QotD: Website Annoyances
What annoys you most about web sites you find yourself visiting? I’m thinking of the sort of stuff that could have you plucking out your own fingernails in despair, but maybe it’s more a drip-drip-drip torture effect.
For me it’s unnecessary sounds you can’t switch off. You’re listening to iTunes through the stereo while surfing the web when suddenly and mysteriously you are assaulted by this wall of noise at max volume, or awful sound effects, and you can’t make it stop. You don’t want to mute your Mac because that would silence the Scissor Sisters and usually it’s so badly implemented you find it stops and starts all over again if you go to another page or hit the back button. I just close the window and never return.
I’m not really talking about, say, music sites here (e.g. a band’s fan page) – you’d expect sound then and it would have some relevance. Oh no, there’s no point to this stuff at all!
UPDATE: I’ve disabled comments on this post because it just keeps on getting spammed.
March 26th, 2005 at 9:09 pm
While in work, my number 1 pet hate is pages that have loads of pointless twiddly things that take forever to download – usually the thing you want to see is downloaded last by which point I’ve given up and gone elsewhere. And pop ups.
On the Mac, using broadband, obviously the above doesn’t apply. So I guess it’s sites that aren’t easily navigated – you can’t find what you’re looking for, if there is a navigation menu it doesn’t have the thing you want, and the search function brings up 56 matches that have no relevance (the BBC news website is surprisingly guilty of the latter).
Oh – and websites with bad design. Too many graphics, annoying colours, too busy – gah!
And one last pet hate – sites that aren’t compatible with Macs. Well, they’ve lost a large percentage of potential customers already then, haven’t they? Fools.
March 26th, 2005 at 9:11 pm
1. dead links
2. huge images
3. ‘no way back’ syndrome
4. inconsistent layout
5. crammed home page
….Wow! – I’ve just described my old web site perfectly! …
March 26th, 2005 at 11:21 pm
I agree with Claire’s point on the uselessness of the BBC News search engine. It just doesn’t seem to cut it.
For wannabe web designers I recommend Don’t Make Me Think by Steve Krug. It’s an entertaining and informative book on the navigation, layout and presentation of a web site from a usability perspective. Most of it is common sense, but that frequently seems to be in short supply even on some big, well-known sites.
May 2nd, 2005 at 5:14 pm
Hello.
Just browsing around your blog and came across this post so I thought I’d mention one thing for your consideration. As much as I like and appreciate the work of Michael Heilemann and his contribution of Kubrick to the WordPress project, my new pet peeve is justified text. Why? This is the web! Things are so much easier to read with justification turned off.
Anyway, for a much better argument see this post on the much loved Antipixel blog. Jeremy says it best.