OT: Silly web sites [was Re: [CLUE-Tech] Listening to CPR.org w/ Mozilla/Galeon?]

[Sean LeBlanc]

On 12-28 17:52, David Anselmi wrote:
> Sean LeBlanc wrote:
> [...]

> ><ramble> 
> >Man, that site is just too much. I can't believe sites are still
> >being made that way - even discounting the fact that they *force* you to
> >use Flash for a general-purpose website, the presentation is almost
> >exactly what I remember Jakob Nielsen* (and others) ripping on the
> >terrible Olympic web site about. There are "links", but you have to hover
> >over them to discern what they are for. The bottom-right one shows the
> >snowdogs logo when you hover over it - how are you supposed to know what
> >that is for without clicking on it? Also, you have to wait for the little
> >animation to finish while hovering over these to see the
> >text...apparently these folks have not read "Designing Web Usability" by
> >Jakob Nielsen. I had to send these folks my resume a few weeks back, and
> >reverted to a W98 box to use the site, because I didn't have time to mess
> >around w/ Flash setup. I wonder how many clients they have alienated with
> >their site.  
> ></ramble>
> 
> There's a gov't web site I'm supposed to use to manage my financial data
> (direct deposit, retirement account, health plan, so on).  It checks at
> the outset to make sure you have "128 bit encryption and javascript".
> 
> What it really does is a bunch of if statements on the browser name and
> version.  Mozilla reports as Netscape 5.0 (X11) which, since it isn't
> Windows or Mac fails.  It's funny because NS 4 is supported and Moz is at
> least as compatible as that.  The site only uses javascript, no flash or
> anything rediculous.  They probably could have got away without checking
> at all and let the site fail if you have a bad browser.
> 
> Sigh.  Guess it's time to write a complaint.

I take it they are not doing even the most rudimentary pattern-matching,
just verbatim if User-Agent value = "someval" then...

There seems to be no shortage of silly sites. Jefferson county library gave
me the message today that I need Javascript in order to view the site
securely...it defaulted to viewing it via http instead of https. Why the
designers made it so Javascript* is necessary for SSL is beyond me. Normally,
I have Javascript on, but today was an exception because I turned it off to
test some other site for something.

But get this: it needs Javascript (why, I cannot fathom), but they don't use
cookies to maintain any state - so if you view your checkout record, and
then leave this page, and come back, you have to log in again. My guess is
that this is so people using the library's web site from the library's
computers don't stay logged in, but I would think some clever checking on
where the user is coming from could alleviate this....
  
The upside is that it's worth the minor annoyances of the website since the
Jefferson library system is so good otherwise... :)

*For the perfectionists: yes, it's now called ECMAScript, but find me
someone that actually calls it that day-to-day. ;)

-- 
Sean LeBlanc:seanleblanc at americanisp.net  
http://users.americanisp.net/~seanleblanc/
Get MLAC at: http://sourceforge.net/projects/mlac/
At first sight, the idea of any rules or principles being superimposed on the 
creative mind seems more likely to hinder than to help, but this is quite 
untrue in practice. Disciplined thinking focuses inspiration rather than 
blinkers it. 
-G.L. Glegg, "The Design of Design"