It’s a constant refrain round these parts, I know, but here’s another example of a web site that has a couple of nasty errors that could have been avoided with a little thought. The site in question is Knight Frank the estate agents. I was drawn to their site as they are selling a house… Continue reading Getting Web Sites Wrong
Category: usability
Blogwerx Sentinel
I’m reading Robert Scoble as I often do first think in the morning and he mentions Blogwerx Sentinel which is an application that monitors splogs to see who is copying your blog content without you knowing. It sounded interesting so I signed up. And a few seconds later I get this email: Dave Cross, Thank… Continue reading Blogwerx Sentinel
Tricking the Customer
I really hate it when companies who have a good product spoil it by trying to trick the customer into spending more money than they really want to. Today’s example is LoveFilm. Last year I wrote an entry about how I was considering trying out one of these new DVD rental services. They all seemed… Continue reading Tricking the Customer
Online Shopping
When you are designing a shop, whether online or in the real world, one of the most important design criteria is that you want to make it as easy as possible for your customers to find the products that they want to buy. One of the best counter-examples for this is the London bookshop, Foyles.… Continue reading Online Shopping
Girls with Guitars (and Broken Web Sites)
(This entry is mostly about technical standards on the web – not, as it might seem at first, my dubious musical taste) I’m a sucker for a pretty girl with a jangly guitar. And we all know that I’m a geek. So I was interested in the idea of Sandi Thom who supposedly[1] got her… Continue reading Girls with Guitars (and Broken Web Sites)
Reasons Not To Use Flash
It’s been a while since I posted one of my “basic guide to the internet” articles (sorry, I’ve been a bit busy – new job and all that), but whilst you’re waiting for the next one here’s a good article by Nik about why you shouldn’t implement a web site purely in Flash. I think… Continue reading Reasons Not To Use Flash
Paying For Content
I wanted to point out an interesting article about how Google are having trouble recruiting staff for their new London office – but the article is in the Independent and because it’s a few days old you now have to pay to read it. So here’s the text that I got yesterday before the paywall… Continue reading Paying For Content
First Direct Web Site
Here’s a good example of how not to design a user interface. Yesterday I realised that I needed to pay my tax bill. My accountants had filed the return, it was just up to me to actually stump up the money. The deadline for payment is January 31st so it was a bit late to… Continue reading First Direct Web Site
More is Less
Until recently I often used a website called TV Tome. This was the best place to go for information about TV programmes. It contained episode guides, cast lists and various other bits of trivia about all of your favourite programmes. Nice simple interface. A few ads, but nothing too intrusive. It’s not there now tho’.… Continue reading More is Less
Popups Are Bad
I’m getting involved in a debate on the uk-netmarketing email list on the value (or otherwise) of web page popups. Another of the people in the discussion works for Eyeconomy who I’ve mentioned before. Like all people I’ve discussed it with, I hate unrequested popups on web pages. When one appears I close it down… Continue reading Popups Are Bad