Four Things I wish Websites Would Stop Doing
As everyone is probably aware, the Internet has been around since 1996. This means that businesses have had fifteen years to get “connectivity” and “user experience” right, and with even the corner bookstore having a presence online, one would reasonably expect that would be the case. Yet, sadly, it is not so. Many of them seem to have no clue about how their target audience acts, make decisions or thinks. If they did, why would they still make them do one of more of the following?
1. Making visitors register or create an account for no reason.
How many of us have visited an online retailer, added hundreds of dollars worth of items to our cart after a good hour spent browsing, and just when you clicked “Check Out” you were taken to a sign up page forcing you to register? And how many have just decided not to bother and closed the window without going ahead with the purchase? You aren’t the only one – econsultancy.com has found that a whopping 45% will opt out right there, instead of going through the hassle of first providing an email address, then waiting for verification of the email address and so on and so forth.
Some websites take “annoying” to a whole new level. Take loopnet.com for instance, a real estate website which allows you to browse for accommodation based on your current location, requirements and budget. Now get this:
I have to pay to look for an accommodation?? Isn’t this website making enough money from the advertisers and the sellers? This makes me think of a car showroom, which puts out a sign outside the door, asking you to pay 30 dollars just to browse. Imagine how you would feel.
One might excuse these websites for being “small dealers”. But even Fox news does it. A variety of their shows used to be available on their website, with advertisements inserted at strategic intervals exactly like the real thing. I have no issues with that – no one’s running a charity here. But then they signed a deal with “Dish TV network”, according to which visitors with a Dish TV cable connection would have to register with their Dish TV credentials and only they would have access to the full show. Everyone else will have to wait for eight days before the show is available to them. They must be joking! Isn’t Fox network making enough money with all the advertisements?
2. Hiding the Information I am looking for behind a lot of other things I don’t really care for
Case in point, any random restaurant’s website.
Take Jam restaurant for instance. Would you really believe they ask you to download their menu?
You ain’t seen nothing yet. Behold easybistro’s menu, where you need to download each menu item separately:
Or how about those glitzy Flash websites that may or may not open or work correctly in the web browser or system you may be using, such as pizzaza.com
Restaurants still haven’t managed to figure out that I came here looking for specific information – I don’t care whether it is available on Facebook, or what the environment is like. I only care about the kind of food I can find here and how much I can expect it to cost me. Full stop.
3. Using Long or Highly Inconvenient URLs
A link to an eBay auction will typically look like this:
http://cgi.ebay.com/DONNY-AND-MARIE-OSMOND-SIGNED-AUTO-MAGAZINE-PROGRAM-JSA-/180703996193?_trksid=p4340.m8&_trkparms=algo%3DMW%26its%3DC%26itu%3DUCC%26otn%
3D5%26ps%3D63%26clkid%3D1806135911305102056
Maybe there is a technical reason for this, but imagine having to share that with a friend.
Or let’s say you are browsing the Wall Street Journal through Google News and find something that you think would interest a friend:
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424053111903885604576486282598040892.html?mod=googlenews_wsj
What just happened here?? I understand there are URL shortening services to make sharing much easier, but why should I have to worry about shortening a URL in the first place?
Ok, so maybe these companies have databases which automatically generate these URLs for them. But companies choosing their domain name aren’t much better. I recently came across an advertisement on radio about a community college they were encouraging visitors to attend. The URL they decided to give on air was http://iccbdbsrv.iccb.org/clusters/home.cfm — or as I heard it: “To find out more, visit eye see see bee dee bee ess arr vee dot eye see see bee dot oh arr gee forward slash clusters forward slash home dot see eff em.” Imagine what you must be going through if say you are driving and were actually interested in noting the URL down. Even if you weren’t, you would still need to have a pen in your hand, and hope you didn’t get any of the Vs, Ds, Cs or Bs mixed up – you can hear nine being mentioned in that unbelievable URL.
Nothing however beats https://www.mxyplyzyk.com/v03/index.htm
This is an actual store that sells actual products, which relies on customers being able to find them. So why would they want such an unholy mess of characters half of which their customers would never be able to remember? Oh, wait there’s an actual reason.
In case these guys forgot: they are a store! At no point can they afford to start spelling the URL of their company, and then stop in the middle and offer to write it down. And what if someone was asking them the URL over the phone? The whole objective of text based URL is that it should be user friendly and easy to remember. The objective of a store is to sell products and make money. If a store, especially one that relies on online sales, is unable to convey its URL conveniently, it will never be able to achieve the second goal!
4. Restricting My Usage of their Website
If you have an account on XBox Live you will well relate to this. Microsoft, the largest IT company in the world, has a huge website where you can do anything you want to – except cancel your subscription. If you need to do that, you have to call.
And then hold – after which a rep will convince you to change your decision.
Companies need to realize that the whole point of an automated website is ease of access. It’s supposed to be operational 24 hours a day and offer convenience, something I don’t see here.
Give them credit, at least they do seem to operate 24 hours a day. When I saw this one, I couldn’t believe they were serious. Apparently the Ohio Board of Regents has been offering educational loans for prospective nurses through a program that they call NEALP (Nurse Education Assistance Loan Program).
Try to access their site after their working hours, and this is what you get:
