My Top Nine Web Annoyances
On the whole, I find browsing the web a pleasurable experience. However, there are times when the ‘arghhhhh!” factor is take off the scale. None of the things in my list is life-threatening but, boy can they be annoying. Here are mine:
1. Illegible captchas. I have nothing against these little fellows; they are a necessary evil. However, when you have to squint and strain your eyes to decipher the alphanumeric conundrum - is that an “e” or a “c”, a “2″ or a “z”, a capital or lower-case “s”. arghhhhh! factor 9/10 (I have a suspicion that illegible captchas are the brain-child of keyboard and mouse manufacturers.)
2. Having to “sign-up” before being able to do anything. For example, I read a great blog post, and I really want to say something. But, wait a minute, there’s a 15 page form requesting my social security number, mother’s maiden name and postal address. Hyperbole? Yes, of course; but I’m sure you’ve been there before. arghhhhh! factor - varies, depends on the length and complexity of the sign-up process.
3. Type that’s too small, or too little contrast between type and page colour.
4. One word: Flash(TM). Now, I don’t see myself as a Luddite. I’m not against the technology that is Flash, but I do believe that in some contexts it is wholly inappropriate. I still see simple drop-down navigation that’s done in Flash, when a little CSS (and JavaScript) would suffice. I’m not against Flash web sites per se. Flash is an incredible technology, but there are issues with accessibility and often load times. Add to that losing your back-button, and I’d say it’s deserving of an arghhhh factor of between 6 and 9. Why use Flash for content that can be created with XHTL, CSS and JavaScript, or a combination of these (e.g. AJAX)?
5. Broken links. There is really little excuse for these, especially with tools like the W3C Link Checker.
6. Obtrusive advertising, particularly nested within posts. Emphasis on “obtrusive”. I have no problem with monetized sites (I have some ads on my own site - though you’ll need to scroll down to see them).
7. Contact forms. I could write a book on this one; would be a dull book, however. Contact forms that require too much information before they can be submitted (see 2); forms that forget what you’ve entered. You know the ones I mean: you carefully complete the 37 fields, outlining your entire life history and contact details, only to discover that there’s an error. Please click back to continue. So, you click back and horror of horrors, a blank, fresh form, so that you can start over again.
Included in this category, and touched on in the above paragraph, are forms with meaningless validation/error messages, like: “There was an error processing your form. Please try again.” What error? An error of judgement? However, my favourite is an individual field that keeps returning an error; for example, I live in Japan where the postcodes follow this format 751-1997, but the postcode/zip field won’t permit hyphens. I could go on. My favourite (that I can recall) is a famous car hire company (one of the biggest in the world): I’m asked to select from a drop-down menu, which airline I will be arriving with - mine is not on the list. Do you have any examples from personal experience?
8. Reference to a “great” resource, with no link. arghhh factor 5/10
9. Design over content (many Flash sites fit into this category). Content is king. Or, at least, it should be. I love to see a well-designed site, but content is my priority. I hope Lorelle won’t mind my mentioning Lorelle.com. Now, how can I put this without being insensitive, or risking offending the site’s designer? Well, here goes: it’s not in the top ten visually most appealing web sites, and it never will be. However, therein is an example that proves content is king. I don’t go there for light entertainment; I don’t go there to gaze misty-eyed at a stunning header image, or cutting-edge CSS; I go there to read, to learn, to be informed. I believe that most web sites (if they are information resources - and most are), should be designed against this list of priorities:
a. Content
b. Layout
c. Design
Content for obvious reasons should take precedence; layout, facilitating ease of access with clearly defined, differentiated sections, and easy-to-use, easy-to-find navigation. Ideally the ‘design’ accommodates “a” and “c”.
What are your web annoyances?
24 Comments, Comment or Trackback
LaurenMarie - Creative Curio
Well for “arrrgghhh” #2, I also don’t like to have to give out my email address to just view things! Spam is bad enough as it is without giving my address out one more time.
Along with #3 goes completely image based sites, when even the text is an image!
#7, I had to RSVP for my college graduation ceremony. I went to a tech school. They have the WORST website! The form asked me if I wanted to buy pictures or invitations/announcements. What do they look like? How much are they? Wouldn’t tell me. I said no, but then I went to the website of the company doing the invites. Their drop down to choose a school only had three schools. Three high schools. Huh??
