Being in the design business since more than 10 years, both from a technical and later from a management point of view, I can really say that user experience is something that is never valued too much. The ability of a user – be it a potential customer or a simple visitor – to experience something unique, valuable but mostly easy is what should be on top of any designer of any product, from the web to furniture to electronic devices to really anything at all.
Ease of use has been the fundament of the whole iPhone ecosystem, a way for users to feel at home even with a device that’s never been experienced before, something so easy and intuitive that even 3 years old kids can use it no problem, because it just feels right, natural.
Sometimes these user experience breakthrough can change a whole lot of subsequent inventions, sometimes they go unnoticed for various reasons.
The worst, though, is when the experience itself is so negative it can seriously punish you for just trying, especially in the case of actual customers.
Examples of this? Think about the whole copy protection industry. You buy a game for 50, 60 euros, and then you receive a key bound to your current system configuration, changing which you will have to ask for a new one. Or you end up with a compromised system. I could go on for a hour but I am sure you know what I mean.
And it’s not limited to software sadly. I recently decided to buy some video tutorial for some music synthesis software I use ’cause I was tired of reading freely available stuff which, for how good, felt kinda limited. So I go to this famous website to buy their video, and seconds before I click all the right buttons, my eye is caught in a little text:
“Internet connection for Downloadable tutorial and internet product authorization required – up to 3 computers. Authorization and De-Authorization permitted to allow moving tutorial to different computers.”
Ok, wait a second. Authorization for a video? How? Simple, the video isn’t a video at all, it’s a program (now the Mac and PC compatibility checklist makes sense) which contains the video. Practically I was going to pay not to own the video, but to own the license of a program running the video. So I can’t watch it on my TV, or iPad, or nothing like that, I need a computer. This is frankly unacceptable, I don’t care wether or not you’re afraid your video will get pirated (because it has been it will be anyway, trust me), these kind of choice punishes the legit users far more than the illegal downloaders.
Thankfully, on the web we haven’t got this kind of behavior right? Not exactly, but we have similar ones, which seem specifically designed to destroy the experience of our visitors. Examples? I’ll give you 7 of them:
1) Flash
Unless you have outstanding reasons to use Flash (which I can’t think of, mind you, but hey let’s admit you do), embrace 2011 already
2) Captchas!
Those are the spawn of the devil, I can understand the reason behind them, and even if some are truly genius, it’s generally a good way to piss people off and turn them away from your website/blog, forever
3) Endless registration forms
Yep I know, we use them too, but I swear we’re moving to a smarter system which require info just when strictly needed. If people are forced to fill in full-page forms, they are much less inclined to end up buying from you, that’s for sure
4) Speaking of registration forms
What about absurd requirements for passwords? I mean, I can live with 6-chars minimum. But why put the max at 8? or 10? Why force me to use a letter, a number and a japanese kanji inside the same password? Inform me my password sucks -> GOOD. Force me to use an insane one -> BAD. Why is it so important? One word: mobile. The quickest way to sign up to a website while on the go is to explicitly choose a lame password, just for quickness, to change it later. I really don’t have time to think something smart and note it down, because I will inevitably forget it
5) HTML resizing of huge images
What does this mean? You have a 4000×4000 pixels image, 50 MB heavy, but you need to put it in a small version on your website. You have two options:
a) You fire up Photoshop or similar programs and you actually resize it, save it, and upload it, voila’
b) You just upload it and force it small with the <img> HTML width and height tags. Hey, it works the same no?
If you selected b), congratulations, you won the Interweb.
6) Implementing smart tricks
Like blocking the right mouse button, yeah that’s totally going to stop me from copying your HTML source, but it will also stop me from visiting your website, just so you know
7) Auto-play music
The problem is so bloody real there’s even a Chrome extension to help you prevent it.
I didn’t put up just 7 reasons because they are the only ones I can find, just because hey, I want to leave you something to do. Any taker?
If you liked this post, why don't you 
Twitter: troublesometots
says:
Totally agree with your list. I also find the following suck the life out of me…
a) Anything pop up.
b) Advertising swamp (where I get bogged down in advertising trying to suss out your actual content).
c) Auto-play video (although music is probably worse)
Twitter: maidoesimple
says:
I didn’t include pop-up ’cause since I use AdBlocker in every browser I have, that’s hardly a problem anymore. To be fair, I also use FlashBlocker so that sorts out the auto-play stuff as well. Videos aren’t as annoying as music because it’s usually well indicated you’re about to open a video, while an auto-play music can sneak in at any time.
