Okay, this is not my normal topic, but I’m a heavy internet user and there are some things that drive me absolutely nuts. Like popups that are too big for my phone screen so I can’t dismiss them and can never get to the website. Seriously, web designers? Who thinks this is a good idea?
So, pop over and read 10 Simple Things to Make Your Website User-Friendly and then give your suggestions in the comments!
I agree!!
OMG YES ALL THESE
I hate hate hate grey text on a white background and teeny tiny fonts especially. If I have to Ctrl+ to make it readable, I probably won’t bother and I’ll back out. Same if I have to highlight the text to get enough contrast so I can even see it!
Another thing is comments–don’t make me jump through multiple hoops and sign-ons and criteria selections just to leave a comment. I won’t come back. Websites and blogs have spam filters these days–you don’t need to lock your comments down like Fort Knox. The I-am-not-a-robot button is fine.
And make it so when I log in to post a comment, I can stay logged in. It’s super annoying to have to do it every time I come back to the site. (I’m looking at you, Writer’s Digest blogs!)
I was coming here to say this about the teeny fonts. Also, this goes double for the mobile sites, especially if the site is not responsively formatted enough for me to read on my phone without scrolling right or left to read the entire sentence.
The flash intro, auto-play audio and hidden — or missing — hours/address are particular “features” of restaurant sites.
What, Trendy Bistro, you think I came to your site for the audio visual show? No, I came to fnd out where the #^^*+ you are and when the #%%^^* you open!
OMG YES. Especially #9. Biggest pet peeve.
So true! I agree with all of these, especially the continuing to click to read more. Seriously!?!
I hate autoplay. I thought it died out a decade ago, and for good reason. I find it infuriating.
Coming from a user experience (“web design”) professional: If you’re seeing these things, it’s either because there was no professional designer or because business or technical interests won the fight. Don’t blame us. 😉
…or because business or technical interests won the fight.
Yep. I’m gonna leave this here:
How a web design goes straight to hell
Yes. Exactly this. I was coming over here to mention that.
Front end engineer here, or what you might term as a “web designer”. Completely agree with Emily (a different one). Bad design is often a sign of a larger problem in a company than just that the web designer is incompetent. Us web designers push hard for good design, but ultimately, we have to build what our managers agree to. (And then we look for companies that take good design seriously).
Yes to all!
And while I do it – most sites are making money by their ads. However, when their ads cause my browser to lock up and/or crash they have lost me as a customer.
Install Adblock and Adblock Plus to help squelch the ads. Some sites will prevent you from browsing them without seeing ads but you can either whitelist those sites or go somewhere else.
Also NoScript is great if you are relatively computer savvy.
OMG Pop Ups! The last time I tried to find something on the JC Penney site, I had no sooner entered a search term, and a pop up asked me to share my location. I chose “not now”, as I was in a hurry and I just wanted to see if they had a clothing item I needed on their site. Literally 2 seconds later, the same pop up appeared.
I X’d out of the site, and have not gone back. It was like a little kid “now, now, can we now? Huh, what about now?” No thanks.
And I’m getting tons of email from Zulily that I can’t quash because I must have mis-typed my password when I signed up to look at the site, so now I can’t unsubscribe. I have to make a filter to just delete the endless emails I get now, I guess. In that case, a particular shoe was on sale, and I learned that it’s not made in my size. That’s all I wanted to know, but now I’m stuck with them. I’ll probably never order anything!
Funnily enough – the Inc page for this article has a video ad that blared out of my computer as it started … .
They just started it and it is SO ANNOYING.