Doesn’t unchecking “Disable or replace context menus” in the Advanced Javascript options stop that? I leave all of the Javascript options unchecked unless I’m insistent about trying to make a particularly obnoxious web page behave.
Another vote for banning sound. I do not like opening a page that talks to me, plays music I did not ask for, or otherwise makes a noise. I close them immediately; and make a mental note not to visit the site again. If I really need information from that company (and sometimes I don’t which means I just ignore them), I’ll call Directory Assistance, get their phone number and call them. During our conversation, and especially if they say “Did you visit our website?” I’ll answer Yes, and tell them why I am ignoring their website. It’s the sound, people!
Otherwise, it’s Flash intros. I don’t care how skilled the website design company you hired is, I don’t want to see it. The reason I’m visiting your website is to get information, and possibly, to spend money there. Your Flash intro, which takes five minutes to load and play, is taking five minutes out of my schedule. That’s five minutes less I can spend on your website. Do you want to convey information to me, a potential consumer who may spend money at your company; or do you want to waste my time and patience showing off how skilled your web site Flash programmers are? Your choice.
I hate hate hate websites that won’t let you use the back button. I mean, what the hell. Do they really imagine people will think, “aw, dammit, it’s broke…might as well just browse here some more”?
Sites that demand you select a unique username (no email addresses please, and it must be so many characters long AND include a number), then offer no option to email it to you once you (inevitably) forget it. Lose your password? No problem. Lose your username? Re-register, if we’ll let you. You’re probably just trying to steal your own identity, you no good bum you.
This is mostly a problem with many webcomics, but I’ve seen it on other kinds of sites: making the title graphics (or title graphics + banner ad) tall enough to push the “Previous Comic” and “Next Comic” navigation links below the bottom of my browser window. Or worse, push part of the comic itself below the bottom of the window. Penny Arcade is good example. This forces me to scroll every freaking page up in order to browse through the comics. Come on people, do some research! 1024x768 is far and away the most common screen resolution being used by Web surfers these days, and these sites often seemed specifically designed to drop the links off the bottom of a window that size. Sure, my computer/monitor is capable of a higher resolution, but higher resolution means slower computer, and 1024x768 is good enough for most of the things I do. If I need a higher resolution for a good reason (like, say, working in Photoshop) I’ll adjust my screen. Reading webcomics isn’t a good enough reason.
Sites that use JavaScript for no good reason, like for navigation. I can accept JavaScript on a site like Google Maps, where it makes the application usable. On the vast majority of websites, though, the JavaScript should be kept to a minimum.
Lots of my hit list have already been mentioned: sound, flash intros, black background.
I just had to deal with a site that had the least intuitive interface ever in its checkout – and no instructions at all on how to use it. It was though the web designer knew what he was doing and assumed everyone else did, also.
Those flash ads that appear on sites. And especially those ads that hide the “close” button. Put the damn X in the upper right! But you don’t see any X, just the word “close” in gray on black text somewhere on the display.
Any sites that have intros, play sounds or music, use flash at all, disable right-clicking or the back button, don’t fit horizontally on the screen, or require excessive, verified information from me are pretty much never getting visited again and never getting a dime from me.
I also hate the stupid rules when filling out forms mentioned by the OP. What’s worse is when they tell you these rules one at a time, eg:
“Password MUST be at least 6 characters long!”
(you make it 6 characters)
“Password MUST contain at least one number!”
(you add a number)
“Phone number is REQUIRED!”
(you make up a fake phone number)
“User name is already taken”
Vendor sites that let you go through the entire process of ordering something, including entering your entire billing and shipping address, all of your credit card information, your contact info including letting you select “Canada” as your “ship to” country only to announce at the very end that they only ship to the contential US.
Fuckers.
AMEN! Folks, Internet users consist of more than just people in the USA. If you advertise goods for sale on the Internet, expect orders to come from other countries. Not just the USA.
Along the same lines: when I can get a package from a relative in Seattle, Washington or Pueblo, Colorado in a couple of days via USPS; don’t tell me that the only way you can ship to Canada is via FedEx/DHL/UPS super-express overnight for US$50. I’m calling bullshit on this one; you can drop it in the mail as easily as you can similar packages to Kansas or California and I’ll get it in the same amount of time as your Kansan or Californian customers. Canada is not that far away, and charging me the same as you would charge a European customer is unfair. We’re not as far away as Europe–look at a map!!!
Literally.
If your site contains JavaScript that makes your page keep jumping to the front of my stack of windows while I’m trying to view a different site, you’ve pretty much guaranteed that I’ll never open your site again.
Yet another vote for obnoxious intros. “Skip intro” should be a default browser option.
Yes, I’m sure you’re very proud of your stylish intro. Someone out there is surely willing to devote the time required to experience and appreciate its cutting-edge magnificence, but alas, I am not he. Just show me your goddamned main page, already.
All you kids annoyed by Flash/Java who are using FireFox, I have one little recommendation for you:
It turns off any scripts until YOU say that you want to see them. Then you click on the little “S” in the bottom of your browser windows and you can specifically allow servers to run scripts. So you can allow the video you want to see load in, but not the Flash ads surrounding it.
NoScript and AdBlock are two of the best extensions ever. Combined, I see absolutely, positively no ads.
As I’ve said in other such threads: Tell us up front that you do not ship to Canada (or ‘outside of the USA’), as one site I encountered recently didn’t. Of course, they did not mention this on the contact request form; I only deduced it when I found that the address form was constrained to a US format. I had to email customer service to confirm.
Oh, and provide contact information such as a mailing address or phone number in simple text, please! Only filling out a form whose contents will be emailed to some unknown address is no good if I want to phone you.
And another thing. Unless you explicitly state that you are confining your activities to one country, be prepared to handle all international formats for addresses and phone numbers!
I have next to me a magazine whose address label reads,
“<Name>
<Street Address>
CA-<Postal Code> Toronto ON
Kanado-Kanada”
The Name is normal.
The Street Address is exactly as I typed it in, with apartment number preceding street number and separated by a dash.
A Country Code precedes the Postal Code. Then there’s the City Name, then the Province Code.
The last line is ‘Canada’ in the language the magazine is in, followed by a misspelled attempt at ‘Canada’ in English.
And this is from an organisation that has been explicitly international for a century!
Clearly they chose address software that assumes everyone lives in Europe. I suppose I should be glad that the UK is in Europe; at least they could handle alphanumeric postal codes. I’ve run into several European sites that won’t even let me enter a province.
For 90% of forms in opera, just hit back. All your stuff is right there again.
I think IE will clear them.
Thanks, Liberal. I have a heck of a time getting things centered since the end result always comes out a little different. I’ll definitely go and double space the paragraphs, tho.
Someone else indicated that there was a problem with the “headers”, but I’m not sure what they meant.
The “three click” rule is probably overstated - four clicks to find the information is ok; at times, I’m willing to click 5 times. If I have to spend 20 minutes on a site to find what I want, someone’s done a horrible job of navigation design.
I find this utterly enraging. It angers me so much that I’ll close the entire window immediately upon discovery, even if I wanted information from that particular site.
When they disable the Back button you can still hit it 3 or 4 times really fast and get back, or you can hit the down arrow at the right side of the back button to select which page you want to go back to.