Websites Still Designed For People Who Don't Use Them
from the design-matters dept
When the executives at Martha Stewart Living Omnimedia redesigned their site this year, they replaced a clean site design with new snazzy one filled with images, flash, and video. Unfortunately, while the redesign looked really pretty, regular users found it impossible to actually find any of the content that they were actually looking for. The web has already been around for more than a decade now, so it's sad to see that companies are still failing to understand why people visit their site and designing sites that people find frustrating to use. Every day, millions of internet users still click on the "skip" to get through the ubiquitous flash introduction screen that still stands as an annoying sentry to many websites. At what point will companies stop repeating the same mistakes over and over and over again? With the "Websites that Suck" awards now entering their 12th year, we're clearly progressing at a very slow rate. At least we're taking baby steps -- it's been awhile since I've seen an animated "under construction" sign.![Hide This Hide this](https://ii.techdirt.com/s/t/i/topclose.png)
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Filed Under: design, mistakes, web design
Companies: martha stewart living omnimedia
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I know they generally want to avoid being scraped by comparison sites but at work it would make the job of putting price quotes together soooo much easier if i could pull prices in bulk then filter them locally in excel.
you knwo the old "make it easy for people to give you money" routine.
also got adblock, noscript and flashbock installed. guess what if your site doesn't work the competitor gets the order.
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How do they know users don't like the site
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Simple, 1997-era designs work best
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webmaster
wait nobody monitors their webmaster email anymore
as an experiment I asked our sysadmin to add a webmaster address and forward it to me. this is a substantial .com business, over 1 million uniques per month. I didnt get any spam. There is no excuse not to answer your webmaster.
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Ease of use is always the number one priority. I have been successful in web design because I will not lower my standards of giving the client what is best for them just to satisfy their desire for flash. If they want a flashy site that doesn't increase business, they can go somewhere else.
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gaming sites
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Re: How do they know users don't like the site
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Flash should be dead.
I surf most of the time on a 6 year old server. I have a gaming PC but the server is always on. It doesn’t do flash. It can but not well enough to work. I can't even guess how many times I went to Dominos just because I couldn’t get to the number on Pizza Hut's site.
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Blame marketers
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Flash websites
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Martha
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Re: Blame marketers
There, I fixed that for you. ;-)
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ask mom
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Wonders
Im tired of needing to OK, 6 sites just to view 1.
Between adverts being grabbed from random sites for DISPLAY, and the SAME being posted so that I' NEED to ok them Just to SEE a front page...AS well as those sites NOT useing AV on those adverts to protect me/customer...
Then comes some OLD concepts.
Optimization...You dont need 300dpi graphics on the NET.
800x600 site. Yes, dont you LOVe having to use a FULL display to see a site? There used to be a way for the SITES to auto adjust to WHAT you wanted to display. NOW you have to display a Full 1080 page on a small/Big screen and it takes over everything.
Picture sites...WOW, everything, and every word is a graphic/php/gif/tif/jpg/ActiveX/Java/ect and so forth..
THERE arnt any words...
Then comes interesting problem..HOW deep do you have to make a URL.. 1 line? 2? A whole PAGE??? Who ever is doing the directory structure should BE SHOT..
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MSDN's site
But that pretty typical since most website designers choose form or function
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Re: How do they know users don't like the site
Feedback is useless because lousy sites don't induce people to give helpful opinions, they chase people away.
Also, who gets to read the feedback, the guy who designed the site?
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One-up-manship ...
Back in the good old days, marketers got paid for increasing sales, or more correctly, for increasing profits. They did it by knowing their customers, learning their needs and then making sure the needs get fulfilled.
Now, a sales spike because of a new ad campaign is viewed as the work of a marketing genius. And an over-paid marketer sits in his plush office asking some web designer if he can make the company's web page randomly rearrange itself every 30 seconds like the one he saw in a game.
When doing a good job depends on the end result, not the immediate result, maybe things will get better, but I'm not counting on anything except that it will get a lot worse before it gets any better.
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Designers
Designers think they are artists.
Designers don't understand interactivity.
Companies don't know any better.
Websites are then confusing for users.
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Websites Still Designed For People Who Don't Use T
If after Martha did some stints in the slammer and still she does not get it, you may give up because she would never get it.
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As best as I can tell, about 75% of the page is taken up by ads and other non-news items.
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Flash and Hype
And the comment about hidden prices; amen to that! I just hate drudging through pages of hype only to find I have to click on the order page to find the price. My new practice: If my questions aren't answered quickly, I just move on.
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Redesigning...
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Not to mention operating systems.....
-greetings from the no-flash, no-cookie, no-script browser - one of the few, apparently.
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Test, test, test some more...
If they'd done it right, they would have learned about the problems before they went live.
This is simple.
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More web sites that suck
With this in mind, I would add the following to any list of the suckiest websites:
1) Any web site targeted at a specific browser (usually IE). I mean, come on. Seriously?
2) Any web site that does not work in any browser or OS combination. They're called "standards" people. Use them.
3) Any web site that places a flash or scripted advertisement ON TOP OF CONTENT. The concept behind covering up the only reason people go to a web site simply astounds me. I would love to stand in front of these web designers with cardboard ads every time they change the channel on their TV or turn the page of a book to see how they like it.
4) Any site still using pop-up windows for any reason. Guess what guys, pop-up blockers are outrageously popular for a reason: pop-ups are annoying and stupid, and exemplify lazy design.
5) Any site that is a web "application" (e.g. PeopleSoft, SAP, etc.). The user experience is generally hideous and not universally accessible (see #2).
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Re: Wonders
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my way
finally, someone understands what makes it work!
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What is with these websites?
So, you get websites that look pretty and have all the bells and whistles, yet are unusable.
A few months ago, I tried to use a restaurant's website to find their nearest location. Their site used Flash, which was the first pain. But, the worse issue was that their menu contained "hip" terms like "Click Us", "Bake Us", etc.
Please, just use the words "Find Location" or "Where we are". A suggestion: if people are trying to find you to GIVE YOU BUSINESS, don't confuse them.
So, I wrote them a nasty e-mail saying that I couldn't find their locations and I would be eating somewhere else.
Recently, I went to the Disney site to look up some information. I forget which page I was on, but it actually said "Flash 9 is required to view this page", and some bull*** line about "providing the best interactive experience".
Guess what? I don't have Flash 9 and I'm not going to install it for one site, for one visit, to look up something. If I don't need Flash 9 for the other 99.999999% of all the sites that I vist, why do I need it for your site?
And what about the people who are behind a corporate firewall and who can't install Flash 9 or whatever plug-in your site requires? Are these companies really willing to risk losing business because they force users to install the lastest bleeding-edge plug-ins?
And what's with the "Best viewed with IE" crap? It's 2007- why so you care what browser your vistor is using? Or, again, does your company use bleeding-edge plug-ins that require the latest build of IE... which people can't install because they're behind corporate firewalls!
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