Tuesday, January 24, 2006

 

Peeve of the Day: Poor webcraft

For no particular reason, today (rather than any other) is the day to complain about the user experience on some web sites; probably some of the more expensive to construct and high-traffic sites, plus some by people who should know better (i.e. FOSS projects by highly IT-literate programmers).

  1. Pages that do not seem to get focus anywhere useful. Upon arrival, the visitor sees a (possibly quite long) scroll bar (*elevator*), but nothing happens when one presses page-up, page-down, or arrow keys. It is only with the mouse on the scroll bar, or by getting the focus onto the scrollable content, that one can get the content to scroll.[Examples? Surely, but not just now when I need one!]

  2. Pages in the preceeding category and so covered with links that one cannot readily click on the content (to give focus) without a large likelihood of getting another page (or a new window!)

  3. Pages with hyperactive JavaScript menus
    • some like lemonde.fr that encroach on content whenever one tries to navigate back to "home"
    • others, like orange.fr, which present a long horizonal menu very difficult to navigate with the mouse quickly enough to get to an option at the end without slipping off (submenu disappears)
    The New York Times "Go to a section" menu is an example of how to get this functionality *right*.


Tags: webcraft

# posted by Maurice Lanselle @ 10:20 AM
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