The BigScreen Cinema Guide’s (BSCG) (www.bigscreen.com) languid and disorganized design overshadows its knowledge and enthusiasm about movies to create an impression of a superfluous, uncertain detour, a series of links to more useful websites rather than a productive base of film buff operations. Upon further investigation, BSCG seems to be after a librarian’s heart in bringing useful resources together into one place, but its design is ultimately reflective of its true colours. It may be a good reference point about movies, and some of its pages could inform a design model for information professionals, but it is not recommended for information seekers.
BSCG is largely an unappealing experience. Its focus is on helping visitors find the right theatres and show times for their cinema-going needs (largely in the United States), but it also provides other services and features, and several of these have unclear titles and multiple roles. Understanding the website is made no easier with its navigation at the bottom of each page. The criteria for inclusion of films on the Now Showing page under categories, such as Coming Soon, Academy Award Nominees and Classics, are unclear. Sometimes, the arrival of a new page is not immediately apparent unless the user scrolls down. Several pages that consist of links to other websites contain little BSCG content, giving the impression of anonymous redundancy over branded assistance. This overshadows BSCG’s work in selecting resources for users, such as the work it puts into its Gift Shop pages, which, in addition to linking to outside vendors, display trending movie titles and share home entertainment news about new releases of remastered classics. BSCG maintains its own news articles about movie theatres but focuses on the Western part of the United States, which could be confusing to visitors who are not aware that BSCG originally focused on moviegoers in Wisconsin.
The above-mentioned problems are compounded by the fact that the site’s small, static images, overabundance of white space and spammy advertisements create an atmosphere both primitive and suspicious. BSCG does have an appealing mobile site. Nevertheless, it is easy to get lost in BSCG’s overall design and feel uneasy while doing so. BSCG seems to forget itself and its audience. This is also evident in how it offers users who subscribe to its VIP service the privilege to skip its advertisements – shouldn’t advertisements be part of enhancing the user’s experience?
Where BSCG excels is its theatre locations and movie show times. While this reviewer had great difficulty finding locations on Fandango and Rotten Tomatoes for the limited release of the Todd Haynes film Carol (2015), BSCG’s basic but intuitive search feature quickly delivered. Times and locations are displayed in the website’s style, and icons are tagged well with metadata. Customizing one’s experience through a free account would, thus, appear to have its benefits. Additionally, as a librarian with a background in film studies, this reviewer can say with confidence that BSCG has an interesting and largely well-selected page of links to information about the film industry. This would be an especially good reference resource or model for information professionals looking to provide helpful information about movies to their clients.
What ultimately reveals BSCG’s colours, however, is that when registering for a free account, there is a disclaimer, below the registration form, that all registered users must be 13 years old and above, absolving BSCG from federal regulations requiring verified permission from guardians. To me, this confirms an ultimate indifference.
Therefore, although BSCG may at first seem to be a simple reminder of knowing one’s identity and the needs of one’s audience, it is ultimately the logical result of the intentions put into it. Its effectiveness in delivering movie times and locations, and its compilation of reference resources about the industry, could be a helpful resource for information professionals, but information seekers would be better turned loose elsewhere.
