A list of my top 10 online crimes
Everyone is guilty, multichannel retailers, pureplays, content sites...we all fall into the dark side every now and again. Here's how:
This doesn't really deserve to be at number one because it's hardly original but it's SO annoying- auto-play music - yes yes I know - not exactly a novel choice but just because it's a cliche doesn't mean it ain't true. Twice in the last day this has happened to me. It's 2011 people.....
Slideshows which refresh the entire page when you click the next image. mtv.com I'm looking at you.
Homepages with too much going on - described by @lostferret as being like 'an explosion in a catalogue factory' the uniqlo homepage is a prime example of this. It is exactly like that and it hurts my eyes. Office make this same mistake. It's like trying to fit an entire store onto one page. Eek.
also..conversely...
Homepages with nothing going on. You can almost see the execs sitting round discussing how they should be more minimal, 'more like ASOS' and 'more like John Lewis'...yawn. So bored of the white - it works for ASOS, it works for JL - everyone else please find another style.
Newsletter sign ups with more than one question. I actually had a nightmare about this last night. All you need to know is my email address so please just ask for my email address.
'How did you hear about us?' dropdowns Do I care enough to select the real option or will I select the top one because I'd just like to checkout? Hmmm now let me think.....
Not telling me how much delivery will be until I sign in at checkout - It's so old school but people still manage to get away with this
Blatant copying- This comes back to the whole 'let's make it WHITE' thing, but as a consultant I sat in so many meetings where senior management would not even consider their customer or their brand, they'd shoot straight to the 'let's do what Amazon/Tesco/ASOS do'. I've nothing against conforming to best practice and getting ideas from sites you admire but many of these sites are popular because they know their customer, if you don't know yours and you try to copy their approach. Well that's just not going to work is it?
Overindulging your creative department - sliding, whizzy, multiple bevelled edges, drop shadow on everything. Looks pretty but can I find anything? Who cares I'm distracted by the flashy video on the Homepage, have I bought anything? Nope.
Not being able to find the contact number - this is a whole other post. And econsultancy have a great one today on poor customer service practices which just about sums up what I was going to say here. Hunting fruitlessly through your footer pages just looking for someone to complain to basically means I'm even more annoyed when I finally do get hold of you. Sky.com, oh yes this is so you. Massively frustrating.
That's it then. The sad fact is that so many of us know all of these things and we still persist on keeping them/introducing them on our sites. It's like they're the 3am burger of the online world - you know it's dirty, you know it's wrong..but sometimes in the circumstances you just can't help yourself. Be strong onliners, it's time to bring ourselves and our sites, back from the dark side.
3 comments:
I'm currently working on the design of an e commerce site. Surrounded by brand marketers and designers - too true how many of these points fall on deaf ears!
H, love your work...
My only comment is regarding page refreshes in photo galleries - the reason people do this generally is to increase ad impressions. Once you have got your user to view your gallery, and engaged in your content, why not take the chance to show them 10 adverts (and gain revenue for 10 ad impressions) rather than just one?
I agree from a user's perspective it can be annoying, but I wouldn't always put this down to lazy coding or bad design.
Thanks Rich, and great point. Most of these are pure usability issues and niggles, but you always have to put them in context of the other business objectives you're trying to achieve- I guess that's why so many of us do end up doing some of these!
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