I want to say nice words about websites related to art festivals.
When it comes to big-buck organizations, such as the Toronto International Film Festival, I expect nothing short of being impressed.
After all, Luminato (with an overall stunning online and social media experience) and Toronto Jazz Festival (with their “instrument search”) do it every year.
TIFF does…suck.
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I wanted to report to my film-savvy Romanian community that Romanian movies are present again at the festival this year.
After 5 minutes of using their website, I gave up.
5 minutes is EXTREMELY generous in today’s time.
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A horrible usability experience of the website, doubled by issues with the ticketing online make room for embarrassing conclusions.
Hey, TIFF, online is not fancy, is not Hollywood. Online is part of your toolbox.
Check the screenshots attached for simple examples of the experience, and say Thank You for my free testing.
could not agree more. and this year sucks more than last year’s.
i wrote them last year, giving them constructive feedback. but obviously they don’t want to listen to a professional designer and 10 year TIFF veteran, since the site got worse this year. this year’s site sucks so much i couldn’t find the BUY link to get my advanced tickets after 3 tries. so i just gave up.
tried to get single tickets instead but their server crashed this morning. then it turns out the film i want to see will be $43. guess i’ll just wait for the theatrical release and actually give the filmmakers some money (they don’t make money off festivals).