RJM62
Touchdown! Greaser!
- Joined
- Jun 15, 2007
- Messages
- 13,157
- Location
- Upstate New York
- Display Name
Display name:
Geek on the Hill
< rant >
Is there some new rule I haven't heard of that requires that almost every site you visit pop some obstacle in your path before you're allowed to browse the site, and make it as difficult as possible to view the content?
I am soooo sick of being stopped in my path by offers to sign up for a newsletter, complete a survey, have a "live chat" session, apply for a credit card, receive special offers, accumulate loyalty points, or get a discount coupon emailed to me in return for providing my email address and phone number -- even before I've had a chance to find out what the hell kind of **** the site sells -- that I'm seriously considering doing what little is left of my Christmas shopping in brick-and-mortar stores. The Web has simply become too annoying.
I mean, seriously, what is wrong with the people designing these sites? Have they lost their minds?
Consider this: What would people do if they walked into a physical store and were physically prevented from looking around by a burly guy who demanded their email address or phone number first, and who moved left and right every time they tried to get around him to make sure they couldn't? Most people would walk out -- as well they should. So why do so many Web designers seem to believe that putting the same sorts of obstacles in the paths of online visitors makes any more sense than a burly dude in a physical store would?
Even worse, many of these idiots go to great lengths to make their sites mobile-friendly -- EXCEPT for the scripts that obscure the entire page with some idiotic newsletter sign-up or similar request and that CAN'T BE CLOSED ON A MOBILE SCREEN! The "X" is somewhere outside of the viewport! Sometimes you can refresh the page and get to the content, but more often you can't.
Don't these bozos bother to test their pages? I test mine on eight browsers. They may not all render quite how I would like, but at least you can read the friggin content.
And then there are those annoying "Social" buttons that are statically positioned to obscure the text so you have to read around them no matter how you scroll. They're annoying enough on a desktop, but on a mobile device, they make some pages unreadable. Is there some new Web design philosophy that making it impossible to read your content is good for business? Why not put the buttons in the footer or off to the side somewhere so they're not in the way?
I am absolutely getting sick of being a user of the Web. I'm not the world's greatest Web designer and have never claimed to be. But at least I don't intentionally and actively push my visitors away.
< /rant >
Rich
Is there some new rule I haven't heard of that requires that almost every site you visit pop some obstacle in your path before you're allowed to browse the site, and make it as difficult as possible to view the content?
I am soooo sick of being stopped in my path by offers to sign up for a newsletter, complete a survey, have a "live chat" session, apply for a credit card, receive special offers, accumulate loyalty points, or get a discount coupon emailed to me in return for providing my email address and phone number -- even before I've had a chance to find out what the hell kind of **** the site sells -- that I'm seriously considering doing what little is left of my Christmas shopping in brick-and-mortar stores. The Web has simply become too annoying.
I mean, seriously, what is wrong with the people designing these sites? Have they lost their minds?
Consider this: What would people do if they walked into a physical store and were physically prevented from looking around by a burly guy who demanded their email address or phone number first, and who moved left and right every time they tried to get around him to make sure they couldn't? Most people would walk out -- as well they should. So why do so many Web designers seem to believe that putting the same sorts of obstacles in the paths of online visitors makes any more sense than a burly dude in a physical store would?
Even worse, many of these idiots go to great lengths to make their sites mobile-friendly -- EXCEPT for the scripts that obscure the entire page with some idiotic newsletter sign-up or similar request and that CAN'T BE CLOSED ON A MOBILE SCREEN! The "X" is somewhere outside of the viewport! Sometimes you can refresh the page and get to the content, but more often you can't.
Don't these bozos bother to test their pages? I test mine on eight browsers. They may not all render quite how I would like, but at least you can read the friggin content.
And then there are those annoying "Social" buttons that are statically positioned to obscure the text so you have to read around them no matter how you scroll. They're annoying enough on a desktop, but on a mobile device, they make some pages unreadable. Is there some new Web design philosophy that making it impossible to read your content is good for business? Why not put the buttons in the footer or off to the side somewhere so they're not in the way?
I am absolutely getting sick of being a user of the Web. I'm not the world's greatest Web designer and have never claimed to be. But at least I don't intentionally and actively push my visitors away.
< /rant >
Rich