What users hate most

[WagerX]

Originally Posted by spyderscripts

One of the things I hate most about web sites is the use of PHP. I don't buy products or services from companies who use PHP to any extent across their web site.

When I originally read this I thought it was fantastic link bait material. You use "hate" and post an extreme biased view IN a forum that many users know or use php.. you actually made php a contoversial subject.

Good lateral thinking .. very creative.

[Sadu]

The whole PHP discussion thing is pretty random.

PHP is insecure if you code badly, just like any other language. Personally I have no problem with using an insecure website, so long as I'm not leaving my data with them. Why would I as the user care if your website gets hacked?

Anyway, some of my pet peeves are....

1. Breaking browser functionality. Links in flash can't be opened in a new tab. Javascript links can't be opened in new tabs. Text embedded in images can't be resized. Images in flash can't be "right click save target as". Hijacking my status bar so I can't see where that link is taking me. Sites that popup in a fullscreen window hiding all my browser controls (this one really winds me up). Many more examples in this category.

2. Bad navigation. Too many items on the main nav. No contact button on the main nav. Or the contact button is not the last item on the nav. No "Home" button on main nav. Logo not clickable back to the homepage. No breadcrumbs on large sites. Illogical names for buttons (Just call it "About us" don't get all fancy). Clicking a link and getting ambushed by a PDF document (I hate getting surprised by these). No rollover text on icons. Main navigation that is completely image based, no text on the button.

3. No clear purpose to site. No H1 heading or introductory paragraph on each page. Or a massive long opening blurb that doesn't get to the point. Generic stock photographs that say nothing about the company. No call to action on pages. No clear navigational path through the content. Adsense all over the place. Affiliate content thinly disguised as real content. Products listed without prices. Generic product descriptions and images straight from the supplier. No point of difference about the site. Bad branding that doesn't back up statements made on the page - such as a site on web design that has bad web design, or a SEO site with bad rankings.

4. Site doesn't target it's audience properly. A technical website optimised for 800x600, even though most technical people have big screens. A site that is overly simplified which will just annoy the target audience. A site which uses acronyms that people might not understand. A site on "how to learn english" with no non-english content on the site. A site designed for India which only has white people in the imagery. A blog that doesn't have an opinion and trys to please everyone.

5. Technical stuff. These bother me as a web developer, but are't all that important to a non-technical audience. Firstly, MM_Swap_Image_restore - those noob dreamweaver functions that spread like a virus - use CSS instead. Big wads of JS or CSS in the head of a document. Font tags. Using <p class="heading"> instead of <h1>. Big sites like MySpace having mickey mouse code and setting a bad example for the rest of us. Microsoft claiming they spent months on usability testing, and then go and break the back button on their new design. Bad URLs always bother me. Wordpress blogs with the same old templates. Sites about web design using a template. Sites about AJAX that don't use any AJAX. Sites that include 150kb worth of Scriptaculous and then hardly use any of the effects. Rollover images that don't start loading until you mouseover them. Sites that work in IE only but could easily be coded to work in other browsers. Sites with homepage popups that say you should be using IE (I would imagine this would be especially insulting to mac users).

There are so many things people do wrong on websites, this list is long yet hardly comprehensive.

[Sadu]

Before anyone takes offence to the "noob dreamweaver user" comment, let me explain further...

The Dreamweaver swap image code we see everywhere is as follows...

<script language="JavaScript" type="text/JavaScript">
<!--
function MM_swapImgRestore() { //v3.0
  var i,x,a=document.MM_sr; for(i=0;a&&i<a.length&&(x=a[i])&&x.oSrc;i++) x.src=x.oSrc;
}

function MM_preloadImages() { //v3.0
  var d=document; if(d.images){ if(!d.MM_p) d.MM_p=new Array();
    var i,j=d.MM_p.length,a=MM_preloadImages.arguments; for(i=0; i<a.length; i++)
    if (a[i].indexOf("#")!=0){ d.MM_p[j]=new Image; d.MM_p[j++].src=a[i];}}
}

function MM_findObj(n, d) { //v4.01
  var p,i,x;  if(!d) d=document; if((p=n.indexOf("?"))>0&&parent.frames.length) {
    d=parent.frames[n.substring(p+1)].document; n=n.substring(0,p);}
  if(!(x=d[n])&&d.all) x=d.all[n]; for (i=0;!x&&i<d.forms.length;i++) x=d.forms[i][n];
  for(i=0;!x&&d.layers&&i<d.layers.length;i++) x=MM_findObj(n,d.layers[i].document);
  if(!x && d.getElementById) x=d.getElementById(n); return x;
}

function MM_swapImage() { //v3.0
  var i,j=0,x,a=MM_swapImage.arguments; document.MM_sr=new Array; for(i=0;i<(a.length-2);i+=3)
   if ((x=MM_findObj(a[i]))!=null){document.MM_sr[j++]=x; if(!x.oSrc) x.oSrc=x.src; x.src=a[i+2];}
}
//-->
</script>

You are then required to put an onload event into the BODY tag, and also some messy looking stuff on the buttons.

