In keeping with the title convention for our site redesign threads, let’s use this thread to discuss changes to the touring plan creation process. This is the last of the site’s core tools to be redesigned.
Our goals for the redesign:
Better support for mobile devices
Modern look and feel
More contextual information about rides when you’re selecting them (aka “Remind me again what Peter Pan’s Flight is?” for first-timers)
Remind you about the attractions you’ve ‘favorited’ when browsing other parts of the site
DON’T CHANGE ANYTHING ELSE
Other than the contextual information, we avoided changing the touring plan creation process from its current flow. So same questions as before, at the same place in the process, with the same meaning and the same result.
In keeping with the sort/filter tools we’ve implemented for attractions, restaurants, and hotels, the TP creation process moves those filters to the left on desktop.
The (?) icon next to each attraction name displays a refresher about the attraction and its ratings. We think this is helpful for first-timers unfamiliar with the park:
When I try to go to the staging, it just keeps asking me to login. Neither my real credentials nor the “staging” credentials seem to work.
In any case…will the App and the Mobile Website be the same? I am finding the need to jump between the app, the mobile website, and the desktop website tedious. Hoping they end up unified.
Just has the current/ old version on making a plan.
I can’t tell all of the filters from the image but I would love to see a filter by land. I would also like to be able to “lock” things together for optimization or at least have a ride time window preference (like morning, mid-day, evening. That would be super helpful. I’m not sure this falls under “website redesign” for todays task, lol, but I’d like it to be side noted.
I like all of the added information in the example of BTMRR above. I’m hoping that shows and parades or things that have limited hours will also show that information prior to the actually adding them to the plan.
A major reason I quit using the Lines app day of is because of the functionality. Since I do not go from ride to ride, I do not like to click I’m done. I would like an option to tap in line and finished. Also, after tapping finished I wish it would keep real time. No point in evaluating/optimizing a plan that has a start time for 9am if its 11:30. I always give up. I would like a drag and drop feature to move steps around on the fly- maybe double tap to be able to move and double tap to set. If some of these things have been adressed since 2020 please excuse me, lol. That is the last time I used the Lines app day of. I’ve always just used the desktop verion in my web browser.
Are you seeking feedback (once we can access it) on adding or considering LL? That is where I have really struggled. But with that changing in 2 months, I figured you may just be letting it go until we know the new process.
Some comments as I experience them (using the desktop site):
On the page to Create a Touring Plan (which…I think needs to be easier to get to from the Dashboard…both creating a new one and seeing existing ones, more similar to the app), the Text Box for “Plan Name” is GINORMOUS! And…at first, I didn’t realize it was a text box. I would shrink it down to be in better scale with the rest of the screen…but also, have the cursor default to that text box so that I don’t have to click on it to start entering the name.
Next screen, for entering the date…it is justifying left, while the previous page was justified in the center. I would be consistent and keep it all center justified.
I like how it walks you through the steps of selecting a date and time and park (although…again, the scaling of everything seems off to me…too big…but maybe on a Mobile device it would be better?)
The “banner” across the top which shows your progress through the steps cuts off the text, which looks…bad.
On the page where you select attractions, I think the position of the Heart versus the option to select a ride is reversed of what it should be. I would put the checkbox on the left, and the heart can be more to the right. It is more natural to pick things either all the way to the left or all the way to the right of something…having it in the middle is…different.
I might consider having the button to “Proceed to Meal” as always accessible (hovers) as you scroll through the options…scrolling all the way to the bottom if I already know I’m done is annoying…especially when it means I am going back and reviewing what I selected, and realized I didn’t check “It’s A Small World”, but now have to scroll all the way back to the bottom.
As you scroll through the list, it would be nice to keep the column headings visible at all times. I scrolled down, but wasn’t sure what the two arrows meant and had to scroll all the way back up to find out it was the Child Swap column.
Selecting the food choices uses a completely different method than the attractions list, and in yet another position. I would keep it to the left and keep it consistent!
I find the ratings part confusing. Things will say average when it is in the 90s of percentage. I would expect average to be 50%. Above average is things above 50%, and below average is below 50%. (Maybe it is just me…but I would either drop the labeling of average, above average, below average and just let us use the percentages as our guide…OR, drop the percentages, and JUST use the textual description…but the two combined is confusing.)
Much like the “Process to Meals” button should hover, so should the buttons when done with adding breaks and meals.
Just a feature request here…it would be nice to have a way to add a meal, but not necessarily pick a specific place…rather, maybe tell it to pick a quick service or snack cart or something, and when you optimize, TP can recommend something that is closest to the area you would be at that time. I always find it annoying that I decide to put in, say, eating at Connections at noon, but really the more optimal choice would have me eating somewhere in the WS because of the way the optimization works out. Maybe it automatically makes a recommendation, putting the name in the Notes field…which would allow me to change it to something else later once I have firmer plans if I want.
I like the ability to drag the order of rides directly, versus the way you have to do it when you Evaluate using the App. I wish it worked this way in the app!!!
When it came to the point of actually performing the Optimize versus Evaluate, I could not find the buttons anywhere! I kept scrolling, searching. Nothing.
Finally, I found it…but they were both in a big red section towards the bottom of the screen which looked like it was a different “section” of the website where I might be expected to find links to something else, or ads or something, so visually, I just kind of ignored it.
I would make the buttons to Optimize and Evaluate front and center (and perhaps “hovering” as well, so they are always accessible.
… And after the optimization finishes, the page stays down at the bottom, so I’m forced to scroll up to see the results…rather than reload the page at the start of the results as I would expect.
I like all of these suggestions but I want to formally agree with this one. It’s not necessarily in this stage of the game. I’ve never found them useful when making a plan. I found them more useful when researching what we would do. But that was usually in 2 different sittings. Also, these are just opinions (even if they are popular ones). And I find some top rated things to be skippable and some 2 stars to be MUST DOs.
One difference there currently is between what I can do on the desktop vs on my iPad is reordering. On the desktop I can drag and drop steps that I want to reorder. On my ipad I MUST use the little up and down arrows that are with each step. Drag and drop doesn’t work.
This becomes really annoying when I’ve optimized my rides etc. and then want to add in a meal or break early in the day because then I have to move the new thing up over every single step to move it to the top part. When I know if I was on my desktop I could just drag it there and be done.
Website. And I have to use the move up and move down links with each step the little arrows next to the step don’t seem to do anything that I can tell. I have not tried the test site only the one that is currently live. But I can if it would be helpful for this.
