What’s wrong with this picture?

It’s very misleading, that’s what.

The heading is asking me “Can’t see this content?”, but I can, can’t I? I’m reading it! Oh, the word “this” isn’t associated to what I’m reading (as it should be), but rather what I’m not reading. Interesting.

Misleading text has also found its way into the body content, once again, I am reading the content aren’t I? Another thing is that the content also implies that I have JavaScript disabled when I actually don’t. I believe you’re statistically more likely to have a user without flash installed, than without JavaScript enabled. So with that in mind, it would have been a better idea to ask if they have flash first then ask about JavaScript. Even better would be to do a check to see if JavaScript is enabled, if it is you don’t need to display that part of the message at all!

One last thing, those controls at the bottom; what are they doing there? I know (now) that they’re there because the content that’s supposed to be showing is a movie, but prior to having that knowledge surely they just reinforce the feeling that I am seeing what I’m supposed to. I have content, I have play controls, hey why aren’t they working? They serve no purpose apart from to confuse the user.

A slightly better picture

I’ve modified the content to be – in my eyes – a bit more respectable. It still isn’t perfect, like I said above, some JavaScript detection would be nice. Here it is non-the-less though:

“Reading this?”

I most certainly am.

“If you are reading this message, then you are unable to view our active content.”

Oh dear, so that’s what this is all about. How do I fix it?

“Please either download the latest version of the Macromedia Flash Player or enable JavaScript in your browser.”

Will do, thanks for the help Mr. Usable Information Box.

I was browsing one of my regular watering holes (water of knowledge, of course!) – The Server Side.Net – and I felt the overwhelming urge to make a reply in the forum. Registration was required, of course, so off to register I went. What followed was purely horrible on so many levels.

Step One

I was first presented with the rather humble request of entering my e-mail address, nothing un-expected here and to be honest, quite refreshing in its simplicity. I thought I may just receive an e-mail with a pre-generated password and that’d be it… but it wasn’t to be.

Step Two

Next was a list of ten check boxes for various newsletters I could subscribe to. I don’t know how many people actually use these “features” of registration forms, but I just wanted to register. If I wanted to receive newsletters I would opt-in from within my account once registered. In their defense, the checkboxes did at least default to false!

On a side note, how is it not understood that you should give the user as little to deal with as possible? Especially when you’re trying to get them to sign-up to your services, you should get them in as quickly as possible, no fuss, no mess and people won’t lose interest.

Step Three

This one is a whopper, scarily so. Baring in mind that all I want to do is make one post on their forum, this seems a tad excessive.

Firstly they want my first and last name, fair enough but I’d say even just my name, singular, would suffice. Next are my Company Name and my Title at said company, followed by my full address, postal code, telephone number and fax number. These are a bit odd, especially considering I might be unemployed and/or unwilling to disclose such information.

Based on what the next sections were, The Server Side are seriously interested in my company. They’re asking such in-depth questions as what my IT budget is, how many employees are at the company, how many of those are developers, the purchasing scope and the industry of my organisation. Woah. Who even knows that stuff? Never mind wants to disclose it.

Finally I get to choose which technologies are relevant to me, via another big list of checkboxes.

As if that huge list wasn’t bad enough, to put the proverbial icing on the cake, 90% of the fields are mandatory! Yes, even the IT Budget and Purchasing Scope. Absolute madness!

Step Four

Yes, there’s more. This is merely a finalisation of my e-mail and a password. Nothing fancy.

The End

When I encountered step three, all I thought of was targeted advertising; something I definitely do not want to be a part of. I’m shocked to be honest, it’s a sad state of affairs when so much information needs to be gathered just to allow simple forum/comment posting.

I didn’t make it past the form – The Server Side has lost my gems of wisdom.

This fascination with bloated forms is incomprehensible to me, I just can’t understand why anybody would want to know the gender or official title of somebody who’s simply trying to say “Hello”; it’s irrelevant, all I personally care about is what they’ve got to say. Is it supposed to portray the company in an intelligent, professional manner? (These people want my title, they obviously mean business!) I don’t know, but it needs to stop.

I personally am a lot less inclined to fill out a form if it feels like an interrogation. Contact forms should consist of me entering my name, some form of contact information and my brain-dump – nothing else!

Fairly standard form

Suggested form

I know which one I’d prefer.