#8 bloggers that are writing a series of posts on a topic. You come in in the middle of an awesome topic. You want to read the next one, but you don’t know what it’s called because the blogger hadn’t come up with a title yet. There is no Next Post button. There is also no common title (i.e. Awesome Topic - First Post, Awesome Topic - Second Post, etc).
May 25th, 2007
johno
Lauren
thanks for your input. You win first prize for fastest ever response to one of my posts.
And you’ve reminded me to add next/previous post links!!
May 25th, 2007
LaurenMarie - Creative Curio
Yay!! First prize! And Johno, I can’t help but tease you, you are guilty of #3 for the hover state of the link to the homepage in your header!!
Btw, wanted to make sure you saw the Ajax Edit Comment update.
May 25th, 2007
johno
Ah! Give me a little time, and I’ll attempt to justify that one
Yes, Vivien mailed me re that update. Thanks.
Off to think of an excuse for that hover state…#masthead h1 a:hover{color: #Lauren;}
OK, couldn’t think of one, so I’ve changed it. Thanks for pointing this one out. Come to think of it, someone else mentioned this a while back. Was it David?
May 25th, 2007
Tara
“Illegible captchas”
I thought I was the only one that this annoyed, I sometimes have to use the “listen to these letters” button, because because the letters look too similar.
May 25th, 2007
David Airey :: Graphic Design Edinburgh ::
404’s can be irritating, but less so when you design your 404 page to be a little less annoying.
http://www.davidairey.com/404
Just a very little less of an annoyance though. I agree with what you’ve said above.
Smart words Johno.
May 25th, 2007
LaurenMarie - Creative Curio
Awwww! David you need to have some broken links on your site so we can see the little puppy! What a darling picture. InspirationBit did a piece on 404’s a while ago; BlueSilver’s is the best if you haven’t seen it yet.
May 25th, 2007
Sharon
Amen, John-0! I am very vexed by sites that want to collect far more personal information than is absolutely necessary to register for the service. I have often backed right out because it is obvious they are gathering marketing data. And sorry, Laurenmarie, I think I am guilty of the next/previous post annoyance. Slinking off now to try and fix it…
May 25th, 2007
David Airey :: Graphic Design Edinburgh ::
Glad you like the puppy, Lauren Marie!
I enjoyed Vivien’s post on 404 pages and thanks for reminding me of it.
May 25th, 2007
Brett Evans
Amen to the, signing up to make comments.
About a week ago I found a really good site that I was about to comment on and only to find out that I had to sign up for it.
May 25th, 2007
johno
David
that is some 404 page! I have never seen it before (I guess that’s a good thing). And it’s the first time I’ve bookmarked a 404 page.
Lauren
I agree: David needs at least a few broken links. I’m off to read those 404 pieces you reference. Thanks.
Sharon
It’s funny though: that’s something that annoys me - yet I completely overlooked it on my own site.
Looks as though Lauren has shamed us both
Tara
I’ve also resorted to the “listen to captcha” option. Though I’ve had ones that won’t play on my Mac. And that reminds me: one of the big Social Networking sites had a captcha, that for me, just didn’t load half of the time - I stopped using that site.
Brett & Sharon
I know how you feel - frustrating isn’t it!
May 25th, 2007
inspirationbit
I agree with pretty much everything on your list, except for
- 404 - if they’re designed like David’s I don’t mind landing there
- I do like content, but if the design is too horrid I either quickly skim the content, or simply select it all and send to print.
To add to your collection of annoyances:
#10 - Coming soon pages. I often have arguments with one of my clients about that - she always rushes to add a new page for one of her new events, but she doesn’t have any details about that event yet, so she tells me to put - details coming soon… arrrggghhhh…
#11 - too many clicks to get to a certain page, e.g. I need to see what vacancies are available in this company, so go to Company->Careers->Why you should work for us -> Who should work for us -> Where are you coming from -> What field -> Upcoming or All -> Vacancies -> Job Description … arrrghhhh
#12 - non-aligned images that show up on a separate new line and the text starts below… especially when the image is not that big, and all that white space next to it is wasted, forcing me to scroll down to read the text. I thought by now everyone should know that they can left-align or right-align the images and get the text to flow around… argggghhh
oh, and to share with my Form experience - all those forms asking to choose the country - so I select Canada, but then it asks me to select the State, and lists only US states, no Canadian provinces, if I leave unselected - the form is not submitted, so I’m forced to lie and select some State instead.
