Lionel website got a facelift

Welcome to the world of Responsive Media - websites and advertising that will work across multiple platforms - desktop, mobile and tablet. The intent is to have seamless functionality across all platforms. It's  a nice design, but for a traditional toy train company it's a little too contemporary.

I don't like it.  It also looks like information that was available on the old site is no longer available on the new.

For some reason many of the older manuals and parts list found via the service section do not come up.  So to find a products instruction manual at least, you could go to find a product, get the product up and find the catalog listing and the instruction manual posted.  No longer there, it sends you to the product supplement search window again.  And the instruction can't be found.

G

I'm sure it will get better. Lots of links and tweaks to get re-established but I think it will be fine. I had to do some digging to get the Legacy software but found it. 

What it needs is a simple site index, something like this:

http://lionel-modern-era.com/test/Lionel_com.htm

MartyE, what happened to your ever changing avatar?

did you just make that?

nice.

Search engine links to owner's manuals now land on an Error 404 redirect page.  Did Lionel clear their archive of older manuals, or have I just been unable to find them?

What, me worry?

Now that's a perfect graphic for the Lionel Shipping Schedule!!! 

David

The old site was very dull and outdated, but its biggest problem was not being updated properly. When you have "12-15-14" displayed as a major news item on the landing page, there since that very date, you've got a problem.

The best thing Lionel can do is put someone who knows what they're doing in charge of it with instructions to review and update it every week.

Yes, was just playing around trying to figure out where some of the past links went to.

Looks like Lionel will be tweaking some content over time.  The descriptions for the Lion Chief E33 Rectifiers describe steam engines.  And other categories have unrelated product.  But every new website is a work in progress.

They prob didn't update the old site with the new one around the corner.

Well, they should have left the old site available as back up during transition.  G

and they should of brought the "product finder to this new site".

Reminds me of that Metallica song "Sad But True" Lol.

I would say that most if not all of the info from the old site is on the new site. One feature I like on the sets are the links to the video's  the would pertain to the sets. 

Bill

Navigating through the new website is terrible. Clearly, the designer does not know the customer base. One of the worst designed website's I have ever viewed...........or I should say tried to view!

Regards,

Swafford

Indeed...  I noticed the cancelled Texas Special 18" aluminum passenger cars have been removed from the updated list dated 8/27... possibly because of my comments earlier in this thread.

Now if Lionel would also remove references to all the other 18" aluminum cars that were supposedly cancelled too:  C&O, Rock Island, Southern, and Wabash.

As I recall, the only 18" aluminum cars still scheduled for production are the 4 sets catalog'd in the 2015 Signature Edition catalog:  Pennsylvania "Senator", Southern Pacific, Union Pacific "City of LA", and Milwaukee "Olympian".

Still no mention of shipping dates for all the new 21" ABS cars. 

Yes... I'm sure the new site will get better...  We just all need to take the same leap of faith that you have, Marty.    Drinking some Kool-Aid will probably help, too. 

David

I don't want to be in the negative crowd, but I can't find much to like about the new site.  Great graphics, but hard to navigate.  A test of patience to find what you are looking for.  Designing and maintaining web sites is not easy.  Finding someone to do it is even harder, even though there are so many people claiming to be good at it.  Knowing who your target audience is and what you are trying to accomplish is pretty important too.  Very low marks on all counts from my perspective unfortunately.

Art 

Went onto it looking for the old "product finder" and was really depressed by the result. As in we couldn't even locate the way to locate old engines..

Web site design might be difficult, many of these designers are just bad!

Art, I don't think you're being negative at all.  Good candid feedback is important, and desiring good communication and accurate information shouldn't be viewed as asking too much, or being sited as "negative", IMHO.  If something falls short of its goal, there's nothing wrong calling it like it is.  Many of us just gave the new B6 switcher locomotive five stars Because it deserved it.  Heck, I bought two of them!  This new website gets five stars for graphics, but one star for usability.

Not everything/everybody in life gets a trophy...  

David

Bobby,

   On Lionel main page click on the three black bars in the upper left hand corner. Then click on products and scroll down to the bottom of page.  Click on archives and a search box will appear. Type in product number, type of engine (GP7 , SD 60) if the engine came in a set you probably need the set number. Or on the main page click on the search box and type in the same info. When the engine comes up click on the picture and all the info is just like in the catalog. Scroll down to the bottom of the page and you will have three choices to select.  Hope this helps.

Bill

You mean something like this..

http://legacy.lionel.com/

http://legacy.lionel.com/products/finder/

playing with the url will get some of the old functionality to work, but unfortunately the old product locator won't load the pictures anymore.

I like the new site and I suppose we all will get used to it after awhile.

It sure beats MTH's site overall. That one needs a thorough revamp!

I wonder where the new catalog announcements will be displayed.

Andrew

The Lionel site is an example of change purely for the sake of change, perhaps someone's pet project to justify a job. This site is disorienting and painful to navigate. It adopts the long rejected presentation philosophy of Windows 8 with its silly and confusing tiles. Some have ambiguous photo icons, others appear like Egyptian hieroglyphs. I suppose the developer knows what they all mean and rest of us are just stupid for expecting a button to say what it is, in plain English. I suppose that would be considered offensive to the illiterate or some other culturally identifiable group. Maybe this site is transitional, and we should expect the next version to be in Spanglish as a tribute to the Mexican road names they are now producing on their trains. Welcome to the new, dumber America.  And then there is the matter of having to scroll down through 3 screens of clutter, when everything could be fit on a single home screen as it should.  The lack of common sense is simply appalling. Where does it end?

I don't see any bars in the upper left, just pictures scrolling across the screen.

Loved the old site and the ability to see what has been produced via the current or forever drop down menu. This seems like an update in futility. Even if you love it, does not seem to be easier to navigate which should be the number one priority in a web site correct? Provide information to your customers and increase sales? Some here have mentioned the MTH site is bad. If so why join them? If MTH had a parts menu it would be very good.

looks like the legacy.lionel.com website is now completely dead.

Oh well, the old product finder is now gone.

That is the problem.  A new website should not be a work in progress.  It should be thoroughly tested from a technical and functional design perspective.  And, there should be a rigorous user acceptance testing phase where regular users, not web developers, work with the system to identify issues.  After those issues are addressed, then you put the website into production.

Even though my IT career pre-dates the Internet and websites, the discipline of verifying the technical and functional design of any new system, such as a new website, is still IMHO required.  And, you must have regular, non-IT people use it in a user acceptance test.

I'm not picking on Lionel...I'm picking on a large percentage of all the various websites that I and my wife use. 

It seems that the competition to have the latest whiz-bang features in a website has displaced rigorous testing.

OK....I'm off my soapbox now.

Well, the face lift may or may not have been a success, but the patient is either dead or in a  coma: the website has been up for hours now!

It has become nearly useless-unless you want to link to a social media website

No Lionel website.

Windows 10, Edge, IE 11, Chrome browser.

Working Windows 7 IE11.

the biggest disappointment is the links on the lionel home page or other pages do not even work!!

example after going to the home page for legacy then  this page lionel legacy click on the "download manual v1.52", you get the error page.

Guess it is time to use the Internet Archive Waybackmachine if I want to find old product information with the old site. Assuming it was saved by them.

The thing that is the weirdest is how the pictures shift as you scroll down the screen, it really messes with my equilibrium.

Are you sure that's not from the vapors?

ARCHIVED PRODUCTS

I found that most useful,too. There are many still running or available in the secondary market. helpful for lots of reasons.

My wayback is on the fritz. The google links still point to old locations.

Thanks, Bill.