Good Venue, Crappy Web Site

Mac's Bar is one of the best places in Lansing to watch a band, especially if you're into smoky, divey watering holes with poor acoustics, stellar bathroom stall literature and cheap drinks. However none of that comes across from the bar's Web site.

While the site is serviceable in that it contains the critical elements a viewer would search for — directions, hours of operation, contact number, entertainment calendar — some of its elements are lacking and it is missing an opportunity to convey through its design what makes the bar unique.

The problems began for me on the home page, organized into three main columns, the third of which is blank. Why not highlight some significant, upcoming shows in this spot? 

This home page announces, above the navigation bar, "Shoot your own music videos at Macs," but doesn't offer a link to more instructions. Seems kind of random. Makes me wonder if they're open for Bar Mitzvahs as well.

Below the navigation bar is another non-link ordering the viewer to "stay tuned." For what? I don't know.

The navigation bar itself works pretty well in that its color turns from red (with a white drop shadow) on black, to white (with a red drop shadow) on black when activated. However the first would-be link, "History," is dead. Maybe viewers are supposed to stay tuned for the venue to create and document its history?

The link that is most relevant to me when I visit is "Calendar," which leads the viewer to a separate page featuring a list of shows. This is problematic in a few ways: First, I have a 12-inch screen, and have to scroll to the right to view the pictures of the bands who are playing; secondly, the font is too large, which allows only two shows to be displayed on my screen. I have to scroll down constantly; thirdly, many of the headlining band links either send the viewer back to the calendar page he or she is in, or send the viewer to Mac's Bar's MySpace page, which is no better than its Web site.

The "Booking" page opens the viewer's default e-mail software to send an email to the venue. This was annoying because my default email software is no longer current and I had to close out of a few windows. Why not just provide an email address within a separate page to either click on, or to copy and paste. Then they could provide some general guidelines for booking shows as well. For instance, how early do they book shows, who is in charge, what kinds of bands play there, etc.?

The "Directions" page sends viewers to a Google Maps page in a separate window. It would be better to import this map into the site.

The "Gallery" page has potential. The photo viewer seems to work pretty well, but the venue only has six photos up. One would think the venue just opened. Who knows. It has no history.

— Andrew Norman