Revamped Ilford/Harman website

[Ian Grant]

A heads up to Ilford/Harman for their newly revamped website.

Ian

 

[pentaxuser]

I was looking to some info on DDX by chance so just looked at it before seeing your post, Ian. I'll have to get used to it but my first reaction was annoyance on the basis of why change?

Have you spotted any improvements?

Thanks

pentaxuser

 

[AgX]

I prefer the old suite, where films appeared to be arranged on sorts not on formats.

Now you got these site filters.

 

[Harman Tech Service]

Well spotted. We'll make an official announcement next week, quite a bit of bug fixing going on at the moment, bear with us!
Neil

 

[Bob Carnie]

Nice site , an improvement IMO - funny they list my old Lab and Address over 10 years old - Different Name Different Address- I think some fact checking is in order.

 

[Bob Carnie]

Well spotted. We'll make an official announcement next week, quite a bit of bug fixing going on at the moment, bear with us!
Neil

Hi Tech Service- www.alternativephotoservices.com no longer Elevator I am on the Danforth in Toronto.

 

[Harman Tech Service]

Will pass that on Bob thanks.

 

[Jim Noel]

The link to the ULF special order film order dealers and list of films available does not work.

 

[Wallendo]

It is nice that the Kentmere-labeled products are now available on the main site.

 

[Luckless]

The site is looking decent. A nice modern overhaul without being annoyingly flashy or overly hindered by useless fluff.

A few minor issues/feedback points I noted on a quick smoke test on the site while using Chrome 58.x on OSX:

##UI Design issue on the navigation roll-over menus:
- Menu entries are not positioned direction below their related root element, and do not have a long enough dwell time to allow a user to reliably click on a link if they mouse directly to it.

Example:
1. Mouse over "Products"
2. Attempt to move pointer directly to "Black and white film"
Results:
- roll-over menu will close as the pointer moves off the "Products" active area, before it can reach the main body of the roll-over menu. User must make an unnatural motion in moving the mouse in an J shape, dropping down onto the roll-over menu body and then moving left to select an entry.

##Auto-hide navigation banner at the top of the screen feels inconsistent. It will sometimes show while scrolling back up a page, and sometimes not.
- Personally I would go with a design that leaves a visual element at the very top of the screen, small chevrons or something, that the user can mouse over to gain access to the NavBar. I find they tend to be more reliable and consistent, leave less guessing for the user, and the interactions required for it are a little more obvious and faster to learn.

##Links under Products/Community will open in the current tab, but links under Services/Support are opening new tabs.

##Not sure if social media links are inconsistent, or if the site updated while I was looking through it. Had noticed they were kind of awkwardly placed on the left hand side and were a little over sized, given that they would enlarge a little as you moused over them. But they now seem to be at the bottom? (Or I'm just not back to the same page I first noticed them on?) If they go back to the left hand side I would suggest keeping them tucked in smaller and tighter than they were until the user mouses over them. - Not easy to spot at the bottom of the page, but the original left hand UI element for them was distractingly large when I first noticed it.

 

[pentaxuser]

It is nice that the Kentmere-labeled products are now available on the main site.

+1 for Ilford in that respect. I liked the hand-colouring article. It would be worth a complete tutorial. Yes I know these exist after a fashion on Utube but a well thought out and well executed tutorial might repay Ilford's effort and expense.

pentaxuser

 

[Lachlan Young]

quite a bit of bug fixing going on at the moment, bear with us!
Neil

Just to let you know that the Ortho+ page is missing the 4x5 and 8x10 stock options and only offers 4 made to order sizes - otherwise the site looks pretty good!

 

[pdeeh]

Christ that's horrible.
Bits and bobs of headers and footers and sidebars and whatnot constantly sliding on and off the screen as your scroll or select things.
Maybe looks ok on a mobile device but on my lappy it's really terrible

 

[Europan]

My opinion, too

No discernible motive for the movements, the childish flat iPhone tiling
Sorry, England, too deep a bow to silicon valley

 

[Harman Tech Service]

Thanks to everyone for their feedback so far!
Bob - Your details are now correct
Jim - ULF link now works.
AgX - If you select BRAND you will get a list of product types.
Lachlan - Product links will be updated, probably next week.
Luckless - We will have to work through your comments, thank you for being so thorough.
Pentaxuser - Thanks for the comments and suggestion.

David

 

[Bob Carnie]

Thank You David

 

[Ricardo Miranda]

Neil or David,

A question: what happened to Harman Express?
As far as I can see you integrated it into the main site and RUMP UP prices.
I was very happy to order EVERY month a bulk roll of KENTMERE 400 with Harman EXPRESS.
You can see how much I shoot as I also would buy other Ilford films at retail prices with other sellers when I would run out while in the street.
You had a price increase in all films last February and now another one 3 months later?
Why? Is the inflation in the UK so bad?
Why did you increase Kentmere 400 bulk from £43 to £45 in February and now to £50?
And no email, no communication to old Harman Express customers?
I was going to put my usual monthly order next week, now I'm thinking going elsewhere.

