The Official London Theatre Guide

http://www.OfficialLondonTheatre.co.uk

The 'official' London Theatre Guide states that it is the most comprehensive guide to what's on where in London's West End. On entering the user is presented with a simple page with an animated graphic of a jester-like person bowing down, welcoming you to the site - like if you were about to enter a theatre! On clicking on the graphic the user enters the site home page.

Home page

The home page has the theatre guide logo/banner across the top of the page with 5 various titles below it to search for information by title, type of show, name of theatres, dates etc. These titles form the hyperlinks to the succeeding pages of the site. Below the top title bar with the search options, there is a lot of titles standing out with brief textual information with various other links about seating plans at theatres, hotels, map of London's Theatreland etc in various graphic forms. This page is quite large and you have to scroll quite a bit to see the full page.

Hypermedia

Throughout the site the use of different types of hypermedia is very limited. There is a lot of textual information with very few pictures or images. When going to the page to search by 'type of show' you are presented with small iconic images. The only bit of animation on the site is right at the beginning with the welcoming 'jester'. There was no form of sound throughout the site. The font face though the site is primarily Times New Roman, differing in size and style (i.e. bold, italic etc) for main titles and general information which was generally point size 12.

The site does not go over the top with the use of colour. The site is based on a plain white background with the text mainly in black. Some sections of text are placed on a pale coloured background that is on the main white background. The white background is quite effective as it keeps the pages simple.

There is limited interactivity for the user within the site - primarily when you want to search for information on a particular show, play etc. All you have to do is type in the criteria for what you want to search for in a text box. The results of the searches are just listed in alphabetic order one after the other, so you have to scroll down the pages to go find what you want.

Even though the home page is fairly large cluttered it is quite well laid out. The logo and title is positioned centrally along top and the other information below sectioned off with headings and coloured text boxes according to the various topics (seating, hotels etc), part of the information is displayed with the use of tables.

On browsing the site the pages are simpler in terms of content and have more white space thus, not as much scrolling was needed as the home page. All the succeeding pages to the home page had the title bar/logo along the top acting like a horizontal frame so it was easy to go back a page or another section of the site but not easy to go back to the home page. The site was consistent in terms of the white background, typeface and size and the page layout was not too cluttered and made good use of the whole page.

The site is very 'magazine like' and acts as the virtual magazine. It does not have any metaphor in the design and does not give the feel of the Theatre - quite boring and nothing attractive that is really eye catching. The site does incorporate an entry tunnel experience right at the beginning with the animation and this does give the feeling that you are going to enter a theatre - this feeling disappears after this page! An irritating thing about the site was that is had a banner on the top of each page promoting advertising on the site.

The information is quite brief but useful and to the point - acts as a search engine and it is a good information source. The use of the white background is quite effective and the limited use of colour is a good contrast. Consistent throughout the site in terms of colour, layout etc however the green title bar could be in a better colour and more could have more pictures or graphics. The site was very quick in loading and retrieving information but then again everything is mainly in text format.

TheatreNet

http://www.theatrenet.co.uk

Homepage

This site tries to portray itself as 'The Entertainment Centre' for the theatre. On entering the site home page you are presented with a colourful logo of the front of a theatre. This logo is on the top of the page with 4 flag like banners, 2 on the each side of the theatre for the various sections of the site - Homepage, Special Offers, News archives and Links pages. On the doorway to the theatre is another banner - 'Box Office'. Beneath the logo there is a great deal of textual information, separated by differently sized columns - one under the heading of 'Latest new and Events' and the other 'What's showing'. Other than the graphic at the top of the page the rest of the home page is filled with paragraphs of pure text.

Hypermedia

Other than text there is very limited other forms of hypermedia - no sound, rollovers, movie clips etc. There are a few pictures on the home page under the 'what's showing' column of some of the shows that currently in the theatres. However across the top of theatre there is a scrolling banner done in Java script but is very small therefore difficult to read. The Fonts used throughout the site is Times New Roman and of point size 10.

Colour

The use of colour on the site is very limited. The whole site is done with a black background with white typeface. The logo is in colour and consists of five colours red, yellow, blue, green and a pale brown with any text in black. The use of these colours on the black background in very effective as they standout and they compliment the white text.

The home page has a lot of text on it and you have to use the browser's scrollbar to scroll through all this text to the bottom of the page. Once you scroll down so the logo with the options at the top, disappear there is no way of going back to the top or to the other sections of the site.

On navigation through the site other pages are consistent in terms of the black background and typeface and white text. The logo on the home page is slightly modified but still is consistent throughout the pages. The content is still all textual the archives section has a list of dates with a brief description of the article dating back to 1996. There is a lot of scrolling to be done on this page as well. Clicking on the date hyperlink presents you will the article in much more detail - more pages of white text on black background! Two pages make the use of frames along the left with a list of categories and on the right a list of the links or details of the category.

The layout of the pages are well structured however, all of them are mainly pages of text. There is no form of interaction for the user anywhere throughout the whole site. The site is more of a guide with hand hints and tips about things related about the theatre. There is little information about the shows or booking tickets etc. The site acts as a host to other sites and provides you with the external links to the shows and theatres etc.

There is no form of an entrance tunnel to the site. Though entering the site on the black background was quite good as it initially sets the scene of going to the theatre but this feel quickly vanishes as you see pages and pages of boring text - in Times New Roman font! Also the logo is very colourful and looks very pleasant with the base colours on the background colour. The way the graphic is designed looks as if it has a 'western' type feel to it but this metaphor is not carried throughout the site. Overall not a very appealing site with lots of plain text and difficult to find information.