Website Design - What annoys you more?
You can leave an optional "tip" with Mahalo's virtual currency, Mahalo Dollars. If you are asking a difficult question that might require some research, or if you'd like a wide variety of feedback, a higher tip often leads to more answers to your question.
M$11 Answers
* automatically resizing my browser window to optimize it for their content
(if I wanted it that size I would have had it that size in the first place)
* automatically spawning a new window (pop up/under, forced yes/no dialog box etc.)
* playing videos, sounds, changing my cursor, etc.
(I hate sounds suddenly blurting out or my environment being changed)
If the first thing I notice is a great deal flashing or animation, I usually click away. This often includes flash pages. I find that movement and animation distracts me from reading textual content and I am rarely willing to wait through a lengthy load time if I don't already know that it is worth the wait.
If the site uses a low contrast color scheme I click away. There are probably 50 other web sites out there that have whatever information I need and I'd rather spend 10 more seconds finding one rather than get eye strain trying to read text that blends in with the background. I don't care what color scheme they use (even yellow text on black background is fine with me) providing that I can read it without effort.
If the site requires me to register, give an email address, take a quiz or otherwise provide any info about myself before I can see the content I click away. I can understand offering extra perks for members, but I won't provide a scrap of data about myself until I know the site has something to offer me. On rare occasions I'll use BugMeNot (see source) to gain access without registering if I really want to read a particular article.
If the page takes a long time to load or respond to clicks and I don't know what it is doing or why it is taking so long, I immediately leave the page. I don't know if it's trying to run a nasty script, load me up with spyware or is simply having server issues. Buttons leading to long load times should be labeled with a warning, such as "High resolution image may take time to load", or "Uploading your information could take up to 30 seconds". I don't want to load 15 megabytes of photos unless I first know that I am entering a high resolution photo gallery and have an idea of what to expect.
If the page does not have considerably more content than ads, I leave. I assume that it's some sort of scraper site hoping to get money from clicks and isn't making a serious effort to provide what I am looking for.
If page the redirects me anywhere without warning, I kill the browser tab rather than risk being taken to some sort of infected site or get hit with a pop up storm.
If the page requires me to click "next" a lot of times to load tiny amounts of information on each ad filled page, I click away. I read very quickly and like to be able to load the content with minimal clicks. If the content is scattered throughout multiple pages, it defeats text search functions in my browser and makes it harder for me to find the specific bit of info that I am looking for.
The above criteria probably seems overly paranoid and picky, but I treat the internet as a universe of infinite choices. It is rare for me to encounter a site that provides content that no other site on the web offers, so I just don't see the point in spending more than 3 seconds on a site that annoys me. If you are in a massive Las Vegas buffet line with seemingly infinite choices, you don't reach for the stale item, the wilted salad or the questionable sushi because there are so many more appealing choices that are less likely to make you sick. Staying with an annoying site simply doesn't offer enough benefit for the potential risk of wasting your time or getting hit with as hostile script.
If the page has annoying font sizes, or ugly but legible colors, I don't mind as much. I can use browser controls to override font sizes and am somewhat tolerant of weird colors as long as there is enough contrast to make things out easily. If the site has really good content, I'm even willing to take a moment to figure out their menus if they aren't quite optimal.
You can leave an optional "tip" with Mahalo's virtual currency, Mahalo Dollars. If you are asking a difficult question that might require some research, or if you'd like a wide variety of feedback, a higher tip often leads to more answers to your question.
M$
I am always impressed with simple web design where everything is organized, easy to find and read. I do not want to have to scroll down half the page through ads, images or videos to find content or useful links.
Even if there aren't any ads or such in my way, I still come across websites where links are not placed in an organized way (or are scattered) and it just takes too much time having to search for what I need.
Also, websites where the background image is overpowering to the point where content is difficult to read makes me want to leave that site.
You can leave an optional "tip" with Mahalo's virtual currency, Mahalo Dollars. If you are asking a difficult question that might require some research, or if you'd like a wide variety of feedback, a higher tip often leads to more answers to your question.
M$
The thing that bugs me the absolute most are automatic video or music players. I often surf with my headphones on, and I'll be listening to my peaceful music or my meditation stuff, and the **BLAM**, I get blasted with someone else's music, usually loud, usually irritating, with no really quick way to turn it off and I have to rip the headphones off and then find the 'off' switch, assuming it even has one. Hate that!
I also really dislike masked domains that don't provide the URL at the top in the browser bar. If I want to link to the specific page, I have to go hunt and hover over links to find them instead of just copying and pasting the link from the browser bar. If I copied and pasted from the browser bar on a masked domain, it would lead to the front page, generally.
Flash animation intro screens also irritate me. I want to see the site. For the most part, no one really cares how fancy your flash intro is. The attention span of the average internet user is so small, you have only a few seconds max to grab their attention and keep them from clicking off - don't want it on a flash intro when people are seeking information or answers to their questions.
That's my take!
You can leave an optional "tip" with Mahalo's virtual currency, Mahalo Dollars. If you are asking a difficult question that might require some research, or if you'd like a wide variety of feedback, a higher tip often leads to more answers to your question.
M$
I recently found this site
http://www.virginiacity-nv.org/
which is a good website. The music actually fits for the website too (in theory), but still I would personally advise them to take it down.
