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cranky surfer
Dec. 30th, 2002 02:08 amI'm usually a pretty calm person (aren't I?). However one thing that really does get my goat is a badly designed web site. If I waste much time on a very bad site, I find I get frustrated and it takes me some time before I can calm down. This entry is part of my effort to let off steam.
Why should I get so annoyed? Maybe it's because I expect that people who are paid to make such a site should have spent a little time on good design. It's also because this stupidity is perpetrated on so many people. And of course I know that I could do so much better. By the way, I'm talking about professional web sites - if someone makes their own pages unusable, that's their lookout.
A web site might not have everything you want on it, it might be a little out of date, but it should be possible to find your way through it, to fill in the forms without having to redo them over and over, and follow a few basic rules (I won't list them here, but many are even more basic than this).
My latest frustration was when I decided to get a new (online) bank account, and thought smile looked good. An hour later and I was tearing my hair out (at least I would have been if it were long enough).
( my e-mail to smile - in a cut so you can ignore (some of) the tedious moaning )
I only spent the time mailing them (fairly politely, I think) because they seem like a reasonably good thing (as far as an evil bank can be) and I would like to have an account with them. When I had an even worse experience with Yahoo Shopping I would have deregistered and sent them a "fuck off and die" message - if they provided an option to deregister or an e-mail address for comments (in the end, I changed all my personal details to "never buy through Yahoo it just doesnt work" to remind myself not to use it again). They may be having problems with using banner ads to provide revenue (well, duh!), but they should have had enough experience to make their commercial pages workable.
I know I should be getting more het up about important issues like war in Iraq or what they did to Tolkein's plot, but at least this is an issue where I know I am right and they are wrong. Maybe the only way to preserve peace is to invade Iraq. Maybe the Two Towers wouldn't work as a film with Orcs being swallowed by the forest. But I'm damned sure one can trivially make better web sites than this.
Or am I being unreasonable? I know it's easy to criticise my own web pages (eg. the OUSFG ones), but I know how I could bring them up to a reasonable standard if I had a little more time; eg. if it were my job - and I'd maintain they're still better designed than smile etc.
Why should I get so annoyed? Maybe it's because I expect that people who are paid to make such a site should have spent a little time on good design. It's also because this stupidity is perpetrated on so many people. And of course I know that I could do so much better. By the way, I'm talking about professional web sites - if someone makes their own pages unusable, that's their lookout.
A web site might not have everything you want on it, it might be a little out of date, but it should be possible to find your way through it, to fill in the forms without having to redo them over and over, and follow a few basic rules (I won't list them here, but many are even more basic than this).
My latest frustration was when I decided to get a new (online) bank account, and thought smile looked good. An hour later and I was tearing my hair out (at least I would have been if it were long enough).
( my e-mail to smile - in a cut so you can ignore (some of) the tedious moaning )
I only spent the time mailing them (fairly politely, I think) because they seem like a reasonably good thing (as far as an evil bank can be) and I would like to have an account with them. When I had an even worse experience with Yahoo Shopping I would have deregistered and sent them a "fuck off and die" message - if they provided an option to deregister or an e-mail address for comments (in the end, I changed all my personal details to "never buy through Yahoo it just doesnt work" to remind myself not to use it again). They may be having problems with using banner ads to provide revenue (well, duh!), but they should have had enough experience to make their commercial pages workable.
I know I should be getting more het up about important issues like war in Iraq or what they did to Tolkein's plot, but at least this is an issue where I know I am right and they are wrong. Maybe the only way to preserve peace is to invade Iraq. Maybe the Two Towers wouldn't work as a film with Orcs being swallowed by the forest. But I'm damned sure one can trivially make better web sites than this.
Or am I being unreasonable? I know it's easy to criticise my own web pages (eg. the OUSFG ones), but I know how I could bring them up to a reasonable standard if I had a little more time; eg. if it were my job - and I'd maintain they're still better designed than smile etc.
