Pete LePage

Thoughts on web development, life, and photography.

Eight Problems That Haven't Changed [On The Web]

One of my friends from my UNB days has posted a link to a rather interesting article titled Eight Problems That Haven’t Changed.

I read it this afternoon and found it to be pretty fascinating.  I agree with almost all of them but sort of disagree with one.  From the article, they list the 8 problems as:

  1. Links that don’t change colour when visited
  2. Breaking the back button (Huge pet peeve of mine)
  3. Opening new browser windows
  4. Pop up windows
  5. Design elements that look like advertisements
  6. Violating web-wide conventions
  7. Vaporous content and empty hype
  8. Desnse content and unscannable text

I think number two is my all time pet peeve.  Well, that and sites that include music on the page (one reason why I can’t stand myspace.com).  The back button is my guide to where I was, and life in general.  It’s like this giant undo button.  You end up on a site you don’t like, boom, gone, with one click!

As for opening new windows, this one I’m not so sure I agree with.  In this age of tabbed browsing, why not spit someone off to a new window so that they can very easily get back to your site, or the place they were immediately before they left.  To me, it’s like the magic back button in the sky.  As soon as a new window opens, I generally assume I’ve left the property I was looking at, and am now at a whole new place.  It gives me a feeling of a change in pace.

A fascinating article, worth the read!