Meryl's Notes Blog

This excellent article addresses the Top 10 Usability Blunders of the Big Players. My comments:

1. No search function - Though a site should be designed so that a visitor doesn’t have to resort to search, it should have a search function available. There is always someone looking for that lesser obvious something.

2. Massive download time - !

3. Non-scannable text - I blogged about a study on reading online text, which itself was ironically difficult to scan. I didn’t bother reading it.

4. Unclear link text - Man, I’ve been surprised a few times when the mouse cursor unexpectedly turned into a pointer indicating a link. On other occasions, I think something is a link when it is not (underlined, blue, bolded).

5. Poor 404 error page - The biggest surprise is Monster’s error page. ?!?! Creating an error page is simple and Monster with all of its features couldn’t do it? Some sites have a site map, others have a nice message along links to the main pages. Remember, avoid making it sound like it’s the user’s fault (even if it is!).

6. Visited links not shown - I’ve made the mistake of giving links the same color. I’ve learned my lesson and the vlinks have a different color. When going to sites and clicking on many links, I lose my place and the vlinks help me know what I’ve checked out. Otherwise, I go to the same spot again.

7. Frames used - It’s amazing how many sites still use them even sites who make the effort to use CSS for positioning. I get submissions for the Tableless List and get a frames-based site every 20 entries or so.

8. Link point to current page - Rarely see this, but it should not happen. It leaves me perplexed, too. I don’t look at the status bar every time I click on a link.

9. Important information contained in images - It is surprising to see which items are text and which are images on AOL’s home page. What a waste.

10. Unique scrolling system - This is not a good thing even if it sounds like it. Sites with multiple scrollbars within a page are a pain to use. A surefire way to carpal tunnel country.