How not to do interface design
Thursday, 22 September 2005I just couldn’t let this one slide. The image below is a screen grab of the language selection screen for Dabs.com.
Quite why they felt it necessary to give you 6 different interface widgets to choose between just 2 languages baffles me. Every single time I visit the site I find myself confused by what should be a simple selection, and every single time I’m surprised that clicking one of the radio buttons forwards me to the site. What are those other buttons for?
I don’t want to beat up on whichever poor soul thought this was a good idea, but they might want to consider a change of career.
MEAT GOATS!!!?? ROFLMAO!!!!!!!!!!!!
JesterXL | Thursday, 22 September 2005 | 3:33 pmMEAT GOATS!!!?? ROFLMAO!!!!!!!!!!!!
Looks like someone was listening and it has been changed.
John | Thursday, 22 September 2005 | 3:44 pmLooks like someone was listening and it has been changed. The UK/FR buttons are now images of the country flags.
Okay, having taken the time to look at the code
Steve | Thursday, 22 September 2005 | 8:57 pmOkay, having taken the time to look at the code on the page, this looks like being an issue specific to Safari. It seems that Dabs are setting a background image (via CSS) for input elements of type ’submit’. Nothing nefarious - just plain odd. Like your granny storing her dentures under the dog.
I don’t know if this technique backed up by standards, but you basically can’t do anything with form widgets in Safari so I’m not surprised this doesn’t work. However, given that they sell Mac-related kit, it’s a bit of a mistake not testing the site in the dominant Mac browser. Bad Dabs. Bad!
Although I've never visited the site on this computer I
Jamie | Thursday, 22 September 2005 | 9:48 pmAlthough I’ve never visited the site on this computer I automatically get forwarded to their UK page - must be based on IP I suppose. In my experience you tend to find companies such as Dabs do all their website work in-house by people whose web development knowledge is not neccessarily top notch. Looking at the source code of the main site, a third of the screen is occupied by Javascript. Not surprising then that their shopping basket pretty much falls apart with Javascript disabled. Of course this can spark a whole debate about the functional reliance on Javascript in a huge amount of websites these days… so… goat breeding hey?
There is still 6 selections to enter the site. The
Jason | Tuesday, 27 September 2005 | 7:43 pmThere is still 6 selections to enter the site. The flags are clickable. And yes once you have the cookie it sends you to what ever language you choose. Also note that on the main page the Irish and French flag have weird characters in the tool tip. Funny how it says English site, French site, and info for Irish people. lol I was afraid to click that one…
On the French site you have tons of garbage (perhaps i’m missing a font). If you can’t get it right, why do it at all…
Example ” 1Â 800Â 000 clients ”
Example ” 4 885 produits disponibles à la vente “