May 25th, 2007
johno
Vivien
Graphic Design Edinburgh’s 404 has inspired me to change my own 404.
You’re right about finding a balance between design and functionality. Ideally we have both, and there are many fine examples out there.
Too many clicks. Yes! I feel as though I’m on an assault course, climbing over and clambering under obstacles to reach my goal - very frustrating.
And I agree with you about the “coming soon” pages - they’re up there with “under construction” pages.
About the country drop-downs (and other drop-downs, for that matter), I wonder if it’s better to use a text field instead - quicker, perhaps. I read a very good post about this a while back - can’t seem to find it…maybe on List Apart…(oops, #8)
May 25th, 2007
inspirationbit
Nice job with 404, John
I would make the sentence “If you’d like to tell me…” starting as a second paragraph to break that big initial one and make it easy to scan/read the entire text.
I’m also wondering if putting the search field higher, before the Snippet’s section would make it more visible.
Oh, yes, those under construction pages. Remember those early 90s when most of the sites had that sign? And what was even funnier is that everyone was trying to outdo themselves by making the most animated and huge under construction page.
May 25th, 2007
johno
Vivien
Thanks. Good point re that copy. I will follow your suggestion. I was wondering if anyone would notice my moving the search box a little further down the page…trust you :p
I’m tempted to make one of those “Under Construction” pages - just for the fun of it - now there’s an idea for a competition
May 25th, 2007
inspirationbit
You’re welcome, John
“Under Construction” competition - hmm… might be fun… but I rather compete designing smth more useful
Oh, and I forgot to comment to your suggestion of replacing the drop-downs with the text fields. It’s not always going to work - if the form sends the data to a Database, you’ll need to add quite a bit of coding to do some guess-work for all those different text entries of country name/province, especially when someone misspells the names. You want to have a consistent entry in the Database for indexing, sorting, searching, etc.
The purpose of the drop-down is to have a limited choice of the entered data and eliminating any spelling mistakes or different abbreviations…
May 25th, 2007
LaurenMarie - Creative Curio
Interesting point about the drop-downs for DB consistancy, Vivien. I never really thought about that.
Ahhhhh (as in a sigh of relief or contentment), thank you for allowing me to see the link when I hover over it, Johno. Very nice, I never knew there was a color value for Lauren! How cool!
LOL And I like your 404, cute. I need to do one for my site.
May 26th, 2007
johno
Lauren
Yes “#Lauren” is not quite #fff - it’s a warmer, brighter, happier shade.
I’m working on an image for my 404 page - I don’t have the time; it’s David’s fault!
Another thought - and it’s too late now: I wish I had put little star rankings next to each annoyance, so that people could vote/rate each one. Hindsight, what a wondrous thing…
May 26th, 2007
David Airey :: Graphic Design Edinburgh ::
Wow!
Your 404 page is beautiful now! Haha, what a nice surprise to see me mentioned on it.
Great work Johno.
May 28th, 2007
johno
Thanks, David. Looks as though you might inspire a generation.
May 28th, 2007
Julia Temlyn
Great list! I, too, especially hate the illegible captchas. Ugh!
Jun 2nd, 2007
Ed Kohler
Great list. I’d add captchas that simply don’t work. If you wonder why nobody’s commenting on your site, try doing it yourself. Can you?
Jun 9th, 2007
johno
Julia and Ed
Thanks for you comments. It appears that illegible and malfunctioning captchas win the wooden spoon. Ed, your “captcha” system works like a dream.
Jun 9th, 2007
Amber
The illegible captchas thought is what brought me to this page. I was on the MICROSOFT website reporting a phishing site and I submitted my report only to be greeted with a captcha that resembled chicken-scratch over some characters that look like they are on a crumpled-up piece of paper. This is Microsoft, people. They have too much money not to be paying people to notice these things…
So I was wondering, is that first stroke a capital i or a lower case L or is it nothing? It ended with a similar mark. Okay, so the letters are serif which gave me a clue, but I would be so bold to say that most people would not make that connection.
Again, thanks to the “Listen” function, I came through unscathed. But there are many websites that do not provide that functionality. Couple that with the elaborate form that does not retain the user input and you have a website that, IMO, is just a big “screw you” to the user.
Okay… I am through ranting.
And BTW, your captcha does not have a listen function, but bless you bless you bless you - it is legible and uses real words. Doesn’t need it. You are king.
Oct 6th, 2007
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