If your site is IT related, you can be sure people are looking at your source code. I often shake my head when I see nice looking sites using this code.

The alternative is to use CSS.

#menu a {
height: 30px;
width: 100px;
padding: 0 5px 0 5px;
background: #ccc url(images/menu.jpg) left top no-repeat;
}
#menu a:hover {
background: #ddd url(images/menu-over.jpg) left top no-repeat;
}

<div id="menu">
<a href="index.htm">Home</a>
<a href="about.htm">About</a>
<a href="contact.htm">Contact</a>
<div>

This way we get the same effect, but it's way cleaner. Javascript is not required, and the CSS tucks nicely into your external file. Piece of cake to maintain later on, easy to copy-paste another button onto your menu. The result is rollover navigation that is fast, lightweight, easy for search engines and users to use, and easy to maintain.

So yeah, while the Dreamweaver code was cool 5 years ago, I think people can do better these days. I don't mean to say people who use the dreamweaver code are noobs, rather they should take some time to look at the alternatives because it's a big improvement. Happy to help out with this if you have any questions.

[Hades]

If your site is IT related, you can be sure people are looking at your source code. I often shake my head when I see nice looking sites using this code.

Amen brother!

There are two things I do when I visit almost any website on my Firefox (with the Webdeveloper Extension):
1-Press CTRL + SHIFT + S, which means deactivating CSS in order to check the document's semantics.
2-Press CTRL + U, in firefox to view how clean the <head> block is.

Sometimes also press CTRL + SHIFT + A to validate it's XHTML markup. But many websites fail to comply with this rule :(

[zinruss]

What users hate most?
I believe it is pop up or pop under. This is the main reason why a lot of browsers have anti pop up features.

[Sadu]

Popups are fine if you are expecting them.

For example, when you click a thumbnail image, you half expect a popup.
But popup ads on the homepage - often I'll be closing 2 windows instead of just one.

Frames are as bad as popups too. Nothing link being stuck on a small screen and half your usable screen space is taken by header and footer.

Also flash based scrolling - this can be really frustrating. A beautifully designed site with the content in a tiny box, with flash for the scrollbars. If you break my mouse wheel functionality, don't expect me to read any content below the fold.

[Comenius]

While it's primarily focused on Google AdSense placement, I think Google's "heat map" is also useful for placing content of any kind:

https://www.google.com/adsense/suppo...y?answer=17954

I used it to guide where I put certain elements on a page, based on how important they are, and how much I want a visitor to see them compared to all the other content on a page.

[mastermemei]

I hate it when screenwide ads suddenly pops up and
I'm also bothered when I need to scroll too much to get an information

[Scott Sutton]

Thanks for the insights of what to avoid when designing and working with IM.
I agree with your thoughts about banner ads that flash and distract from the content on the sites.

[waffles]

I hate when a site's background color makes my eyes fry it's so bright.

[Domestic Diva]

I strongly dislike:

1 - music and sound effects of any kind
2 - animations that keep looping
3 - horizontal scrolling
4 - (what waffles said up there ^^)
5 - page transitions, such as *dissolve* or *fade*
6 - pop-up ads
7 - ads that blink, flash or talk

Yeesh I sound picky.

[waffles]

That's perfectly fine though. We should be able o surf the web without something hijacking out speakers. And people have to remember that in the end what they want doesn't matter if it goes against what the visitors want.

[chicgeek]

When reviewing sites for the directory, I open 15+ sites at once in tabs.

To find which damn site is playing music is NOT fun.

[waffles]

Music is an instant no go back for me. Even band's sites.

[LazyJim]

Originally Posted by chicgeek

When reviewing sites for the directory, I open 15+ sites at once in tabs.

To find which damn site is playing music is NOT fun.

YES!!

also looping animations add up to extra unwanted CPU occupation :/

[Diver]

3. 'Leap of faith' links: that means disclosing information on content and file size.

Useful but what does this ^ one mean?

[waffles]

A link that doesn't tell you where it's going. Also known as a mystery meat link.

[dburr99]

Oh this room has gotten a little crazy.... so what happens if I use some other code such as .asp for my site design and then configure my .htaccess to make it say .php? I realize that is like registering as a democrat and calling yourself a republican. Not mention I usually use the .htaccess to eliminate all extensions and variables since it helps your security and search engine friendliness.

[dburr99]

I am going to step out on the ledge here but wouldn't a good rule of thumb be to listen to what Google likes and don't do anything that Myspace allows people to do on it(such as weird ass templates and embedded music).

[dburr99]

I just noticed the reply about sites not coded for anything but IE. As I am sure it drives anyone in these forums nuts it drives my wife and I even more so. She is a physician and in the military so she has to use both professional medical and government sites that are not even close to configured for FF. She of course takes it out on me for the fact that the "stupid internet" is not working and blames FF(and me) for this issue. I know the govt is in bed with MS however they appear to be opening up to more open source programs. I digress......