Becky Says...

2000-08-05

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Don't Fix It

I don't have enough experience in things web design to make studied comments---but I can damned well tell you what I hate. And I hate it when a site I enjoy has an attack of the redesigns and comes out harder to view and harder to navigate.

The one that has me griping today is a quasi-commercial site that's trying hard to implement more graphics. Unfortunately, its owner has chosen to get all kinds of gimmicky. The latest redo has several text portions in those little cgi boxes that are truly useful for people to fill in, but not at all reader-friendly.

I don't care so much that the site's privacy/legal information is in that form---I don't read that every time I visit. I DO care about the very latest implementation of the idea, since it's a diary page, though not that of the site owner.

This diary page is virtually empty. The background is pleasant; a depiction of a typewritten page with the type too grayed-out to be obtrusive. There's a graphic of a face in the upper left corner, though not the writer's face. There are three tiny pictures of the writer in a size that resembles thumbnails.

The diary entries-in-a-bin are plopped in the middle of the page. They're readable, but it's hard to get into something where you constantly have to scroll for the next bit of text. And that's too bad, because the writer usually has something interesting to say.

By the way---as I mentioned above, the site's owner also does diary entries, which are equally interesting. They're in a much more reader-friendly format. Since I'm pretty sure the diarist-in-a-bin was invited to write for the site, I can only wonder if he feels slighted by the minimalization of his contributions.

I'm actually almost dreading visiting the site again. I'm afraid the owner will have discovered a few new gimmicks. And making it even less visitor-friendly would be a shame.

Except that it's none of my business, I'd write him and tell him what I used to like about the site, and why I think he should return to its past incarnation.

It wasn't broken.

Text © copyright 2000 Becky