migrated over to the new site to maintain the security of information.  We have not yet moved the old order information over to the new site but if you create a new account using the same email address, when we do, all of your old orders will appear there.

 

Cheers,

Dave

[dpgibbons]

Yes login isn't working (yet?). Home page pull-down menus are hard to keep open.  

 

Otherwise the new site looks promising - eg at last one can pull up all bargains by scale then filter ad nauseum.

 

Perhaps the new website is why the pre-owned section hasn't been updated since last Thursday?  

Edited September 19, 2018 by dpgibbons

[Hattons Dave]

I peruse the 2nd hand N on a daily basis but this is now a lot worse. It isn't obvious what has just come in and selecting from the date menu doesn't seem to do anything. Also a lot of the items listed are sold out whereas on the old site they are deleted once sold.

To search, for example, for a new N gauge wagon there is at least one more step to get to where you want to go which is compounded by the speed or lack of.

 

Hi Gareth, thanks for your comments.

 

We haven't currently got to a stage where the date selection tool is working fully but this is being looked into.

 

Regarding sold out products, we're intending to keep these on our listings however these will be set not to show by default and will be able to be selected via the filter menu. We are aware this is not working 100% of the time at the moment.

 

Cheers,

 

Dave

[reggie]

Hi Dave

 

I think the new site is smart, and the search facility with sub categories is great. A big improvement. Nothing worse on a website than not being able to find what you are looking for!

 

Cheers

 

Reggie

[Harlequin]

The new filtering system is great and seems reasonably fast. Fixes one of my major bugbears with the current site.

 

Interesting little note: I searched for "castle", narrowed things down a bit and was surprised to see some wagons in the results because it had fuzzy-matched "castle" with "cattle". Maybe it should only show near matches when it hasn't found any exact matches???

[JSpencer]

I used to be able to select a certain epoque like TOPs, BR late steam etc. If its still there, it is not easy to find.

 

You also had all military vehicles under one banner. I see commercial but not military.

 

Once you have finished using the search bar, its difficult to return to the pre-search status.

[Ryan91]

The new website feels a lot quicker to me!

But prices in the 'New Stock' sections seems a bit high to me.    Normal prices appear for just a split second after loading the 'new stock' page and on the product page itself.

[KDG]

The new site looks fresher, more modern, however, the pages take longer to load. In fact it timed out a couple of times. I also prefer the pre owned section on the old website. I don't need to scroll through lines of stuff that has sold out.

 

Please take this in the way its meant as constructive feedback. Im sure with some fixes the new site will be ace.

[G-BOAF]

I had an issue with the current site that the 'previously owned' results always come up in searchers, and the box has to be unchecked to see just new items. This was annoying, but easy to do at top of page.

Now I see the 'new' and other options are burried half way down the page in a menu.

I was going to ask can new items only be displayed by default. But I will now also ask, if not (and I can understand the commercial rationale of displaying everything) can a 'new only' option be done much more easily?

[guzzler17]

 

We have not yet moved the old order information over to the new site but if you create a new account using the same email address, when we do, all of your old orders will appear there.

 

 

I've only had an account since March this year but still have some outstanding items from an order placed in April 2017 that I think were on a guest account.  Those items are still showing as pre-orders on your site.

 

As I used the same e-mail address on both orders will the outstanding items be migrated or will I need to order them again from my account?

[Hattons Dave]

The new website feels a lot quicker to me!

But prices in the 'New Stock' sections seems a bit high to me.    Normal prices appear for just a split second after loading the 'new stock' page and on the product page itself.

 

Thanks for alerting me to this issue! I've flagged it with our IT guys to look into. Might I ask what browser and device you're using?

 

I've only had an account since March this year but still have some outstanding items from an order placed in April 2017 that I think were on a guest account.  Those items are still showing as pre-orders on your site.

 

As I used the same e-mail address on both orders will the outstanding items be migrated or will I need to order them again from my account?

 

There's no need to re-order them as all information on your existing account will be migrated into your new one at a later date. If any of the items are due in before then, they will still process as normal through our system.

 

I had an issue with the current site that the 'previously owned' results always come up in searchers, and the box has to be unchecked to see just new items. This was annoying, but easy to do at top of page.

Now I see the 'new' and other options are burried half way down the page in a menu.

I was going to ask can new items only be displayed by default. But I will now also ask, if not (and I can understand the commercial rationale of displaying everything) can a 'new only' option be done much more easily?

 

On the new website, we've added several new filtering options on the left-hand side (or under the filters button on mobile devices). If you scroll down to the "Condition" box, you can then choose to see only brand-new items, only pre-owned items or items in a specific condition such as "Renumbered". 

[No Decorum]

My first reaction was, “Oh no! No! No!” That was because the new Bachmann site is so bad that I rearely view it, whereas I often checked the old one. Rails (pause to wash my keyboard in soap) made a sorry mess of its website too. The old Hatton’s site was clear and brilliant for running to earth something without knowing a reference number. The major way it could have been improved (in my opinion) was the photographs. They just weren’t big enough. Rails used to present large photographs showing lots of detail but not now. Curiously, it was possible to save a picture and view it enlarged but that was too muuch bother for browsing. There is nothing wrong with Hatton’s photographs; they just need to fill my screen. The new website could score here.

 

Something encouraging is the possibility of displaying out-of-stock items. It is disconcerting to find things disappearing because they’re out of stock.

