Five old-fashioned Web concepts that need to die
Wake up! It's 2008. There are things we've become accustomed to doing and seeing on Web sites for years that really should have vanished by now. Five things come to my mind that are user interface disasters. When I am president I will make sure the Supreme Court outlaws them:
1. Refresh
This whole story came about because I was monitoring the Apple announcement this morning and had to struggle to find a site that didn't need me to press the reload button to see the latest. I just wanted to pull up a blog and see the updates stream in. The only reliable self-updating live blog I found was SlashGear.
I like what the Huffington Post does to highlight news when you're on the home page: It flashes changed items with yellow highlighting, without redrawing the page. CNN redraws the whole page every few minutes--old school, but at least you know what you're seeing is somewhat up to date. Of course, you should be able to turn off autorefresh if you're on a slow link or are a slow reader, but to my mind, news sites should always be new.
Refreshing a page to see what's actually new is an anachronism and needs to die. The world moves fast, and readers want to lean back and watch it. (That's why I continue to be a booster for CoverItLive.)
2. Save
The whole idea of pressing the "save" button on a site or app to lock in your updates is old-fashioned. It also exposes users to data loss from system or connection bugs. Google Docs saves as you type, making it superior to Microsoft Office. Quicken (the software version) saves each transaction as you go. Note-taking apps OneNote and Evernote don't have save buttons because they don't need them (although in a UI flaw, the Web version of Evernote does).
When systems are built correctly, everything you do can be undone and rolled back, and there should be no need for a save button per se (although many apps will still need a way to milepost versions of files).
3. Log-in
I have a password manager (RoboForm) on my system that remembers hundreds of individual log-ins and passwords for the sites I try. I hate this. Why can't I use one log-in that I trust, and then authorize (and, importantly, de-authorize) apps to use it as I wish? OpenID is a solution, although it's conceptually a bit too weird to get mainstream adoption right now. Facebook Connect is another good universal log-in.
Keeping track of passwords for all the sites we visit is becoming unmanageable. There are better solutions.
4. One-size-fits-all site design
Too many beautiful and useful Web sites are hopeless on mobile or non-computer devices (like game consoles and low-resolution TV browsers). The world is mobile, and I find it continually surprising that most Web sites don't recognize when a mobile browser is accessing them so they can automatically display a small-screen, low-bandwidth version. Or at least give users the option for a small-screen view.
Why don't Web designers give mobile devices access to their sites?
5. Blocker ads
You know things are backward when the advertising message is as big as the content. But that's what's happening on a lot of sites right now: You want to watch a 30-second video but there's a 30-second pre-roll ad in front of it. Or you want to spend 15 seconds scanning a favorite site for headlines but a giant blocker ad pops up in your way. What do you do? You go away, or at least you hesitate before you come back. Sites need to make money, but punishing users for viewing content is not just old-fashioned, it's medieval.
The message should fit the medium, and TV-style advertising for the Web is not the right model.
What do you think?
Rafe Needleman writes about start-ups, new technologies, and Web 2.0 products, as editor of CNET's Webware. E-mail Rafe. 
All kidding aside, sometimes you have to take the bad with the good. Hell, I wish my car would drive itself to the gas station when it knows it's getting low. And while I'm at it, I wish my refrigerator would automatically defrost my steak while I'm away at work. After all, eating dinner is a foregone conclusion, right?
Bottom line...we won't see sweeping changes on the web until it becomes a detriment for websites to NOT include some of these wishes. Most of us don't stay on a single page long enough for the sites to employ auto refresh. It simply isn't worth it. Login? Dude, just log in. Again, not worth my time as a developer to revolutionize that process when we are so accustomed to it as it is. Sure it's a pain, but in the end, you'll only visit the sites that provide you with the most value anyway. You're not gonna base that decision on a login process.
Your points are well taken though.
ps. this is an excellent blog, but requiring us to log in before commenting HAS kept me from commenting at times.
