Work experience kids on Langtons website?

[GraemeG]

Dropped in to visit the trainwreck that is Langtons current website.
Remains virtually unusable, no surprise there.
Anyway, a search on "Wynns" turns up this gem:
"A classic Australian wine, Wynns Black Label Shiraz was previously known as “Wynns Black Label Hermitage”."
Against the 2011 vintage, no less.

If Caillard was dead he'd be turning over in his grave...
GG

[Diddy]

Surely it can't be that hard to get it fixed!?

Would be interesting to see their clearance rates before and after the launch.

[Polymer]

To their credit..they fixed the search a bit..and you can now remove stuff off your bid list..haha...Really quite sad though..

I'm not sure anyone there knows anything about user experience though...as cheap as the old site looked, at least it was very functional and fast..this one is clunky and slow...but it looks nicer.

[Wizz]

I've already voted with my feet - 15 dozen to sell, worth about $10,000, and they didn't go to Langtons.

Just not good enough.

[daz]

Surely it can't be that hard to get it fixed!?

Would be interesting to see their clearance rates before and after the launch.

Ask Jeremy Oliver to get it fixed.

[TiggerK]

You guys keep avoiding it please. Bargains are being had by the eight or nine of us brave enough to still use it.

Move along people, nothing to see here....

[TiggerK]

Oh, and I see Jeremy Oliver seems to have sold all his notes to another crowd (Wine Genius) who are using them as the basis with which to launch their own wine site/blog review selling stuff thing...

[dan_smee]

Can someone summarise the issues they are having? I've found the site pretty easy to use...

[Polymer]

Dan:
Used to be when you searched, if you used Australia as a filter, you couldn't pick other countries. Same with everything else. They've now fixed it so you can filter under multiple conditions under each category.
Used to be when you added something to your bid list, you couldn't remove it. They've also fixed that.

Site is still really slow..
Search is still really clunky. 3 entries on the screen at one time? Have you tried going through each wine on the list without using the filter? Just say you wanted to check everything out...It takes a LONG time. On the plus side, the oddball stuff people aren't looking for, a lot of people just won't see because they're not searching for it and no one will see it by random. Good for buyers..bad for people that want to list stuff on the site..

To me the search would be better if you saw the entries and only if you drilled into it for more information would you see the pictures. Or even if they still wanted to show the pictures, smaller version of them with more entries fitting on your screen at once...and then higher res pictures if you drill down...
I'm pretty sure the picture thing is what is contributing to how slow the site is....

[Duncan Disorderly]

How about some simple search terms like 'red' or 'white' or 'sparkling' (I know they have Champagne in the region search, but if you want other sparkling it can be difficult).

In the 'search by region', they should have retained the headings of 'red Burgundy' and 'white Burgundy' and the same for Bordeaux. Currently you have to search using the individual appellation ie 'Vosne-Romanee' or 'Paulliac' which is bloody annoying.

I still can't log in at work, it is not particularly mobile friendly and it is sooooo slow. In fact I could put up with most of the other faults if it was faster, but browsing takes ages and ages and is frustrating.

[rossmckay]

Agreed, a hierarchy would work and it's not as if they don't have websites they could copy from. Just hopeless.

[dan_smee]

Have to say, I'd love an app to track things when away form a computer - the mobile site is awful, but I've found searching ok. Point taken re length of time to sort through when browsing. Perhaps something like the alternate views on the *cough* Dan Murphy's site (icon / tile view, rather than list view). Surely it's the same site developers? Tile view with 60 per page, very small images, with full listings on click would be ok

[GraemeG]

What amazes me is that they have no idea how to sequence the filter fields. For God's sake, what's the point of sequencing things by quantity? This is the classic Facebook approach. If there are more Barossa lots than any other, then it must be the most "liked", so in the region filter we'll put it up the top...
Morons!
Meanwhile, if you want to find "Loire" or "Alsace", or "Macedon", good luck. You'll have to read every single line of the region filter, depending on how many lots there are from that region.
Don't expect to find "Loire" under "L".
No. It'll be with "18" if there are eighteen lots, or "10" if there are ten lots...

I suppose the direct-key search field does seem to work. Only if you hit 'Enter' in my case, the magnifying glass icon doesn't appear to be connected.
But still, the search does return results. Mind you, when it does, nowhere on screen does it actually display what the search was for, so you'd better remember what you typed.
And if you want to go back to the full lists, you can't clear the search, you've got to reload the whole auction from the main menu.

