[thelist] Award Winning Site???

[Paul Backhouse]

i am i avid hater of apple macs - i wholey understand why designers use
them, but i just hate the cross browser limitation that different platforms
supply.
Anyways - back to the point - the argos site...its won awards>>>>???
the navigation in my eyes is one of the most poorly constructed i have seen
in a long while, it seems to take a year to actually find what your looking
for (i could have used the search facility - which most of us developer
would use as its a nice and easy way to find stuff) - but my god...i lost
interest after the 5th sub-level of navigation.
i like the yellow drop down boxes though - simple but a nice touch.


cheers

Skuff (paul b)


-----Original Message-----
From: thelist-admin at lists.evolt.org
[mailto:thelist-admin at lists.evolt.org]On Behalf Of Andrew Chadwick
Sent: 10 October 2001 12:57
To: thelist at lists.evolt.org
Subject: Re: [thelist] Award Winning Site???


On Wed, Oct 10, 2001 at 12:02:14PM +0100, Richard H. Morris wrote:
> I defy anyone using an up-to-date browser on the Mac platform to be
> able to browse to beech furniture in the catalogue on the Argos web
> site - http://www.argos.co.uk - which has apparently won awards!

It was the "won awards" that sold me on doing this. Shades of Donald
A. Norman? Anyway, I've appended what I saw (from a Unix perspective,
not a Mac one; but heh, users just use the browsers they have right?)

> Truly awful.

I agree wholeheartedly as far as the design's concerned. There are
elements in there that make the site actually difficult to use - What
is it with all the orange, vertical text on vertical stripes, lime
green and blank pages?

OTOH, it looks similar to their paper catalogues. Not that that's in
any way a good thing for a web application.

> How on earth are such awards judged? Surely not by the standards
> that web designers on this list would use?

As for the underlying database stuff, it seems to me that the site
would be better if it were less confusing up front, and if it
presented the search form more prominently. I can't remember if I saw
a search box on the cluttered front page or not. The search engine
seems good enough to get at the products, and the content's about as
good as you'd get on paper.

Presumably the judges based their opinions on their own areas of
expertise. I'm a database and perl guy, so I think that bit's more
important.

I wondered if what I'm seeing when I visit the site is what the
first-class web citizens are seeing, capitalist pigs that they
are. Probably those vast expanses of blank orange are just me with my
beardie browser, right?

Compared to other sites, and given the fact that many sites that
actively work against my browser, OS, and browsing style; it gets a
so-so from me. If I wanted to give an award to something, it'd be a
site with less graphical clutter, a more open structure (with a
prominent search box) and a simpler design.


	** User Story (technically experienced Unix beardie) **

Go to http://www.argos.co.uk/ using Galeon 0.12.3

Reject cookie. Hmm. Hope the site didn't need that.

Blank orange screen. Sigh. Right; "view source".

Source window pops up. 1 second later the Argos page appears behind my
source window. Oh well, live and learn. Time to look for beech furniture.

"Show me how to use this site". Hmm. File for future reference,
wondering what could be so hard about a web site.

"Browse the NEW catalogue". Right, that sounds good. Click.

Blank orange screen again. WTF? This time it has strips of unreadable
vertical text down the side, a registration thingy (which I glare at
and ignore; I just want to see how much beech furniture costs), and a
Jungle.com advert (which I try to block but it's served by
www.argos.co.uk, the site I'm visiting, and a very image-intensive one
too. So I don't block it.)

Why is it so orange?

Read the vertical text down the left site. The inner one (white on
lime green, ugh!) says "find a product". That's what I wan to do, sort
of, so I click it.

"Search by name". I'm now desperate enough to try their search engine;
previous experience of these things has not been good. Type in "Beech"
and click "go", hope I can winnow it later on

Okay. Almost good ... I have Beech Scotia Beading, Star Floor Beech
Flooring Pack, and a Wall Clock that looks made of beech. I don't know
about the "Beanstalk Pull Along Beetle" though.

I know how to use a search engine, and they've thoughtfully provided a
re-search box. So I try "beech chair" instead. It would be nice if
they'd prefilled it with my last seacrh terms though.

Lots of beech-effect bar chairs at the top. Getting better. I scroll
down and find some solid beech Mackintosh-style chairs as a pair for
100 quid. Quite Nice, but the photo's a little grainy and un-detailed
<http://www.argos.co.uk/webapp/commerce/command/ExecMacro/
 ols_prod_detl.d2w/report?prrfnbr=6021454&prmenbr=6970&type=big
 &thisMode=ols>.

Still, Richard said "Beech furniture", so I try that as a search
term. Not great one 5 and one 6-piece set of beech thingies for the
bathroom. I notice a "sort by lowest price" dropdown here which I
think is a faintly cool idea.

Give up as coffee break is over.

--
Andrew Chadwick, UNIX/Internet Programmer, PR Newswire Europe, Oxford
--
The views or opinions above are solely mine and are not necessarily those
of PR Newswire Europe. The message may contain privileged or confidential
information; if you are not a named recipient, notify me, and do not copy,
use, or disclose this message. <andrew.chadwick at prnewswire.co.uk>.

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