Blog entries for arks00

Summerfest...... why?

arks00 — Sat, 23 Feb 2008 18:24:09 GMT

Why oh why did you design a website straight out of 1990?

I have a choice of an all Flash site, or an "alternate" site built with a massive amount of tables...

This upsets me. One of Milwaukee's largest events of the year, one of the largest Music events in the nation... has one of the most unusable websites I have ever seen. Another blow to the modern web... I wonder who got to design it?

This site screams "I'm not accesible".

A screenreader cant read any of the flash site, and will have one heck of a time swimming through the messy table code of the other site. If you are blind, forget about finding any information on this website.
There is so much text on the alternate site's front page... I have no idea where to start to find any information.

My favorite here is a quote from the "alternate" site:

"On this alternate website you will find all the same content as the Summerfest main site without the requirement of the Flash 9 plugin. This site will remain available for all users until the Flash 9 plugin becomes a worldwide standard. If you would like to view the Flash 9 based main site you must have the plugin."

WOW. Thats a nice way to say we dont cater to everyone. Good way to stop newcomers from finding any info on your site. I guess I cant use my iphone to look for anything on summerfest's website.. it doesnt support flash(and rightfully so, its not a web standard).

I could go on and on...

The point of this post...

By having to build THREE different websites:

one in flash,

one in messy table HTML,

and one "mobile" mesy table version;

Summerfest spent 3 times the amount of money and time than they should have. If they would have simply built a modern web site that gradually degrades based on the device the user is using to access the site, they could have saved alot of time and money.

The Good (The Bad and The Ugly)

arks00 — Tue, 05 Feb 2008 20:23:15 GMT

The Internet is still the modern day wild west. Billions of people work, play and design on it everyday. Should everyone be allowed to do this? Yes, no, maybe?

lets take a look at two Modern Day web designs.

The Good

http://www.cbs.com

I recently noticed this home page redesign for the mammoth network CBS. I think its gorgeous. The information on the homepage is laid out upon a grid structure, everything is right in front of you, and its accessible. I'm not sure about the large menu when hovering over the nav icons, but the designers of this site did a great job of presenting the information a viewer is looking for right when they get onto the page.

The best part about this site.... its built upon these three modern day web standards:

XHTML (structure)
CSS (presentation)
Javascript (behavior)

The three of these programming languages are the bread and butter of any modern day website, and CBS.com's homepage has got it right. Its not perfect (nothing is), but its a huge step forward for any company trying to survive on the web today.

The Bad and The Ugly

http://preview.howdesign.com/GeneralMenu/

I got an email about HOW magazine redesiging their website. They are a design print magazine. I love the magazine, its designed well, its full of some great content, and its one of the larger periodicals most graphic (and web, myself) designers read.

Well... they aren't up to speed on modern day web design yet. The site isn't even close to being aesthetically pleasing compared to their print magazine. The entire site is structured the way a site from the 1990's was built... tables within tables within tables to present the data. This is not a good thing for many reasons(too many to explain here). HOW is slightly using the three key elements of modern design, but not in the right way. The information is structured better than the old site, but not in a way that is pleasing. I wouldnt say the site is "Ugly", but aesthetics are mostly opinion anyway.

The Final Showdown

When are companies going to learn that modern web design is not a trend? Structure, presentation and behavior are standards that will continue to take the web into the future and beyond. yes, the web is still the wild wild west, but we have come along way in the past 15 years. One thing technology has taught us is that if you dont keep up with it, you'll be left in the dust...literally. its time to learn how to design and develop for the modern day web before its too late. You'll know its late when your business starts to dwindle and your online customers start to go elsewhere.

Snail Mail Woes...

arks00 — Wed, 02 Jan 2008 19:12:16 GMT

I'm a web geek. Most of my transactions, communication, daily mundane tasks are all done online. This includes printing postage for packages via UPS or USPS.

I sell various items of mine on ebay, and have been for 11 years now. At the time, I use paypal to generate my UPS and USPS postage, tape it to my packages and off they go. The process of filling in the web forms and printing out the package is streamlined. Its fast, and works great.

On some occasions with USPS, I can easily place the package in my mailbox and put the red flag up. I get home from work and the package is gone and on its way. Very simple, I like that. On other occasions if I have a package that will not fit in my mailbox or it needs to go UPS, I have to drop off my already paid for package at one of the many post offices or UPS retail locations. This is where the problem starts.