Twitter: Android_TidBits
says:
@Alexis: Amen to all 3 on your list. Like you, I easily get annoyed by pop-ups, regardless of how nice they look. Though, unlike Gabriele, I don’t use pop-up blockers because they tend to block even legitimate pop-ups.
Advertisement flood also trained me to ignore ads. I go autopilot with ignoring ads. Autoplaying videos/music–I rarely encounter them, but each time I do, my energy level goes down twice faster.
Let me add a fourth one to your list: landing pages that make you wait for N seconds before showing you the real page you’re after.
Erich@AndroidTidBits.com recently posted..Telltale Signs of Android Addiction
Twitter: maidoesimple
says:
It’s true that sometimes (but in my use, very rarely) they do block legit pop-ups, but you get a warning anyway and you can unblock the single pop-up or the whole website altogether. So it’s not such a big deal for me.
The best way to ignore ads is not to show them in first place
Twitter: Android_TidBits
says:
Hi, Gabriele. I presume that when you said “The best way to ignore ads is not to show them in first place,” you are talking from the (adblocker-using) site visitor. It’s the site visitor’s choice to completely block all ads. Although, in my case, I don’t use adblockers because ads are often the lifeblood of many blogs–including mine. The only sad reality that we have to contend with is that there are morons who place more ads than content on their site pages. And, I have just one rule for that: don’t go back to that site.
Erich@AndroidTidBits.com recently posted..Your Field Guide to the Best QWERTY Android Smartphones of 2011
You are so right on the money! As a marketer, I understand and sympathize with the difficulty in setting yourself apart from others but as a user, don’t annoy me or I won’t be back. Re-routing me, disabling my mouse, making my music play, etc… is going to make me think you’re desperate for something and your site is a waste of my time… peace out girl scout! Great post!
-Karen
Twitter: maidoesimple
says:
Either desperate for something or simply a noob, the bad kind of noob that is. In both cases I can hardly show sympathy.
Welcome back my man! I didn’t expect to hear from you until September.
Points 5, 6 and 7 piss me off to no end.
I agree with everything but the captcha. They are getting insane, no doubt, but a very simple captcha goes a long long way to stopping spam without pissing people off. Some of the shit I come across drives me nuts though, so I only half-heartedly disagree on this one.
A few small additions:
animated gifs. lack of whitespace. light text on dark backgrounds. high contrasting colours. poor/inconsistent/unclear navigation.
Twitter: maidoesimple
says:
Well no vacations for me so no reason for huge pauses haha.
Ok I admit a captcha can have its uses in certain environments, but here’s an example. My hosting company implemented a captcha every time you have to log-in in their control panel to change the domain settings. So if you have to change 10 domains, you have to input 10 captchas PLUS your user name and password. Wouldn’t that piss you off?
Agree on animated GIFs, they are almost always bad unless I am visiting El Senor GIF or similar websites.
No reason for huge pauses, ay? You’ve been gone so long I thought you’d moved to Milan to work for Google.
Aruba implemented something like the above recently and I HATE it. Seriously, anyone who subscribes to ONE design blog or follows ONE designer on Twitter knows enough about usability not to implement this sort of shit. Whoever implements something like that has clearly had the right side of his/her brain padlocked in another room.
Reading through the other comments, I would like to add that I love how right Steve Jobs always is. Flash is dead, and I think he always saw it was dying, but simply thought he would give it a shove to get it over the cliff. The man is truly a wonder. And no, I am NOT a fanboy.
Twitter: maidoesimple
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That’s fun, that’s exactly Aruba I was talking to in my example
Twitter: jdfielder
says:
Trails of sparklies when I run my mouse on the page.
Add pop unders along with Alexis’s note on pop ups above.
“Wait–don’t leave yet!” messages that prevent me from leaving the page.
Those ridiculous insurance ads with dancing people, mug shots, and other irrelevant graphics.
Ads made to look like legitimate news links.
Twitter: maidoesimple
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Oh wow the sparkles, I almost removed that from my mind, thanks :p What about those Facebook ads with loud music and effects that completely destroy your ears? Ouch.
