Things I wish websites would do

[jack]

Things I wish websites would do:

1. Have a prominent link to "here are some of my most popular articles" or for a webcomic, "here are some of my most popular strips". You don't have to do this -- most websites are providing free information in the hope that I find it useful. I know I haven't bothered on my DW/LJ. But it always seems a wasted opportunity when something seems interesting, and I'd like to read a little more... and there's nowhere to go.

1a. Or, if your website does something, or represents a company that does something, TELL ME WHAT IT IS. Don't say you're a leading something in the field of blah -- give me a lede. Why are you awesome? Half a sentence, go.

1b. Or at least, have a way for me to browse the archives, preferably in order. Surprisingly many websites have a choice between "from the latest, backwards" or "grouped into months, when all of the content is in two or three in the middle".

2. NO VIDEO. If you're wasting time, video is great. If you need to see something demonstrated visually, video may be necessary. But if you're trying to convey information, no-one in a hurry, no-one who can read, no-one with small children, no-one blind or deaf, no-one at work wants a video. Some people like it. But I don't think I've ever met one. It's especially galling on a productivity website. My limited forays into the sphere of getting things done have generally been achieved by NOT making "sit down to watch a video for five minutes" a prerequisite to "typing numbers into a spreadsheet".

2a. Use cut tags. Not everyone agrees, but for me, I want to skim a list of articles and pick the ones I find interesting.

3. Don't make jokes about how crap you are. So many webcomics, the first comic is "sorry I can't draw". Fine, I'm self-deprecating too. But don't EMPHASISE it. We know, you know, we know you know, you know we know... skip to the point.

4. Don't make me log in just to read an article.
4a. If you do make me log in, don't make me create a password.
4b. If you do make me create a password, don't put lots of arbitrary requirements on it, especially ones that make it LESS secure.
4c. If you do put arbitrary requirements on the password, LIST THEM ON THE LOG-IN FORM AS WELL so I can remember what password I used!

5. This seems like it should go without saying, but don't be insecure AND inconvenient. If you're going to be insecure ANYWAY, why not just let me log in without hassle?

Comments

[simont]

#5 seems to me to be close to a special case of your previous maxim "do not do things that are evil and don't work".

[jack]

ROFL. I suppose it is. I guess I didn't imagine "don't be evil" as some exclusive jack-only insight, like a cartesian sun-zu, I assumed it was common sense :)

[simont]

6. Do not, when I visit your website for the very first time ever having followed a link to an article someone recommended, immediately cover up the article with a dialog box saying "Would you like to subscribe?" or "Are you fully satisfied with your experience of this website?" or "Would you participate in a usability survey?" or "Please 'like' us on Facepalm". Any of these things would make some sense to ask users after they'd used your site for more than half a second and formed an opinion of how good it is, but if my very first impression of your site is that it prematurely shoves stuff like that into my face, exactly how likely do you think it is that I'm going to respond positively to any of those questions?

[jack]

Yeah, I guess "when someone goes to a webpage, show them that webpage, not an annoying bunch of options" was so obvious I thought it didn't need to be said, but many people do, in fact, Just Not Get It :)

[hilarita]

This is the number one reason I never read stuff from Huffington Post. Because I can't get to the article without it asking me to follow it on Twitter or wherever. So I don't give them traffic.

[ofearthandstars]

4b and 4c drive me absolutely crazy. I suppose there's some security issue with posting the password requirements directly on the log-in form, but there should at least be a link to those featured prominently.

[ewx]

No, it's just stupidity (as are many of the restrictions).

[jack]

I suppose there's some security issue with posting the password requirements directly on the log-in form

I don't think there are, really. If they have password restrictions that make passwords worse (eg. no unicode, no spaces, maximum length) then it might make it worse to publicise that, but the real problem is doing it in the first place.

And if they have positive-but-annoying restrictions, then it might help a hacker very slightly to know that people need at least N non-alphanumeric characters, because many people will have _exactly_ N. But if they're brute-forcing, they'll probably try all of that anyway.

I've spent ages asking around "is there a reason websites do X", and sometimes there is, but depressingly often, there isn't.

[ewx]

Don't try to remember passwords for every individual website, write them down and keep them in a safe place.

[jack]

Or they could use a log in method that isn't obsolete instead :)

[gerald_duck]

When required to register, the first thing I ask myself is "is this security in my interests to any extent whatever?" If the answer is no, I use "secret" as my password, "secret123" if they insist on non-alphabetics.

Usually I remember to fix that if I later start using the site in ways I care about. (-8

[ewx]

I suspect I usually give up if it’s “you must create a password just to read an article”, which is even less effort than that.

[chess]

I assume someone must like videos as people keep sending me huge piles of tech videos. The last thing I want to learn tech stuff from is a video. I can't copy and paste your code samples from a video, and I have to give it two channels of realtime attention rather than half a channel of asynchronous attention; no thanks...

[gerald_duck]

7. Make your site work even if I refuse cookies.
7a. If there's a good reason (shopping basket or whatever) why some features can't work without cookies, at least let the rest of the site (product search, for example) work without them.
7b. If your site won't work without cookies, at least make the not-working-because-you-refused-our-cookie case distinguishable from "our site is down".
7c. If you really, really insist on my accepting a cookie, at least make it be a cookie from your domain so I know how to whitelist.
7c(i). Or, failing that, make the "we can't work unless you accept a cookie" page say which domain's cookies I have to accept.

4d. Many e-commerce sites let you window-shop without registering, but require registration to buy something. Fair enough, I guess, but provide a way to discover shipping costs without registering.

8. If you let someone give you an e-mail address and then you send e-mails to it, in those e-mails provide a way for the recipient to say "your customer was smoking crack and this isn't their e-mail address at all, please forget you ever saw it".

[azurelunatic]

Past-me very cleverly solved #1 by creating a "that's me in the spotlight" tag, which I use when I notice an entry is getting a lot of discussion. Past-me also cleverly linked it from my profile. Present-me added it to my journal's links list as well.