11. Flash
12. slow
13. horizontal scrolling
14. scroll within a scroll
15. desktop widgets that don't act the same (menubars)
16. broken Back button
17. slideshows
18. articles on 9 pages instead of 1 page
19. exposing private info "anonymously"
20. moving ads that require mouse yoga to hit the "X"
21. Can't tell what you do. Summarise your purpose.
22. OnMouseOver popups
23. Annoyingly low information density / short pages
24. Obscured prices
25. Restrictions on password complexity
26. 'Requiring' irrelevant information from me
27. Requiring a login for things that needn't
28. Spyware ("connecting to peopletracker.example.org")
29. Doesn't work well on a mobile browser
30. Not supporting deep linking
Unfortunately it works. We have found the majority of our audience likes the email we send and rarely uses the website (working on that one). So I might change this one to:
2. Emailing with no easy method for unsubscribing.
"Also, have an option for password recovery that doesn't require the registered email address. I have a couple of dead accounts because the email address I used to register is no longer active and I can't recall the password. Yet, the reminder is sent to that address"
Err... how exactly would that work? Just because you know the username and/or email address you should be able to reset the password?
Does anybody here have an idea that could work?
Edit: to clarify: I'm not a huge fan of the "Your question/Your answer" approach either.
Everyone knows there are some sites/blogs that do all of those things. They are all over the internet and of course they are annoying and everyone hates them except the people who get a few cents each time someone clicks on them due to one of their articles being linked from reddit/digg etc.
Doing a cheesy/obvious top ten list is only intended to end up on Digg... and now it seems to have become enough to end up on HN.
There are some 3 or 4 main things that more than 80% of those visiting the website are looking for. Those 3 or 4 items should be easy to find.
I have this complaint for most university websites. The first time I go to most university websites, simple things like links to department websites, list of faculty, tuition information are so damn difficult to find. site search generally sucks. and navigating the site can be so much pain. I just don't understand why they have to make it so hard!
14 comments
[ 3.7 ms ] story [ 56.4 ms ] threadn+2: Tiny fonts. I can use a scroll bar, thank you very much.
n+4: pixel based layout that messes up upon (text only) zooming in
n+5: links made exactly like text
Unfortunately it works. We have found the majority of our audience likes the email we send and rarely uses the website (working on that one). So I might change this one to:
2. Emailing with no easy method for unsubscribing.
Err... how exactly would that work? Just because you know the username and/or email address you should be able to reset the password?
Does anybody here have an idea that could work?
Edit: to clarify: I'm not a huge fan of the "Your question/Your answer" approach either.
Register: Username, Password, Hacker News Profile URL.
Click "forgot password" link.
Message: Modify your HN profile to include the phrase "RandomTextPleaseLetMeIn".
Click on "Verify me from HN".
The system lets you in. Now change your password.
Edit:
Instead of HN profile URL, you could also use Delicious ala 'save the following link with this tag "RandomFunk" to your Delicious profile'.
The goal is to prove to a website that has read-access something to which you have write-access.
This something is shared between you and the website before hand (at registration).
You have an OpenID. You've forgotten your password. How do you get back into your account without requesting an e-mail to reset it?
Doing a cheesy/obvious top ten list is only intended to end up on Digg... and now it seems to have become enough to end up on HN.
I have this complaint for most university websites. The first time I go to most university websites, simple things like links to department websites, list of faculty, tuition information are so damn difficult to find. site search generally sucks. and navigating the site can be so much pain. I just don't understand why they have to make it so hard!