 

For the rest, it doesn’t look too bad, although it will take time to learn to exploit its features intuitively.

[34theletterbetweenB&D]

My first reaction was, “Oh no! No! No!” That was because the new Bachmann site is so bad that I rarely view it, whereas I often checked the old one. Rails (pause to wash my keyboard in soap) made a sorry mess of its website too. The old Hatton’s site was clear and brilliant for running to earth something without knowing a reference number.

Same here. Hattons are 'joining the crowd' in seriously degrading their website. 

 

I don't know what the target of this tedious presentation style may be, but it clearly isn't someone who knows that he wants 'OO model railway product' > 'wagons' > 'Wrenn'. For some reason asking for 'OO' results in three random locos and than a screen full of buses. Will I have the patience to learn how to navigate this style over substance confusion? Probably not.

[JohnR]

Same here. Hattons are 'joining the crowd' in seriously degrading their website. 

 

I don't know what the target of this tedious presentation style may be, but it clearly isn't someone who knows that he wants 'OO model railway product' > 'wagons' > 'Wrenn'. For some reason asking for 'OO' results in three random locos and than a screen full of buses. Will I have the patience to learn how to navigate this style over substance confusion? Probably not.

Surely you just select OO, then Wrenn then wagons on the left hand side filters? Its similar to how ebay and a number of other sites work.

[JSpencer]

I select OO for Oxford items and got OO plus O gauge plus N gauge. It was funny at first seeing the same OO gauge Landrover model with 3 different prices £14-50, £4-50, £2-50 until I figured out that the filter had not worked.

 

To be honest, Hattons current (old) site was for me the best out there. A joy to visit and research. Rail's site is right pain to use.

 

After toying with the New Hattons site, the old is much clearer and easier to use. This thing looks like most cloud tech based rubbish we have now where the user experience is at the bottom of the list of IT priorities. Good job today's IT people don't design cars. They would put the steering wheel in the boot.

[olivegreen]

I select OO for Oxford items and got OO plus O gauge plus N gauge. It was funny at first seeing the same OO gauge Landrover model with 3 different prices £14-50, £4-50, £2-50 until I figured out that the filter had not worked.

 

To be honest, Hattons current (old) site was for me the best out there. A joy to visit and research. Rail's site is right pain to use.

 

After toying with the New Hattons site, the old is much clearer and easier to use. This thing looks like most cloud tech based rubbish we have now where the user experience is at the bottom of the list of IT priorities. Good job today's IT people don't design cars. They would put the steering wheel in the boot.

I have just encountered the same things that have already been mentioned, though I acknowledge that the site is in its infancy...PLEASE do not ditch the old one before the new one is working properly, though.

 

Agree JSpencer's comments highlighted in red!

[brushman47544]

As a fairly regular caller-in to your website, my initial focus is on the New Stock page. I like the fact that the current/old New Stock webpage sorts/shows by date so I can quickly see what has come into stock since the date I last called in. The new version doesn't seem to do that, with all the new stock (over an undefined period) seemingly jumbled together.

 

This approach is something I hate about other sites (such as Rails) so I hope you will not be going down that route too.

[34theletterbetweenB&D]

Surely you just select OO, then Wrenn then wagons on the left hand side filters? Its similar to how ebay and a number of other sites work.

Perhaps why I don't use a 'number of other sites' and see this style as a descent toward an inferior method?

 

I want OO model railway, not buses, militaria, buildings, whatever, that may happen to be made to the same scale, but don't run on rails. (Who is interested in that?)

Then I want a specific type of model.

Then and only then do I want to look in brand corrals, so that I can step back to the other available makers for that type of model in one click. (If the system is able to take the headings beneath 'OO model railway' in any order that would help.)

 

All the filtering after this by loco class or vehicle type, or period, or livery style, is frankly a waste of money to develop. This because filtering only works well if the descriptions are accurate. Unless there's an ongoing programme commitment to correct description enforcement, GIGO applies.

[Steven B]

All the filters down the left hand side are sorted by number of items. In many cases (most?) it would be better to sort by name/alphabetical). For example, the Brand section lists:

Hornby

Bachman Branchlines

Dapol

Oxford Diecast

Corgi

EFE

Pecp

Graham Farish

Woodland Scenics

 

Putting them in alphabetical order would make it easier to find what you want rather than a list that could varry day to day.

 

Steven B.

[NINJA]

If it ain't broke, why fix it.

 

The old site was good.

[rue_d_etropal]

First thing I noticed was that there weree fewer manufacturers/scales etc . Hopefully this is notmeaning Hattons will only stock the tradition British outline. I often have a look through old website to see if there is something different.

The hobby needs diversity to prosper(is innovaton and creativity), and needs to ensure it has a future, read current copy of RM, as it is pretty clear . .

 

New website des seem to take longer to load each page, but I think it is actually displaying more, otherwise there is a problem. I also agree that the trend is to change websites not improve them. Not just a problem because you have to look around to find where to go, but that it is not always easy to find what something you previously could find easily. Unfortunately I have seen it with a number of websites, and the trend is worrying.

Edited September 20, 2018 by rue_d_etropal

[JSpencer]

The one thing I would have liked to see on the old site, would be to have the ability to filter new from second hand.

 

I also see the new site confuses 1/72 with 1/76th. They are not the same.