It distracts from looking at the information on the page itself.
Whether it's music, noise or just a 'beep' sound... it should be reserved for any video you might have on your website that someone would choose to listen to.
For all the other pet peeves I have regarding web design, you might want to venture here
http://www.angelfire.com/super/badwebs/
to get an idea of what's the most annoying, and why.
Enjoy!
You can leave an optional "tip" with Mahalo's virtual currency, Mahalo Dollars. If you are asking a difficult question that might require some research, or if you'd like a wide variety of feedback, a higher tip often leads to more answers to your question.
M$
Blinking text is also very annoying! Ahh
Any noise that I don't ask for annoys me, I only want to hear sounds when I click a "play" button.
Often I have many tabs open and if one starts making noise its irritating to have to find where the noise is coming from and how to stop it, a lot of these sites hide their "mute" buttons in odd spots.
Usually I am listening to my own music/podcasts/tv etc... and any noise that attempts to usurp what I am listening to is a distraction
Thanks for that link. Really useful, although I was looking for your personal experience, which in this case, appears to be related to "anything" that produces sound on a website, without having the option to turn it on or off.
1. Too bright website... I mean those who use flaming red as their background. When I landed on these pages, I'd just close the tab in an instant.
2. Popup ads. I hate those popups. :( They're really irritating. I dunno what they're even invented. XD
3. Audio or video embedded somewhere on the site that's on auto-play (aside from youtube of course). It kinda scares me at time especially when I'm browsing late at night and alone. :(
4. Those mouse-over ads... They usually cover the text I'm reading on a particular website. T.T
5. Dark background, dark text or light background, light text... I usually see this style on blogs...
Those are what I've been seeing most of the time.
You can leave an optional "tip" with Mahalo's virtual currency, Mahalo Dollars. If you are asking a difficult question that might require some research, or if you'd like a wide variety of feedback, a higher tip often leads to more answers to your question.
M$
But if your site has malware on it -- spyware, adware, things that it tries to get me to download, things that it won't let me close, you know the works -- I am finished with it. Period. It doesn't matter if the directions to the Holy Grail or the Fountain of Youth are on that site, because I am not touching it with a ten-foot pole. Why? Because it takes its problems off the site and onto my PC, where if I'm not careful, I'll have to spend hours exterminating. There is no excuse.
You can leave an optional "tip" with Mahalo's virtual currency, Mahalo Dollars. If you are asking a difficult question that might require some research, or if you'd like a wide variety of feedback, a higher tip often leads to more answers to your question.
M$
Animated adds - Adds that roll through a silent animation once or upon mouseover are not too bad, but if I am trying to enjoy a page an add with constant motion really is a distraction and an annoyance.
Roll-over adds: These are the adds that start huge and roll into a corner or adds that expand upon rollover, these ads are very distracting and I have to remind myself to avoid them as I navigate the page
Adds with sound: The worst is siting up at night navigating web pages when suddenly an add trumpets "You've just won an Xbox 360*"
*just spend $500 on our partners to claim your prize . . .
You can leave an optional "tip" with Mahalo's virtual currency, Mahalo Dollars. If you are asking a difficult question that might require some research, or if you'd like a wide variety of feedback, a higher tip often leads to more answers to your question.
M$
You can leave an optional "tip" with Mahalo's virtual currency, Mahalo Dollars. If you are asking a difficult question that might require some research, or if you'd like a wide variety of feedback, a higher tip often leads to more answers to your question.
M$
These types of sales pages are usually the ones that include pictures of money falling from the sky, boats, flash cars and big houses - like we are going to believe all of that bull.
Read my blog post where I go into details about how much I hate these types of sites, listed below.
You can leave an optional "tip" with Mahalo's virtual currency, Mahalo Dollars. If you are asking a difficult question that might require some research, or if you'd like a wide variety of feedback, a higher tip often leads to more answers to your question.
M$
1 - Flashing text.
2 - WAY to long homepage.
3 - CPA leads crappy survey system.
1 - Just isn't needed with todays webdesign techniques.
If you need to make your text flash and jump around the page to get attention - redesign the site!
2 - SEO can go too far somethimes.
Having a blog with every post visable from the front page is just insane. How can you think that is ok?
3 - Just no. If I want to read a post or watch a video, I won't fill out a survey that takes 5 minutes first.
Makes me actually look for ways to annoy the site owners.
I don't mind the rest like popups etc... Webdesigners need to eat too :)
You can leave an optional "tip" with Mahalo's virtual currency, Mahalo Dollars. If you are asking a difficult question that might require some research, or if you'd like a wide variety of feedback, a higher tip often leads to more answers to your question.
M$
There are so many websites like this, especially with national and local government websites, large businesses and even websites for hospitals, insurance or other services in the health industry. It's ridiculous because these are some of the places where you'd think they would want to choose a design that will allow visitors to easily navigate throughout their website, but unfortunately, that is not the case.
You can leave an optional "tip" with Mahalo's virtual currency, Mahalo Dollars. If you are asking a difficult question that might require some research, or if you'd like a wide variety of feedback, a higher tip often leads to more answers to your question.
M$
You really put in the time to answer this question. Thanks for the effort.