Real Time Information Services: National Rail Enquiries

National Rail Enquiries The National Rail set up an enquiries website when the power of the internet was realised in the early 2000s. It was a much more useful method for customers to gain information than to ring the busy call centres, customers can now get exactly what they want and when they want it. With the internet now readily available on smartphones, customers can find out if their are any delays whilst on the move, making the service more efficient.

Features:

• Homepage: At the homepage of the website, the customer is provided with a simple "menu-bar" interface at the top of the screen. On the page itself, there are mostly advertisements for travel, along with special offers by national rail and various shortcuts to different parts of the website. It has a simple, as well as having an aesthetically pleasing design. The simplicity of the design means that people who have less experience with the internet, especially the elderly.

The Homepage

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  Live Departure Boards: This area is found under the sub-menu of "Train times & tickets". Here the user can type in the station of their choice into the box to load a live departure board of that station, alerting the customer of any possible delays. If the customer cannot access the internet, they can text the station name to "84950" and it will provide information on live departures. The Train Tracker (text message) service is very useful, especially for people who cannot afford smart phones, or simply cannot access the internet.  At this area of the site, the customer can also check the facilities of a station (whether it has toilets, baby-changing facilities, bike sheds etc.) this allows people to plan ahead, to perhaps get off a station early in emergency situations.

The "Train times & tickets" area of the website.

Live Departure board for Leigh-on-Sea to London Fenchurch Street.

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  About your journey: At this page, the customer can find out more information about the journey itself; stations, destinations, maps and time tables. The main feature of this page is that customers can find which stations are nearest to certain destinations; such as theme parks, castles, hospitals etc. This is very useful for people who do not own cars and rely on public transport to get around. The destinations are arranged into colour coded categories to make the destinations even easier to locate.

The destinations list.

• Changes to train times: when the customer first encounters this part of the site, they are shown the current news on delays, shown in a similar way to a blog (oldest at the bottom). Each new information is placed into an individual table cell to avoid confusion. The page is updated 24/7 to ensure complete coverage of any delays. The format of the site itself is very clear and concise and the information can be found quickly and efficiently. The page also has an area showing "Future Disruptions", this gives a warning, allowing customers to change plans and claim a refund if they need to.

Real Time Information Services: Odeon

 

Odeon:

Odeon is Britain's (and Europe's) largest Cinema chain and has been running since 1928. In the early 2000's the company had to adapt to the current consumer market; it made a website that allowed customers to book tickets, see the latest film times and find their nearest odeon cinema. Customers can choose their seats, pay for tickets, then collect from an electronic ticket distributing machine therefore beating the lengthy queues.

A map showing the distibution of Odeon Cinemas in the UK.

Features:

When going onto the site, the home page will load. From here, the customer has access to all of Odeon's services (see bullet points below):

The Odeon Homescreen; with an easy to access menu-bar at the top with several columns to help organise information.

•  Book Now: from the homepage, the customer can select the cinema, film, day and time (depending on the times of the screenings) of their choice. This is the first step to booking a film on the site, it is located here so that unexperienced users of the internet don't feel patronised by a complex web page.

The "Book Now" screen located on the Home Page.

After selecting the film and cinema, the customer is presented with another screen where they can choose the ticket types (Adult, Child, Teen, Family, Senior or Student) and where they wish to sit. After selecting the number of tickets, the screen displays a layout of the cinema showing the seats that are available. The customer then drags there ticket types and drops it in the area of the cinema where they wish to sit. This is a very simple technique, therefore it will be easy for people who do not use the internet often. After selecting the seats, the customer will pay for the tickets, using a secure payment system with a debit or credit card. The downside with this payment method is that Odeon charge 75p for a Card Handling fee, the customer can not pay with cash too, which some people prefer to pay with human interaction (especially if they require help).

The area of the site where users can select their seats.

•  Film: If the customer is stuck on which film they wish to see, then the website can suggest which films to see from what they have on offer. The user can access this section easily by simply clicking on the "Films" tab on the homepage:

 After clicking this tab, the customer encounts a new screen where the user can choose from the "Top 5" films, or see information on upcoming films. This arranged into two columns which makes it easier for people to find the film they desire to see. The customer also has the option to view "All Films Showing" and see which films are showing in order of "Genre".

The "Films" section of the site.

When the customer chooses a film, a page will load containing various information about the film:

Here, the customer can see a rating (provided by film reviewes at Odeon), production information (including cast) and a synopsis of the plot. The page will often have a trailer too, this will help the customer decide whether it is the film they wish to see. Once again this sytem is easy for inexperienced web users because all of the information they wish to see is located in one place. If the customer still cannot make up their mind, then they can see reviews by other customers, this is more useful because they are rating films for the entertainment, where professional film reviewers will rate films on camera angles, casting, light etc.

Film reviews by other customers.

• Cinemas: If the customer has already bought their tickets for the film and are stuck on information for the cinema where they are going to see it, this is where to go. To reach this information, the customer clicks the "Cinemas" section of the menu tab:

The "Cinema" tab with drop down menu.

My Cinema and Times: At this page the user can see cinema times for any film up to 2 weeks in advance. Each film has a small synopsis area with a trailer with a rating (a condensed version of the "films" page). All the times are written in a simple 24hr clock, therefore no one can get confused between the AM and PM. If a screening becomes full up, the time will appear in a different colour to show it is full, however the time isn't deleted, this is so that people who are booked can check the time.


Cinema Times for my local area - Southend-on-Sea

 Cinema Finder: This screen shows a map of the British Isles showing areas where an Odeon Cinema is located (See Image at the top of the blog). If the user cannot read a map/cannot see clearly where the nearest one is, they can type their postcode into a box, and it will list the nearest odeon and how far away it is. This service isn't original, and the same thing can be done simply by typing it into google maps, especially the fact that it gives less information than google maps. On the other hand, it is more useful for people who are inexperienced at using the internet.