Occasionally, I just run into a site that warrants some comment. Some positive, some negative. In this case, quite negative.
I bought my Dad a set of Ray-Ban Aviators for Father's Day. Polarized, UVA/UVB protection.. the classic green lens, gold frame we all know and love from "Top Gun". Been around since 1937 and still the best sunglasses of which I know.
Well, I noticed that the G-15 lenses can be prescription ground - so I thought that I might consider a set for myself eventually. Much nicer than having to wear contacts to wear them in allergy season.
So I take myself off to the Ray-Ban official site, thinking that it should be fairly easy to determine the requirements for getting them in my prescription.
Not so.
First, I have to select my country of origin. Given our sophistication with IP lookup and headers, why cannot the designer make a leap and set the country value initially. If wrong, then it can be changed by the user. But you've saved the user a step if you guess right.
After selecting the USA site, I now have to wait for a big Flash object to load.
After at least a minute for the entry page to load (and this on a fairly fast connection), I'm presented with a "Skip Intro" button in the lower right-hand corner. Typically arrogant design. I would have instructed my designer to have that show up in the first two seconds for the impatient customer who does not want "an experience" but rather wants hard info on a product line or feature.
I shouldn't have to waste 10 minutes of precious lifetime just trying to find basic info. No alternative, non-Flash site available as far as I can determine either. So every new page I navigate to seems to require a new Flash to be loaded for me simply to determine it's not what I wanted to see.
The search function is quite poor, the lines defined not by their names but by their product codes (aka 3025 is an Aviator). However, a search for either 3025 or RB3025 yields no results and a search for Aviator yields 3. Clicking on the results seems to have no effect though. I cannot seem to get to the product page and after 10 minutes am ready to leave this site and never go back.
Did I mention the entry page seems to fail to load in Firefox?
The designers seem more in love with their design and less interested in meeting the customer's needs.
Design a la 2000.
So last century.
Posted by artandscience at May 31, 2009 11:37 AM