Friday, November 18, 2011

Why, Oh, Why?

The BSO has a spiffy-looking web site for Tanglewood, but I just don't understand one design decision: When you scroll down the performance listing and click the More Details link for a specific concert, the performer names are not visible. You have to mouse over a photograph to see who is conducting or playing.

Take the opening concert.See the gray-haired gent? Because it's an all-Beethoven program of the Leonore No. 3 and the Fifth and Sixth Symphonies, I can guess that he is not a soloist. I happen to recognize him, in fact. But if I didn't, I'd have to mouse over the photo to discover that he's Christoph von Dohnanyi.

However, I don't recognize the guy conducting the Stravinsky & Brahms program or the pianist playing the Brahms series. I have to click through and then mouse over their photos.

And seriously? You have to click on a tiny, light green, More Details link to see the details. You can't click on the date or the photo accompanying each listing.

Is there some reason to hide performers' names in mouse-over text?? Not a good one, I'll tell you that.

Hoisted from the comments, so the maximum number of people see it; reader Unknown says:
You're absolutely spot-on with these comments, except you didn't ask what to me was the most obvious question: why can't I just download or look at a simple text file with all of the season information? Why do I have to keep scrolling down the page and click on "More Details" boxes to learn just the basic information (e.g., what's being played and who is playing it) about each concert?
Unknown is right! Why not?

2 comments:

Unknown said...

Your absolutely spot-on with these comments, except you didn't ask what to me was the most obvious question: why can't I just download or look at a simple text file with all of the season information? Why do I have to keep scrolling down the page and click on "More Details" boxes to learn just the basic information (e.g., what's being played and who is playing it) about each concert?

Lisa Hirsch said...

You are completely right. I'm going to add your comment to the posting, in fact.