Browsing an entire auction now takes about six times as long as it used to; you could quickly scroll through an entire auction - at 80 or 100 lots/page - before, now it's 25/page and wait, wait, wait.
Still they do provide a pdf download, which is fast and readable, and sequenced in the old database, logical layout.
Great. So in ten minutes flat you might identify two dozen random lot numbers you want to bid on.
Can you just enter lot numbers somewhere, directly to your bid list?
Noooooo, that would be too user-friendly. No, you have to find those lot numbers on the screen display - somehow - and click on them.

I'm just amazed that they got people who knew nothing about wine at all to build the website.
Seriously, it's just terrible. Really, really bad.

They should also add a producer filter, in alphabetical order.
How could they not do that? I suppose the answer is: type the producer in the search field.
But it's just the wrong approach for an auction. All kinds of things come up at auction. It's only when you see them in the catalogue that you're interested.
You shouldn't have to type, say, "Virgin Hills" every time there's a new auction, just to see if anything's listed from that producer. You ought to be able to see it somewhere.
They have applied a retail mentality to an auction site. I don't think it's especially sinister, just massively incompetent.
Although, I can see some evil intent in trying to get people constantly using the site, with less emphasis on particular auctions, the permanent blending of auction and 'consignment lots' unless you deliberately filter otherwise. Maybe when you measure the success of a website, "ease of user experience" comes a long way down the list. But in this case, the totally sh*t-house website has to be costing them big $ in sales because it's just so opaque.
GG

[Polymer]

I don't think I'd add a producer field unless you were able to narrow it down further...otherwise it would be cumbersome...like what their regions field is...

And I agree, they should be in alphabetical order...just silly that they're not..it is really a pain to find a specific region...I would probably prefer to do region and sub-regions...

To be fair, they're not THAT far off from it being far more usable...Tweak the search a bit...make the pictures smaller so it loads faster or no pictures at all unless you drill down into the listing...

It was actually far worse when you couldn't actually select different countries for your search (only one) or when you couldn't remove a bid from your list...just poor user testing...

That said..I want to do more Wickman but it doesn't have the selection yet..hoping vendors give up on Langtons and go there..

[michel]

yep it is crap
work experience kids would have done a better job

[Polymer]

Just to add one other thing...

The search also does more than 10 at a time now...You still have to scroll but at 25 a page it is a bit faster than it was before..haha.

[markg]

That said..I want to do more Wickman but it doesn't have the selection yet..hoping vendors give up on Langtons and go there..

Thanks for the support and, yes, we were already getting 5 times more wine in than before and now we are getting even more. I have been working on getting systems organised at the warehouse so we can get wine sorted and shipped in a more timely manner although I am now absolutely terrified to change anything on my website

[Polymer]

Just more listings per page .

[kleal]

That said..I want to do more Wickman but it doesn't have the selection yet..hoping vendors give up on Langtons and go there..

Thanks for the support and, yes, we were already getting 5 times more wine in than before and now we are getting even more. I have been working on getting systems organised at the warehouse so we can get wine sorted and shipped in a more timely manner although I am now absolutely terrified to change anything on my website

I think for an auction website, the KISS (Keep it simple stupid) principle should be employed. Photo's should be included for high end bottles, accurate descriptions on ullage, condition and storage. Thats all we ask.

[Polymer]

I'm ok with photos of every bottle...but I don't need a higher res one (or even one at all) on the search page. If I'm interested in seeing the bottle I can drill into the listing.
I'm even ok with some of the really low res ones they use when you look at the multiple lots...I don't think the pictures are the only thing making the site slow..but it certainly isn't helping.

Same thing applies to the bid page...If it is on your bid page, you've already made that decision..maybe a low res picture might be ok but one that takes up less screen space and certainly one that makes it so your page loads quicker (although again, I think there is more to that then just the picture).

[phillisc]

Mark Wickham, please do not change a thing.
For a silly old bugger like me at nearly 50...your site works a treat and the accompanying email with auction highlights is fantastic.
I can have a super quick look at wines by alphabetical order, and if something grabs me then I can explore further.
If there is nothing that I wish to buy, then I have wasted very little time.

Cheers
Craig.

[TravisW]

Just tried it for the first time. What a cluster! So grindingly slow it wears you down.

My main gripe is that when trying to narrow down the lots by checking a box in the column on the left, you can't check multiple boxes and then click "Search" (or some-such). No, you check a box and off it goes to grind through the results... waiting... waiting... So if you want to search for a four specific vintages, then you have to wait for it to slowly grind it's way through four specific searches. Insane. Enough to make you... SWITCH! Hellllllllllooooo Wickmans!

