After reviewing Odeon’s website a number of issues ago, I thought it was time to review one of the competitors and this time it is Vue’s site entitled Myvue. This site is designed by Peach Digital Ltd.
I like the Vue site, it is simple, quick and easy – it’s very much a case of click n’ go. The home page on your first visit (shown above), simply presents you with a list of all the locations of Vue sites which means that you can save your local site for the next time (via the use of a cookie). If you are not sure of your local site then there is a cinema finder page where you can put your postcode in to find your nearest Vue – my closest appears to be about 3.40 miles away!! There is also a poster for the current big film release and an advert for one of the new sites.
Once you select your cinema it takes you to a page which displays the current films which are being screened, along with the time. For those of you who care whether a movie is being screened in either film or digital format then this is mentioned in the title (it’s interesting to see the list of films at the completely digital Vue in Hull).
Booking a ticket through this site is quick, easy and straightforward. Once you have gone through the online process, an email quickly appears in your inbox. Picking the ticket up at the cinema is also quick and easy.
The week which I looked at the website, there was an advert for Sweeney Todd, the image changes each week to reflect the current big release. The Sweeney Todd image is very black, unfortunately when you enter the site and select a website the bottom navigation disappears as the text is the same colour as the background image and the image doesn’t quite fit the screen anymore. I checked this issue in both Firefox and Internet Explorer. However, it does appear that this doesn’t seem to be such an issue when the screen is set at a lower screen resolution.
From the bottom menu there are a number of useful links to the Corporate Vue website, which gives background information on the company, a helpful FAQ and a careers site, where people who are interested in working for the company are able to see all the current vacancies across the country, or individual region.
What is nice to see is that at the bottom of each screen of cinema information, after the adverts for kids clubs, preview screenings and other film promotion information, there is a link to the MediCinema, which Vue supports. For people who don’t know this a charity which runs fully operational cinemas within hospitals for patience to go to. It is well worth a look at, but it is great that Vue provide such a large footprint to the charity on their website.
The text only site is nice to look at, easy to operate. The site has a good amount of the vital metadata within the home page. The only annoying thing for me is the menu, which follows you down the page as you scroll. This is very irritating if you are using a screen smaller than 1023 x 768, and even when you are it still is.
This is a nice website, well designed, easy to use and functional.
If you would like Screentrade to review a particular website, please contact me directly on: webmaster@madcornishprojectionist.co.uk.
Download Times: [Not available on this website].
Navigation: ****
Good Design: ****
Updates: *****
Content *****
Download Speed: n/a
Overall: ******
Overall: I love this site, and it works well. The biggest announce is the wondering side menu.
Testing Information: This site is tested using a laptop at 1024 x 768 resolution running Windows XP, Firefox Version 2.0.0.6 and Internet Explorer 7 over an 8Mb Broadband connection. The site is also now being tested on an Asus EEE PC. For the text only test Lynx on a Linux Server is used. A website entitled WebSiteOptimization.com is used to test the web site to calculate the download speeds.