Twitter: liveurlove
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Love all 7. I just recently noticed sites with right click blocked. That is a big no no for me because I love right clicking to pile all the links in new tabs.
Twitter: maidoesimple
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Yeah and also to copy the link to an image, copy the link to a page etc Blocking the right mouse button is so ’90′s.
I love all of them, but nothing makes me run screaming from a site faster than music. It always comes blasting out, scaring me and then I realize it is hideous music that burns my ears.
Also no fan of black sites with white font. Tiny white font.
Twitter: maidoesimple
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Yeah music is a big no no for a lot of people, yet some keep saying it adds atmosphere to a website… really, come on, it’s not a movie we’re talking about.
I completely agree with you. I remember the days when I used to surf the net, as a mere visitor and how irritated I got because of these plugins and worthless exaggeration of flash and sounds, and ads too.
Twitter: maidoesimple
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Thankfully Flash is progressively abandoning us, but unfortunately you can be as annoying with HTML5 as well. However, HTML5 websites tend to be more elegant in this.
But the underlying fact still remains the same, we people will still get annoyed, in one way or the other. Thanks for sharing your views.
Thats absolutely absurd for them to say ‘authorization required – up to 3 computers’.. this is something really new for me, i have never really encountered this
Twitter: maidoesimple
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It’s something that’s always been there but not enforced. Most games have got a license allowing you to install them on just one computer (I personally own 2, so what can I say, sue me) but it’s something just written on paper, rarely enforced with a protection system.
Auto-play music is probably the top of my list as a turn-off, when I hear music, I immediately close that tab. I also never waste my time with captchas unless I really have to. I don’t understand why people implement such features even though their websites don’t needed or they have virtually no traffic at all but they need to have tons of annoying feature installed with a huge set of rules.
Twitter: maidoesimple
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When a captcha is used in a sign-up form for some service I need, I guess I’ll swallow it. But I saw captcha codes in Contact forms as well. That’s like a show-stopper for me.
Twitter: eyedisease
says:
This reads almost the same of my list of peaves when I visit a site.
Captchas .. argh! And autoplay music, there’s nothing worst. The color scheme that burns your retina is another!
I quickly close and go on to somewhere else!
Barry Wheeler@Blogging Tips recently posted..Make Your Blog Load Faster
Twitter: maidoesimple
says:
The retina-burning color schemes is something I forgot about, it’s something to keep in mind every time you read bullshit like “content is king” :p
One of the things that really gets me hot under the collar are websites look like they are stuck in the mid 1990s. They have these psychedelic backgrounds that look like the site was put together while the webmaster was on LSD. Instant loss of credibility. It tells me that any information or product on that site is at least 20 years out-of-date. And best of all they use the gimmicks that leave sparkles or floating letters that follow your cursor, in case you go blind from the background and lose track of it. And who uses counters anymore?
Twitter: maidoesimple
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Truth be told I don’t see “mouse trails” since years, even though I still spot LSD color schemes, sometimes in famous blogs as well. It kinda puzzles me, I confess.
+1 at the password thing…
i mean…why do they care if my password is minimum 10 letters…lower and higher character…letters and numbers…special simbols..etc…
what if i just want to use my girlfriends name(just saying…)?
and i did the mistake to buy a software some time ago…with key and everything,after a while i had to reinstall the windows…and i couldn’t install the software anymore..it was a one time key
…that’s just not cool.
Interesting article…thank you!
have a nice day!
Twitter: maidoesimple
says:
One time key? Jeez, what a nightmare. Thanks, glad you liked it!
Honestly i would KILL everyone that plays annoying music on advertisement pop unders. There is nothing more frustrating than getting kicked in your ears by some lame country looped tone and you dont even know where the hell it coming from !!
I once closed everything and the bloody music was still playing! I restarted PC, started new FireFox session and the music started to freaking PLAY!
I cant remember how i fixed this, but if by an accident i come across people behind this….they better run…
Marlene recently posted..Degrees that Pay well
Twitter: maidoesimple
says:
Music restarting after you re-boot? Wow, that’s a first, I definitely understand your pain.
Yeah! I believe in you that music is a big no no for a lot of people, yet some keep saying it adds atmosphere to a website but I llove all of them, but nothing makes me run screaming from a site faster than music. It always comes blasting out, scaring me and then I realize it is hideous music that burns my ears.