At the Bay View post office, there is no "drop off" area to place the packages. I am forced to wait in line, with my ALREADY paid for package to hand to the clerk. I have waited in line at this post office many times, and probably totalling hours just to hand a package to a clerk, stating its "ready to go". The clerks are nice about it, and I appreciate that, but why do I have to wait in the normal line to hand you a package that is already paid, it just wont fit in the bin. I asked if I could just "drop off" the package since its good to go and I was once told I have to walk all the way around to the back of the post office, knock on a door, wait around for nobody to answer, and then as I am walking away someone finally asks what I want. I am further told that I cant drop packages off back there. On another visit I asked If I could drop off this package thats ready to go and I was told I have to wait in line...huh? Whats the purpose of purchasing my label online if I have to wait in the line to hand it to you?

Just today I had to drop off a paid for package at a UPS retail store. I walked in, and there was a line of about 10 people. I am on my lunch break, and I planned for this to be a quick stop and drop. I politely walked to one of the clerks and asked, "Can I drop this off, its all ready to go." The clerk gave me the wait your turn look and said, "if you dont care if it gets sent tomorrow, fine, leave it". I did, and as I was walking back out the door, people in line were giving me a wierd look for walking in front of them.

Ok. Now... Here is an infantile solution for all of this. Designate an area for packages to be placed that are ALREADY paid for and ready to go. Its that simple. I dont need to talk to anyone about it, Its got the postage, it needs to be shipped. A sign or a bin labeld "Good to Go" or "Pre-paid postage here" would work great!

Now, this isnt a rant about all of the Post Offices and UPS locations in the area. There are plenty of them that already have drop off bins or designated areas to leave your package, and its much appreciated; these places "get it". I dont understand why the others simply dont get it....I'm glad they aren't designing web sites.

In 2007. . .

arks00 — Fri, 21 Dec 2007 20:03:01 GMT

I've been following Jibjab.com and their hilarious flash videos for awhile now. They were really hot during the debates of 04 and other times of the year. I have not seen one in awhile but this one is a pretty fun take on what happened in the year 2007. If you want a good (and clean) laugh for the holidays, check out the link below.

How "NOT" to use Adobe Flash. . .

arks00 — Tue, 18 Dec 2007 22:01:00 GMT

I have heard alot of pretty good things about the bar Cuvee from onmilwaukee.com and other patrons. It sounds like a very neat place. I think its the only Champaign Bar here in Milwaukee.

My wife is going to an evening function their tonight and she wanted to look up the street address from their website....

Well, 5 minutes later, after the flash gimmick, she couldn't find an address so she gave up and searched google for it. I checked the site, and 5 minutes later, after the animation gimmick, I did notice an address. Unfortunately it was embedded in the flash text and I couldnt copy and paste it into google to find out where it is.

As I have been told by many, Cuvee sounds like a very nice place, and it fits a niche in Milwaukee...but.... why is the website horrible? I'm not judging the site via the visual presentation, everyone has their own opinions on that, but why force a user through it.

When it takes 3-5 minutes jumping through flash animations just to "maybe" get an address or phone number, you are losing alot of potential customers and sadly, portraying a sour image for your establishment.

I'm sorry to pick on this particular website, but it was just a recent experience. This same example can be said for thousands of sites on the web; heck, probably thousands just in the MKE area.

It is no longer 1990. The modern web user has certain demands and one is fast and easy access to information. Making the user wait, even 10-20 seconds in most cases, will make the user leave your site and leave a bad taste in their mouth. Flash has its place, and if its going to be used, at the least, let the user skip the animations to find some information.

I Will Never Visit JSOnline Again.

arks00 — Fri, 14 Dec 2007 17:59:40 GMT

I was recently looking for a review of a movie I want to see this weekend (Onmilwaukee.com did not have a review yet, so I wanted to do a quick search elsewhere). I decided to try JSOnline... I dont mind Dudeks reviews sometimes, they are usually ok; but thats beyond the point of this blog. I typed in JSOnline and hit control + enter on my keyboard (adds the www and .com to the name you type in).

Immediately a giant Kohls ad takes up my entire browser and covers the screen. wtf? Was JsOnline.com hijacked? Nope. This was an ad. This is ridiculous. There was a "skip to jsonline" link at the top and bottom of the ad, but I decided to see how long it would sit there. After about 5 seconds, I was "forwarded" to the homepage of the website.

I tried this in four different browsers and it happened each time. It did only happen once per browser, but for gosh sakes, this is the worst sin of modern day web design! Do not force things onto your users; and certainly not an AD! The web is not a newspaper, dont treat it like one. I know it probably wont matter much, but I wont be going there again.