DublinBus.ie - Utterly Useless

ironclaw

HI Folks,

First time in a long time I've had to check the timetables for DB, so I decided to hit their new site. Well, I have to say its next to useless.

T

• he search feature, doesn't work. You can't click the links it generates
  
• Its painfully slow to load (I tried on two different connections)
  
• The routes are incomplete and don't show the true stop-by-stop route.

How much of our tax payers money was spent on this muck? Their are 3rd Party iPhone apps that do twice the job this so called site does.

spareman

Have to agree with you, it is a total waste of tax payers money.

trellheim

Good lord all they would have to do is outsource it to a decent web management company.

Cool Mo D

It isn't that bad. The biggest problem with it is that if you type a route number into the box and press enter, it doesn't automatically take you to the timetable page - you have to click it on the drop-down list.
The journey planner is also poor - it seems to always send you through the city-centre, no matter what, although journey planning on the Dublin Bus network is not an easy problem for human or computer.
The network map is hidden away, and there is no map of solely frequent services with Luas and rail conenctions, which would be very useful.

It is easy to find timetables on it, and the route maps that show each stop work well.

And they have actually outsourced it to a decent web management company - or at least one with a good few big private sector websites under its belt: these guys http://www.biznetiis.com/Clients.aspx

xper

Cool Mo D wrote: »

The biggest problem with it is that if you type a route number into the box and press enter, it doesn't automatically take you to the timetable page

I agree. That to me, as someone who deals with this stuff professionally, is an unforgivable and needless intrusion into basic web functionality. If a contractor presented that to me in an acceptance test, I would not be impressed, it would be first thing sent back as a bug. Get rid.

And they have actually outsourced it to a decent web management company - or at least one with a good few big private sector websites under its belt: these guys http://www.biznetiis.com/Clients.aspx

I haven't dealt with these guys. A quick look at their other site designs (including Translink I note) shows they are no idiots but I don't think the new dublinbus.ie has been their best effort. (Its an improvement over the old stuff though).

Its not a given that dedicated web design companies will deliver a fit for purpose web site to you. There are many web development companies that are all flash (literally!) and no substance, for example. They can produce a novel, beautiful to look at web site that makes you go oh and ahh on first glance but turns out to be difficult to navigate, slow, unintuitive and frustrating to the user, be it your staff, your customers or the world at large. For many businesses and organisations, particularly large ones with much information to impart and services to deliver, function is king and form comes second. On a really good site, form subtlely and intuitively enhances functionality. Unfortunately the (buying) decison makers in both public and private organisations don't always understand this and fall for the cool, animated presnetation guff. EDIT: Outsourcing everything is dangerous. Any reasonably sized body needs (and needs to listen to) its own IT people that understand both the tech and the organisation's business and can advise what proposed ideas will work best with the exisitng business and its systems and infrastructure. Mistakes can be expensive (PPARS anyone?).

Micilin Muc

What's the craic with their upside-down maps? I'm very good with maps and have a great sense of direction but I just can't figure out the benefit of turning it upside-down. I've never seen a map that wasn't north-south until now. Does anybody on this forum have an explanation?

Cookie_Monster

if you ignore the completely useless journey planner I don't think its too bad tbh.

smackyB

<shameless plug> hittheroad.ie - now with added timetable goodness! </shameless plug>

noelfirl

Micilin Muc wrote: »

What's the craic with their upside-down maps? I'm very good with maps and have a great sense of direction but I just can't figure out the benefit of turning it upside-down. I've never seen a map that wasn't north-south until now. Does anybody on this forum have an explanation?

I don't think they were ever intended as being interpreted as "North to South" maps, purely that the "local" area being revised under Network Direct is shown on top (taking precedence) and the corresponding "opposite" end is shown on the bottom. The same applies for the Lucan and Blanchardstown maps (albeit they havn't been published in the mass media yet) in that they are both top-to-bottom whereas if they were aiming to be geographically accurate the former would be East-West and the latter North-West to South-East. I don't personally see the huge fuss myself, certainly not enough anyway to justify people apparently ringing in to Joe Duffy, the nation's agony aunt :rolleyes:

markpb

smackyB wrote: »

<shameless plug> hittheroad.ie - now with added timetable goodness! </shameless plug>

Infinitely better than DB's journey planner - well done! Some of the routes it suggests (like the 746 and 46b) were cancelled by DB last week so you might need to check those.

smackyB

markpb wrote: »

Infinitely better than DB's journey planner - well done! Some of the routes it suggests (like the 746 and 46b) were cancelled by DB last week so you might need to check those.

Yep, we're in the process of updating those routes and others. Glad you found it useful!

ct5amr2ig1nfhp

I don't think it's so bad but it is painfully slow - which for me makes it useless.

ultansmith

It is slow. But for me it worked.