Jane @Dealing With Long Distance Relationship recently posted..Dealing With Long Distance Relationship
Twitter: maidoesimple
says:
I like music when I can control it. Soundcloud is ok, I press play for it :p
I couldn’t agree more with music as being the biggest turn-off to a site. I find myself racing frantically to mute the volume and close the site all at the same time!
Twitter: maidoesimple
says:
Totally agree.
I agree with Seattle too…i mean,i can listen to my own music i do not need a website playing me music. And i hate those websites that have no mute button.
and the one time key is just pure murder,who’s ideea was that?
Great stuff Gabriele. Anything auto is going to drive me nuts and make me not want to visit again, but with music, it usually comes at your blasting at the highest level, and that’s really irritating and unexpected.
Mitch Mitchell recently posted..Why Businesses Need Blogs
Twitter: maidoesimple
says:
Yeah that sucks especially when you got people – like me – listening to music at high volume, you kinda forget about it when it’s all silent, and all of a sudden when you least expect it, BAM, you’re in hell. Urg.
To much pop-ups and runninf Scrips are sometimes enough to make me avoid visiting some pages… really dislike it!
Twitter: maidoesimple
says:
Thankfully pop-ups are almost a thing of the past, but it depends what websites you visit.
I don’t know why anyone uses pop ups this days. When it appears, I don’t read it, I just want to find the close button. I have encountered pop ups that close buttons are hard to find and this just prevents me from visiting the site. One thing that also irritates me is the automatic play music and video. I will follow your suggestions and remember not to put them in my site.
David recently posted..how to get a girl to like you
Twitter: maidoesimple
says:
I admit popups are almost a thing of the past, now the new trend are pop-unders, even in websites you wouldn’t imagine.
I wouldn’t go that far as to call captchas a bother, but i do hate recaptcha from the bottom of my heart. How people still use it is beyond me, i wouldn’t let even my enemies fill in that captchas.
On the other hand, the normal ones are easy to get used to if you know first grade math. No complains there.
Beth@College grants recently posted..College Grants for Women Over 40
Twitter: maidoesimple
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I do appreciate the value behind recaptchas (OCR-ing old books and all), but I agree, they *are* annoying
Is flash really out? I kind of liked it
Twitter: maidoesimple
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Nah not me, I am quite happy about its decline
Twitter: maidoesimple
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Captchas in contact forms are so illogic. Way to go towards encouraging people to contact you.
Twitter: maidoesimple
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Fortunately it’s not something you see that often lately.
I definitely agree with all of them! and LOL at #6 that is the funniest because it bugs the living daylights out of me
it blocks so many sources from syndicating or “quoting” and linking back to your article!!! first hand personal experience so many articles i wanted to quote and syndicate but because they had that feature i left them never to return!
syndication is EXACTLY what you want for your website!!!
my office space recently posted..Why I’m a DoFollow Blogger
Twitter: maidoesimple
says:
I gotta say I don’t find those trick so often anymore, which is good, at least people are learning.
PS: would you mind using your name commenting here? I hadn’t noticed at first but I really don’t think you’re called “my office space”
p.s.
forgot to add that also this would fall in with people that use the smart trick of blocking people from copying and pasting – which leads them to the source code
i can’t stand it. good way to kill getting linked too.
my office space recently posted..Why I’m a DoFollow Blogger
why would i do that? if i do, i am just going to put a fake name – i don’t believe in putting myself out on the internet so freely – that’s one of the beautiful things about the internet
sorry but i like my privacy – you can change it if you like or i could just use initials
i don’t like all this facebook open profiles everywhere – hey heres my whole life my name my picture and so forth – not for me. if you ask me it is quite out of hand at this point, and i think society reflects this perfectly.
my office space recently posted..Why I’m a DoFollow Blogger
Twitter: maidoesimple
says:
Ok, use initials then
Thank you
Website owners must be aware of how their sites work. They must give importance to the site as well in order to avoid situations that will pissed off visitors.
Twitter: maidoesimple
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Yeah we already have way too many chances to get pissed off.
haha i like the caption of “sucking the soul”. As a user,I hate captcha too!
ZAc recently posted..Even strips can be stylish-Kate Spade Book stripe Iphone case
Twitter: maidoesimple
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I think by now we all do.