Why do large companies launch "New Improved Sites"

I order my groceries on line at Waitrose. A few months ago they launched "A New Improved Site" It was chaos, you could not log on or if you managed to it crashed, it was impossible to use. Months later it still does not run properly.
Yesterday I tried to connect to my Barclays account and found they had launched "A new Improved site". It was very difficult to move around but slowly I managed to access my account and make a few payments. Today the site has crashed. If you wait a VERY long time part of a page will appear then hang. Eventually I gave up and tried to phone Barclays, surprise, after coming up to 40 minutesn of being told that I am in a queue I gave up.
So I can't manage my bank account. Why don't these people test the site before they put them up.
Lesson to be learned, if you have an account with an organisation that says it is going to launch "A New Improved Site" leave and sign on with someone else.

they think that if they stand still they are going backwards, because others are going forwards.

I once did Beta testing on accounts software, some of my bugs were acknowledged and unresolved at the product launch as "it had to meet the marketing launch date", I guess / hope they were fixed later.

I once had a problem with an 'improved' bank web site.
I enquired, and found that the site had been improved, and that there had been other complaints.
I immediately asked why they didn't roll back to the previous version, while they located and fixed the erroneous bits. The reply convinced me that the, supposedly technical, support to which I was talking had no idea to what I was referring - a standard practice in all the industry use which I was familiar with.

If a complex database conversion is involved, very few developers make provision for reversion, which in many cases can anyway be extremely difficult without losing new types of data already input to the new system. Not impossible of course, but more costly than most budgets will allow.

Reversion plans were mandatory at the bank I worked for before you could sign off implementation of *any* changes.

After getting into Barclays website early this morning it seems what they have done is to make it more accessable to tablet and smartphone users with a big chunky layout. (looks absolutly horrible)

Now yesterday was payday for a lot of people who get paid at the end of the month and also for a lot of other payments that would happen on the first may have been also rolled back to yesterday.

So a brand new website with increased acessability of devices with a huge amount of people seeing if they had got paid and it was almost inevitable that there would be problems.

And when those people want to check today if they got paid and oh dear it happens again, looks like Barclays created their own DOS attack.

I agree that Thursday (I think) it was impossible to get in, but both Friday and today it's been fine. The design though is appalling, suitable for a 5-year old - though that might be insulting some of that age. About the level of Fisher Price graphics and chunkiness.

I though web sites could detect the device and thus, if so designed, adjust accordingly.

It's definitely a yuk.

In reply to a post by Anonymous:

After getting into Barclays website early this morning it seems what they have done is to make it more accessable to tablet and smartphone users with a big chunky layout. (looks absolutly horrible)

Now yesterday was payday for a lot of people who get paid at the end of the month and also for a lot of other payments that would happen on the first may have been also rolled back to yesterday.

So a brand new website with increased acessability of devices with a huge amount of people seeing if they had got paid and it was almost inevitable that there would be problems.

And when those people want to check today if they got paid and oh dear it happens again, looks like Barclays created their own DOS attack.

Even relatively novice web designers and developers should be able to use stylesheets to create versions of each page that look "right" on the device being used.

If they've created a "big chunky" layout as you've suggested and made the standard on say a large widescreen monitor at a PC just like using a tablet, then they are complete rookies at designing.

In reply to a post by Anonymous:

After getting into Barclays website early this morning it seems what they have done is to make it more accessable to tablet and smartphone users with a big chunky layout. (looks absolutly horrible)

I would not go anywhere near my bank accounts using a leaky tablet or smart phone.

In reply to a post by cheshire_man:

I though web sites could detect the device and thus, if so designed, adjust accordingly.

They can. Not usually by device but it's very simple to detect the viewport (basically how wide and tall your browser is) and the orientation (portrait or landscape). There are a number of other methods that can be used too, all inside a normal stylesheet.

Using these you can tell fairly accurately what the device being used is and tailor the view accordingly.

http://www.mediaqueri.es is a good site. Load any of the links on it and then resize your screen. You'll usually see a "big" view for normal monitors...resize down and it'll switch to a tablet type view. Go right down and you'll see a mobile view.

You should mention it to the developers here

Using both sites perfectly well on a tablet here these days.

A big difference also between a site that is taking money off people and thus has a budget for these things.

Its no good on my iphone. There should be a significant upgrade for windows 8.

Why what are you expecting windows 8 to do?

Are desktops screens about to drop in resolution?

Try telling this to google about youtube, no-one on there likes the new channel designs yet everyone was forced into using them.

In reply to a post by MrSaffron:

Why what are you expecting windows 8 to do?

Are desktops screens about to drop in resolution?

Have you ever used the consumer preview of windows 8? its basically been redesigned into one big ugly tablet OS.

Edited by deleted (Sat 31-Mar-12 19:54:07)

In reply to a post by MrSaffron:

Why what are you expecting windows 8 to do?

Having run Win8 on my 1920x1200 24" screen; win 8 is a disaster on desktop. Might work fine on a tablet - but WinARM is a different code base, so its making no sense. Desktop users with high resolution screens (even my 15" laptop is 1680x1050) make Win8's metro look stupid. It won't sell like that. (Vista II ?)

Are desktops screens about to drop in resolution?

Maybe MS want products to use high DPI like the iPad/iPhone to give crisper displays but not larger workspaces.

Not if it was sage, they have to be the worst software company I have ever come across.

That's quite funny. I'd expect you to use the Desktop on a desktop, the clue being in the name.

I'm expecting Windows 8 to run on a smartphone, tablet and pc. I believe MS are coming round to my way of thinking too.

In reply to a post by BatBoy:

That's quite funny. I'd expect you to use the Desktop on a desktop, the clue being in the name.

I omitted the fact I have a 1920x1200 screen on the desktop (Win7). I then mentioned the laptop resolution.

I have a friend with a 27" display, and at work colleagues with 30" displays, with 2560x1440 resolution - Win 8 looks terribly disorganised on those.

What, using the Desktop app?

In reply to a post by yarwell:

they think that if they stand still they are going backwards, because others are going forwards.

I once did Beta testing on accounts software, some of my bugs were acknowledged and unresolved at the product launch as "it had to meet the marketing launch date", I guess / hope they were fixed later.

as yarwell said.

not sure as microsoft are giving free gifts to reviewers so they get good reviews.

I agree the GUI is a disaster but microsoft may have learned how to market now.

In reply to a post by Chrysalis:

not sure as microsoft are giving free gifts to reviewers so they get good reviews.

I think those sites, and magazines, that are corruptable are well known. Those that are print their opinion are also well known.

"Buyer Beware" still applies.

I agree the GUI is a disaster but microsoft may have learned how to market now.

The GUI has merits, on a slate