Dubai International Film Festival - website and venue

Now that I've posted my top 20 picks for this this year's Dubai Film Festival, this post is to rant about a couple of issues. I know the festival has not started yet, but I'm just curious to know if anyone else feels the same way.

The DIFF website - www.dubaifilmfest.com
It's was painfully difficult to navigate the website to plan my schedule. The new calendar feature was not usable, it was quite difficult to get one proper overview per day. It's in Flash, too much scrolling and too many filter options which I don't think many would use. There is an option to "download a Microsoft Outlook ready file" ... erm, we don't all use Microsoft Outlook.

Looking at the current calendar, to then go to the Full Details page, to then add it in Favourite or in a My Calendar just isn't feasible. The site might be fine for people watching a couple of movies, but for people like yours truly that plan to watch a lot - allow us to download/export the entire schedule in chronological order into a Word document or Excel sheet so that we can create our own schedules by easily deleting the films we don't want to see. Just feels like a quicker solution compared to the fuss one has to go through on the website.

Screenshot of part of the timetable

If one prefers to go through the printed program guide instead of the website, then you know you have a problem. This is the 7th year of the festival and every year the site is different. Would be great if there's some consistency with the navigation, but more importantly, get the site usability right.

One more thing, the website lacks trailers. I managed to find trailers for most of the films listed in my top 20 films to watch at DIFF in my previous post. Watching a trailer really helps.



The venue - The Walk at Jumeirah Beach Residence

Call me a venue snob (and no offence to my friends that live there), but I was so disappointed when I found out that the Rhythms and Reels program will be screened at The Walk at Jumeirah Beach Residence. That part of 'new Dubai' is just not pleasant, busy in the evenings and on weekends, difficult to get to, full of cars driving up and down and people walking all around. It will be great for people that live there, but I know I won't make an effort to drive there to watch a film.

Don't know about you, but I do not want to watch a film surrounded by this.

The plan is to set up an open air cinema by the beach, but the area really lacks character. It is surrouned by high rise towers and it just breaks my heart that an open air cinema will be set up there. Would be great if DIFF can look at some other parts of town to create an impact, for instance, create an open air cinema in our parks. Here's one suggestion, there's an amphitheatre in Dubai Creek Park that is hardly used. Oh, how great it would be to set up a cinema there. Open air, by the creek and very charming. 

Anyone else out there feels the same?

Comments

[Rupert]

Hi Hind, I agree with you about location, but if a park is too passe, how about DIFC, accessible by Metro, parking available? Having been down to JBR earlier this week in the morning, I was delighted to see the tourist bustle, but if traffic jams are there in morning, what on earth are the evenings like?

[alexander]

Hooting at the JBR comments. It's a horror, isn't it?

And sadly, poorly designed websites are all around us. This is my personal favourite: http://www.altaawunmall.ae/ - Just think how much worse it have been! Enjoy!

(BTW, that doesn't mean I don't think they should try and do it well. The lack of structured thought, let alone intuition and UX in the websites we see in the region are awful. The more people like ye spank 'em, the more likely we are to see standards being applied!)

[Simone]

Absolutely agree with you on all points. I haven't even managed to finish my list of films because I've been so frustrated by the bloody website. Remember having the same issue the past years as well. Fix it!

P.S - another thing I cannot understand is the constantly changing twitter handle. Why not just stick to @DFF or @DIFF instead of creating a new one every year?

[Raja'a]

YES! Absolutely agree with you on every one of those points. SO DISAPPOINTED with JBR being the venue for Rhythm and Reels.
Let's see what happens. Like your suggestions though...maybe I'll bump in to you :)

[Bob]

While I couldn't agree more about the website (it was incredibly difficult to book films), I disagree completely about the outdoor screenings. JBR is easily accessible by metro and a 5-10 minute walk (just leave the car at home for once!), or if you have to drive (as I did) park at DMC and use the free shuttle...it was great and took us almost all the way there - it let you out at the other end of that massive parking lot.
I went to 3 of the nights there including the opening night. I thought it was a really nice idea to have the opening film screened there, including the red carpet show. Although my biggest complaint would be that the lights from The Walk put a shadow on the screen.
The old location at DMC felt like it was just plunked down and few people attended compared to the crowds I witnessed at JBR. I would think that even fewer people would make the effort to go to Creek Park.