I'm sorry for whatever reasons you saw fit to raise prices as I'm very disappointed.

Best regards,
Ricardo, exclusively film photographer

P.S. What happened to the database from Harman Express? I had to register, again, for the new website.

 

[silveror0]

What's happened to access to the Ilford Forum?

 

[pentaxuser]

Interesting seeing your post, Ricardo, on pricing. On the opening page there is a 50 pack of HP5+ from £226.88. When you chose the 36 frame cassettes this jumps to £288.53 which is £5.77 per cassette. If I buy one 36 frame cassette this cost£5.78. Setting aside what appears to be an exorbitant cost for an HP5+ cassette I only appear to get a 1p discount for ordering 50 cassettes.

On HP5 pricing the same 36 frame cassette from a U.K. retailer is £4.62 so the Ilford shop is charging me £1.15 per cassette more.

Something can't be right here, surely. Either there is a bug with pricing or if there isn't then I have a terrible feeling about what the future holds for those buying Ilford products from the Ilford site

Pity that all those at Ilford have gone home and there will be no answer until at least Monday and we'll have to "stew" until then

pentaxuser

 

[Slixtiesix]

Agree, looks great!

 

[Sal Santamaura]

When Pemberstone purchased HARMAN a year and a half ago, this was part of what the press release said:

Our new owners will assist us to connect more effectively to this younger generation in the future, and we will prioritise this as our main goal over the next five years.​

I see the company's new Web site as acting on that priority. Lots of change in appearance, nothing new of substance, more awkward on a desktop computer, and mobile phone friendly. Just what it takes to capture attention of 'the younger generation.' I won't even carry a cell phone, and don't find it necessary to use the Web site very often. Therefore, as long as HARMAN keeps making the film and paper, if "updating" its Web site attracts more non-aged customers, I say go for it.

 

[pentaxuser]

It may be attracting younger customers but if these are in the U.K. then all I can say, Sal, is that based on the one example of price increase that I quote in my post 19 then Harman/Pemberstone must feel those younger U.K customers have a lot of money to spend on analogue material. I have since checked on a number of other prices and there seem to be a trend to charge appreciably more than Harman Express( the U.K.Ilford mail order shop) was charging even a few months ago.

pentaxuser

 

[Sal Santamaura]

It may be attracting younger customers but if these are in the U.K. then all I can say, Sal, is that based on the one example of price increase that I quote in my post 19 then Harman/Pemberstone must feel those younger U.K customers have a lot of money to spend on analogue material. I have since checked on a number of other prices and there seem to be a trend to charge appreciably more than Harman Express( the U.K.Ilford mail order shop) was charging even a few months ago...

I'm content with the Web site changes because my only HARMAN involvement is as a purchaser of its film and paper. The "Ilford lab" in this country is a marketing arrangement with a supplier lab which has been in existence for decades, and happens to be just a couple of miles from me. Swan Photo Labs in San Clemente operates under that name as well as working with Ilford for the North American region. It also sells on line as The Darkroom (thedarkroom.com). In recent years, I've stopped doing analog color and perform all my own black and white developing and printing. Thus, I can't say whether prices are higher here too, or whether any changes might impact how younger U.S. customers react.

 

[ozphoto]

The social media buttons on the LHS drive me crazy - they cut into the page covering information.

I have seen versions that allow the user to show/hide, which work much better - if you want to share you can, if you don't it doesn't interfere with the website experience.

Currently, it clutters the clean feel and is an annoyance because it doesn't work adequately. See the attached image for what I'm seeing on my laptop running Safari 10.1.1.

 

[tim_walls]

I was looking to some info on DDX by chance so just looked at it before seeing your post, Ian. I'll have to get used to it but my first reaction was annoyance on the basis of why change?

Have you spotted any improvements?

Looks good to me; the fact it's prettier is no bad thing, image is important and the old website did look like something from the 1980s. Whatever you think of the Lomo generation, they're buying film products and it's worth having a site that might appeal more to them...

Practically, I can still find the datasheets for all the products, which is the main thing I used the site for, if anything more simply than the old one. And without actually having tried it yet, I'm going to guess from looking at it that this site is more touch-friendly for the iPad and smartphone users out there, which is great.


It's a thumbs up from me. I hope it also means renewed attention on the site from Ilford - some features of the old one like dealer/reseller information were close to useless so lots of potential for improvement if Harman are now showing the site some love.