Of course, I find the huge ads that take over the screen over the content just as bad.
But, what I was going to type before being rudely interrupted by the login window....
The thing that needs to die is the concept of 'accessible' websites.
No, I don't think we should leave the special-needs population behind, but I think the burden should be moved to the browser rather than the website.
Idea #1 in the story is great. But tell that to any site that needs to adhere to section 508 standards. Is there a way to automatically refresh parts of a page that is 'accessible'?
This also applies to ideas #2 and #4.
For idea #2 to work, we're obviously talking about AJAX. I avoid AJAX like the plague, because of section 508.
Also, since my designs need to be 'accessible', that brings them pretty close to looking great on a mobile device too...they are not too divergent so why bother?
By the way, CNET sites aren't section 508 compliant.
I hate that giant ad with the VERY small "click to continue...." just to get to the cnet page I was requesting
And the ads that really bug me are the ones that innocently sit at the top or side of a website, but then just as soon as your mouse gets within half a screen length of the ad, it extends itself to fill most of your screen. A close second for annoying ads are the ones that talk to me or have audio, because those are often buried somewhere down the page and it takes me a few seconds before i can find it and mute it.
But whatever you do, make sure you call everyone smarter than you an a-hat.
BTW, I had to refresh this page before I could read it--the initial ad failed and left my screen all gray!
Ok, there's no 'Save' button here--it says 'Submit'.
Although, i'm not sure of the others.
1 could create a massive hog on bandwidth if every single person has a site opened and not using it.
While that probably wouldn't matter with certain sites, others would cripple under the strain very quickly.
3, i semi-agree with this, i hate logging into loads of websites with different IDs, but luckily, i have more-or-less similar IDs and passwords.
But, managing these logins would be incredibly complicated, and most people wouldn't use it.
I remember that profile checker site that checks if there are usernames on a bunch of sites for you, creating unique IDs would be pretty hard, more so as new sites join this, after having a login database previous to joining the "one ID" database.
Who is going to lead the way?
I use the 'ReloadEvery' add on.
It helped me keep on top of today's Apple announcements from all the blog sites.
1. Opening pages. When clicking a link to open/show a web page, the second age should be shown in-line or within the current page. I don't like opening new tabs or having a whole page refresh then click the Back button to return to where I came from.
2. Displaying images. Some sites you can click on an image and it pops open over page you're on. It includes Prev/Next/Close buttons to easy navigating around. The page can pre-load the images so they take less time to appear.
3. Article navigation. When viewing an article, if the author has other articles, then similar to navigating images, there should be Prev/Next buttons plus a pop-up calendar button that shows articles by date. When selecting a new article, it's updated in-line and doesn't require the whole page to be refreshed.
And the log-in thing, I always have to log in Cnet in order to post, I save password, remember passwords to stop it from nagging, but it still asks me to log in.
And for the one size fits all designs, I understand if you're using a phone, but reconsider why you're using a phone, you're not always going to get things you want such as apps, games, etc. you want or view stuff the way it should be on a normal computer screen..
For the SAVE concept, I totally disagree with what's said here. As a matter of a fact, there are so many sites that require you to save your updates, it's not going to automatically change (like a saved draft in email) Myspace or any site that you put in your info WILL have a "submit" "save" "update info" button, and if you don't click on it, your info won't save.
For blocking ads, I could agree, but Cnet also has quite a few big ads, IMDB.com has ads that gets on my nerves too but they've been blocked with adblock and flashblock addons for Firefox. Anyway, google has text link ads and believe it or not, I occasionally get lured and click on them to see what's up so not all ads are that bad.
Web users have gotten accustomed to finding the little "Close this ad" or "Continue on to news.com" button before the ad even loads, so this one is basically dead to me already.
- by LI_CHEN October 14, 2008 8:30 PM PDT
- i only agree the 5th one,i hate advertisements
- Like this Reply to this comment
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