Comments on: 7 Site Usability Mistakes That Bug Me

By: Lisa

Lisa — Tue, 02 Oct 2007 15:45:57 +0000

Moshin, you’re absolutely right, we do use Flash. We also provide text navigation at the bottom of every page for those who prefer to navigate that way. It’s all about the options.

By: Liam Delahunty

Liam Delahunty — Tue, 02 Oct 2007 10:46:43 +0000

Whilst having audio and video auto-play is annoying for many visitors, and frankly I hate it too, in tests I’ve found those sites convert significantly better.

By: Mohsin

Mohsin — Tue, 02 Oct 2007 08:33:44 +0000

Umm.. but Lisa, you site navigation uses Flash too :O

By: Peter DAPRIX

Peter DAPRIX — Mon, 01 Oct 2007 22:44:40 +0000

Fabulous points and well taken! Sometimes no matter how many times you have done something correctly, you forget to do something you know perfectly well how to do and to do. None of us should take phone calls before we have finished a task!
RE Firefox, my latest update on my Mac with OSX 3.9.9.9.etc has corrected many problems I used to have and the point #2 site works just fine for me. But I also had a lot of problems with some sites until I double checked my firewall which some update had set on Maximum Protection.
Also I did not have the same reaction to the site on #2 you had. However, if I was looking for a place to live, I would want to find right up front how much it was going to cost me before I invested a lot of time wading through navigation and stock photos. I still think the WIIFM (what’s in it for me) principle holds true and should be answered right up front on every site.
I figured #8 simply covered all the rest of our pet peeves, either that or your phone rang.

By: Avery

Avery — Sat, 29 Sep 2007 20:59:17 +0000

The Marine Corps website does offer an html version.

By: Diana

Diana — Thu, 27 Sep 2007 23:58:18 +0000

Good tips all around – I especially appreciate the one about using FireFox. I was recently trying to use an online virus scan program and found that NONE of the three I was trying to use would work with FireFox. IE is where the problem originated (darn those kids anyway) … I hardly wanted to use IE to run a virus scan.
Again – good tips. Thanks

By: Lorelle Smith

Lorelle Smith — Wed, 26 Sep 2007 21:57:41 +0000

Oops, I meant 6b of course! Not to be phenatical or anything.

By: Lorelle Smith

Lorelle Smith — Wed, 26 Sep 2007 20:01:43 +0000

Great list, Lisa! How about adding this as 7b: Don’t underline text that isn’t a link. Somebody needs to tell Nichebot.com that underlines shouldn’t be used for emphasis on the Web… even tho links are not *always* underlined anymore, there’s still an expectation that anything that is will be a link. Drives me crazy. They also commit word-usage atrocities like “Make minced meat out of the search engines” (um, that’s mincemeat) and talk about how “phenatical” they are about customer service (misspelling “fanatical” not once but twice in the same paragraph!).

By: SyrinxZ

SyrinxZ — Wed, 26 Sep 2007 16:40:58 +0000

I'd like to make an addendum to blunder #2. When clicking through to that website in FireFox, I actually managed to catch one of the links (after many tries), only to be greeted with a Domain Name Mismatch security certificate error. Usability kiss of death for me...

Great tips, thanks!
Lea

By: Lisa

Lisa — Wed, 26 Sep 2007 15:54:49 +0000

Sorry, Adam! I’m sure none of your readers will notice. I mean, ours didn’t.
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