What I hate about today’s websites

The first web page was published in the ’90s by Tim Berners-Lee,the inventor of the World Wide Web (WWW) while he was still a software engineer at CERN.It ran on a NeXT computer.Despite it’s catastrophic lack of an OS in the initial days,NeXT picked on,yes it did.With just plain text,the first “website” published under the address http://info.cern.ch/hypertext/WWW/TheProject.html. looked like  this (see below)

Click on the link to have a closer look at what it looked like.Then Tim did the noble thing and released the World Wide Web for free into the world.It because of him we have Facebook,twitter,Wordpress,Katana World Inc.I know most of us cannot do such a thing,but then again;people are different.

The world has surely changed a lot from the ’90s to date,and so has the internet.Websites have come a long way,from simple text only to graphics and animations;from writing code line by line to simply having to know how to use Microsoft Word (because off the development of WYSIWYG editor);from doing calculations while inserting an animation using Javascript to using jquery plugins today where you simply say flip right.Today,we have guys pushing the limit of how websites should look like,constantly scaling the boundary and setting new standards.Remarkable guys who spend their time doing that which they love.

Like in everything life offers,there is always the BUT statement.Yes,we have made leaps when it comes to designing and developing websites,BUT (there it is) while all this was happening,some designers seem to have not gotten the MEMO and many more still choose to ignore the users’ need.

Since I started falling in love with websites and applications,I have always been keen to the little details a website has.From the font,the color,the animations,the arrangement to the little stuff your typical user will not care about.Even among such leaps in “webevolution“(I just coined my phrase there,web evolution=webevolution),I still find some website I do not feel so much attraction to.Not to worry though,the number of stunning websites and features I have seen far surpasses the number of poorly done websites I have come across.

Today,I will be highlighting some of the key things I hate about certain websites,and by inference you will be able to tell what I love about websites,get it?

• Responsiveness: This of course had to make it to the top of the list.I mean,it’s 2016,we cannot still be talking about this stuff.I have gone to countless number of websites,where I have to scroll sideways to read the full content.Emergence of frameworks such as Bootstrap and Zurb Foundation should have made work easier.At least now,with pre-compiled CSS you do not have to worry about making three versions of your website.Back in the day,a developer would come up with three versions of the same website : The desktop version,the tablet version and the mobile version.By back in the day I am talking about 10ish years ago when frameworks like the ones I have mentioned above did not exist.Try imagine before HTML5 and media querries to assist.And you still had to come up with a website that is readable when using different sets of screens.We are lucky,and we take it for granted;not having to write tons of javascript to watch the screen size and shift between different versions.I was surprised that even Kenya’s KISS FM radio station has a website that is not responsive.
• Slide Content Blogging: I think all of us have seen a link on Facebook or google plus of a topic of interest and clicked it.Upon arrival on the blog page you see the sentence i hate the most,CLICK TO START SLIDESHOW.I get the concept behind trying to add more money to your blog through the adwords and multiple page clicks,but must we get tortured because you want to be rich? The content can clearly fit in one page but you still have to waste time going through 1o slides,not to mention the catchy headline of “number 10 will suprise you“.Immediately I see this,I am out.I have no such time and certainly more things to do with my bundles than wait for number 10.
• The adWord Menace: I have always been a fan of Forbes,and at first,their “quote of the day ” concept used to work for me.But the truth is,I really doubt it does work for a lot of people and it gets boring with time.I get that revenue is generated through such means,but to go to extremes of asking someone to first turn off their adblocker before they can read content is pure bullying.What if I just want to read the content and not the quote?

I totally understand the need for the site to generate money,but too much advertisement causes a lot distractions and frustrations to most readers.Then you still wonder why your mailing list is short and conversion rates low?

• Pop ups: Honestly,why do they even still try?I personally close pop us as fast as I see them.The worst ones are those that repeat after a while,in such scenarios I simply close the tab altogether.There is one pop up I saw though,and I liked it,because it was fresh and catchy.The message read in bold and readable fonts:

I know I am a pop up,and my kind has been persecuted for often being annoying.Please just give me one second to redeem myself

I was immediately sold.And although I never subscribed to that blog’s mailing list,I read the whole pop up content.If only they could be that creative.

Happy Easter to every Katana Ninja out there,hope you have fun!!