I know that many businesses will say "nobody uses my webiste". Well, of course they don't. Frankly, it sucks. I'd then ask "when was the last time you picked up the yellow pages for information?" I know that my desk at work doesn't have a phone book because it would do nothing but gather dust. My phone books at home are used to prop up our electric griddle in a kitchen cupboard. If I need a phone number, a map or hours of operation, I look to the internet. That, like it or not, is where information resides and it's easily and instantly updateable.
Still, plenty of businesses fail to understand how people consume information. With more being available each and every day, they consume it faster and in more streamlined ways. I, for one, use a plethora of RSS feeds on my iGoogle start page. I've got blogs, local news, CNN, local news blogs, local blogs, Star Tribune, movie times and the weather all just a click away.
The worst offenders, though (that I'll single out today), seems to be smaller city newspapers. A former semi-competitor newspaper, the Fairbault Daily News, has at least launched its second version of its website but it is rough at best. First impressions, as I said last Thursday, count for plenty and their website leaves plenty to be desired. I feel bad for the folks in Faribault, Minnesota as well as former residents who attempt to use this site on a somewhat regular basis. It contains elements that don't function, motion which is choppy at best and seems to exist merely for the sake of existing and the biggest problem (and the reason I visited it in the first place) is the lack of any visible RSS feed. I wanted to add it to my collection but can't and now won't because of that single reason.
I've said my piece about one missing item turning me off from a website but what website shortcomings have turned you off?
8 comments:
When I lived in FL a local TV station had a news website that was just terrible. It was so bad that people visited it just to make fun of it. The main issue was that they never bothered with spell-check, which often turned what was meant to be serious journalism into hilarity. They finally updated their website just before I moved away, but I don't know if they decided to implement spellcheck as a part of it or not.
I agree with your point: business web sites that don't provide the most obvious info, like store opening and closing times, are stupid. So are businesses that can't even be bothered to establish a Web presence in the first place, that Google could find. One page, on a free host -- is that so much to ask? I'm with you -- paper Yellow Pages are dead to me. When I get the new ones, I just toss them right into the recycling bin.
Other complaints? Okay, you asked!
My gripes about Slate give some of them; e.g., failure to recognize that URL is UI, lack of "home" pages for logical sections of the site, and flyout menus.
I hate things that fly out when my mouse just drifts over them.
Other peeves: lack of an obvious "About" page, lack of obvious contact info, lack of a site map and/or crummy navigation tools.
Pages that insist on fixing the width of the main body of text, rather than allowing it to wrap naturally to my browser's window width. Do not make me scroll horizontally more than once per page. And long blocks of text should never be wider than the standard post width on most Blogger templates -- it's fatiguing to read across the full width of a browser window for more than a few lines.
Sites that make you sit through the loading and playing of a giant Flash app before you get to see any nav links. Will no one learn from the Google? Less is more on the home page!
Animated ads. I use Flashblock which cuts down on most of that annoyance these days, and I don't want to install AdBlock because I know all of this "free" content has to be paid for somehow, but if I'm reading a long article, I really don't need something blinking on the page. Animated ads should time out after one or two loops.
Probably my biggest complaint lately: excessive page load times, particularly for the home page. I'm on a 6 Mbps connection -- I shouldn't have to wait for all sorts of third-party craplets and ads to load from remote servers just to see the main content. It gets really annoying when the ginormousness of the page effectively freezes my browser while it's loading, preventing me even from clicking over to another tab.
Local Governments lead my list. Our city's and county's web page is worthless. It was the same way when I lived in N.C. Understanding the web has not quite arrived in Dixie.:)
"Pop Unders." The popup's where stopped, so the better class of criminal evolved. And that's exactly what I think it is - criminal. They're trying to hold me hostage and forcing me to stare at their product. Any site that I get a pop under from, never gets visited by me again.
The tremendous misuse of cookies. The meaningless requirement of "having an account" when it's obvious it's just for gathering personal information. I don't trust any and ALL businesses on the web, and my "love affair" with brick and morter ones never got off the ground. Simply put, I assume everybody is out to rip me off. That attitude has saved me a lot of heartache.
good blogging
Banks not allowing me free money online is my biggest pet peeve. Like they don't have enough money already...
Please, me and Mapquest have been having an affair ever since I've moved into the new neighborhood.
The phone books are heavy and do nothing but hurt my testicles.
LONG LIVE THE INTERNET!
Animated ads are a huge peeve for me. It's a good financial decision for a business to get more information in an ad for their dollars but I know that many don't pay attention to animated ads because they are the very definition of annoying and scream shady.
This topic gets me all fired up. I'm a web designer and thus awfully opinionated about unusable sites.
One of my biggest peeves: disabling the back button. What, do they think that because I'm stuck on the page I'll just linger there? Maybe buy something? Kindof like how, were I to head out for a bottle of wine and accidently make a wrong turn into a shoestore, shrug and buy sneakers instead of cabernet sauvignon? There is NO reason to take the user's control away. None!
Idiots!
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