[The fish]

On the plus side...if the Langton's debacle has done anything it's saved me from spending (yet) more money on wine

Checked in to the Langton's website again this morning and 'no'...it's still rubbish.

Cheers
Matt

[Polymer]

My main gripe is that when trying to narrow down the lots by checking a box in the column on the left, you can't check multiple boxes and then click "Search" (or some-such). No, you check a box and off it goes to grind through the results... waiting... waiting... So if you want to search for a four specific vintages, then you have to wait for it to slowly grind it's way through four specific searches. Insane. Enough to make you... SWITCH! Hellllllllllooooo Wickmans!

Yeah...hahaha..and it is actually better now than what it was before (when they first released the new site).

Maybe the companies are run completely separate and can't share information but they copied a lot of the design from Dan Murphys or at least it is very similar..although I guess you can say a lot of the sites are similar....Most of the coding for the search portion was done already but they just re-created their own wheel...

[GraemeG]

Yeah...hahaha..and it is actually better now than what it was before (when they first released the new site).

Maybe the companies are run completely separate and can't share information but they copied a lot of the design from Dan Murphys or at least it is very similar..although I guess you can say a lot of the sites are similar....Most of the coding for the search portion was done already but they just re-created their own wheel...

Oh yes, they've clearly decided it's cheaper overall for the Langtons part of their empire to share most of its platform with DMs. But it betrays a fundamental misunderstanding of a wine auction. With retail, you'd usually go to a website to find something you know you want. But with an auction, by it's very nature, you need to see what's available, in order to decide what you want. And they've made it so damn hard to see what's available. They either don't know - or don't care - how many people used to browse the entire catalogue, start to finish, under the old regime.
And if you can't see it's for sale, you ain't going to buy it.
But what's Langtons turnover compared to Dan/BWS? Tiny. They don't care.
And I don't really mind that they don't care; fine, I won't either. There are other ways to get wine. What cheeses me off is when someone introduces a manifestly inferior way of doing things and then trumpets about their "new improved website with many enhancements." You wanna take away my fillet steak, fine. But don't replace it with a turd sandwich and try to convince me it's roast duck...
cheers,
Graeme

[Polymer]

Well if it was like the DM site it would be better..the search would work properly and the site would be faster....I don't think they share much because the site would just be flat out better..

In any case, clumsy site and hoping to see alternatives with the same selection..

[trufflequeen]

I've just had to claw back almost $1500 worth of unauthorised transactions which occurred due to bugs on the Langton's website. A call from Langton's last week confirmed they'd billed my on file credit card each time I tried to make a purchase last week using a discount code (they had a bug on their website which meant a $150 off $500 purchase code - CENT150 - wouldn't work and brought up an error message instead). It's been a nightmare to say the least! And I'm still finding bugs, even though they've assured me their IT people have fixed the issue. Each time I add a Wendouree Cabernet Malbec 2005 to my cart (just this wine, doesn't seem to be occurring for others), it mysteriously multiplies the number of bottles in the cart when the $ total is calculated. Time to give up!

[Diddy]

Has anyone else experienced issues lately? I'm 90% sure I've been charged for a lot that I bid on but wasn't the highest bidder. Have been waiting well over a week for a response too.

[wineforlife]

I've just had to claw back almost $1500 worth of unauthorised transactions which occurred due to bugs on the Langton's website. A call from Langton's last week confirmed they'd billed my on file credit card each time I tried to make a purchase last week using a discount code (they had a bug on their website which meant a $150 off $500 purchase code - CENT150 - wouldn't work and brought up an error message instead). It's been a nightmare to say the least! And I'm still finding bugs, even though they've assured me their IT people have fixed the issue. Each time I add a Wendouree Cabernet Malbec 2005 to my cart (just this wine, doesn't seem to be occurring for others), it mysteriously multiplies the number of bottles in the cart when the $ total is calculated. Time to give up!

Give Langton's wine advisers a call. There are many of these brokers. I have asked them is it ok to use the code for my wife and cousins and my father if they call, no problem. They will sort everything out and take off 150 using CENT150. Too easy. Saves alot of trouble doing it through their Rather Incredible website
Thanks Langtons, you have blew my yearly budget already

[odyssey]

Not work experience kids, but much worse. In roughly 15 years working as a software engineer I have only ever once before seen to such an extent sich an utter disregard for quality, usability, contextual design, UX and attention to detail, along with interminable delays in rolling out fixes:

Cheap, offshore IT sub-contractors.

Seriously, if I could teach all the cheapass IT management (including my previous boss) one fact about their jobs, it would be this;

When it comes to software development, sometimes you get less than what you pay for, but you will never, ever get more than what you pay for.