Lazy Web Designers...

NBLondon

Is it just me or do you find it irritating when a company based in UK, selling online to the UK only, asks for a zip code? Or makes you choose UK from a long drop-down list of countries?


I know how it happens - the web designer has just bought in or copied or found a template that came with the web space and not bothered to modify it.


How about when they make both Town and County required fields - which is redundant for London (or Manchester or Birmingham or...)? Then make County a drop down so I have to guess whether I'm looking for London or Greater London...


But the one that I have never understood is why so many websites ask you to fill in E-mail or phone number twice "to prevent errors". Of course people will mistype - but doesn't cut and paste just bypass this?


OK - I know that some data entry systems do use this technique with C+P disabled to improve accuracy when typing at speed but is it really necessary when signing up for a newsletter?

skintpaul

Re the email thing, I guess it's to catch out some auto-fill bots?

reehsetin

NBLondon wrote: »

I know how it happens - the web designer has just bought in or copied or found a template that came with the web space and not bothered to modify it.

That's not a professional web designer or developer

skintpaul

can add these to the list, too..

When entering address- some sites have drop down country menu list, even though item for sale /comp etc only available in one (UK, and that at the bottom)..


job search sites that do a new result refresh, for every change / refinement, rather than have a go button at the end of tweaks..

spelling mistakes in said job ads, for roles requiring 'attention to detail' etc.. oh, the irony! (or is it a test..?)

NBLondon

... ones where they only accept phone numbers if it fits the pattern that the web form is set up to expect (e.g. no spaces, no brackets around area codes) but don't tell you what the pattern is.

AJXX

What makes you think this is due to a lazy web designer?

I think in most cases this is due to the company having a low budget for the website thus either;

A) Setting up their site DIY and running some basic "off the shelf" script on the website and having no idea how to customise it

Hiring a low cost/budget web designer = you get what you pay for

Gavin83

AJXX wrote: »

What makes you think this is due to a lazy web designer?

I think in most cases this is due to the company having a low budget for the website thus either;

A) Setting up their site DIY and running some basic "off the shelf" script on the website and having no idea how to customise it

Hiring a low cost/budget web designer = you get what you pay for

Thing is some of this isn't even difficult to code. You don't need to ask people to enter a telephone number in a certain format, just set it to the format you need when the form is submitted. They'll presumably have validation built in anyway, otherwise you could just enter anything so just do it as part of that.

Option A is fairly likely however, if you literally don't know how to code at all then even a simple change will seem beyond your abilities.

Scarpacci

Many major websites don't seem to put much thought into country drop-downs, either. It's not just those who don't have the skill or money to customise things themselves.

Personally, I think a country drop-down should either use geo-detection to automatically select the country I'm in - which in the vast majority of countries will be my residence/billing address/shipping address, and then let the user change it if need be. Or, at the very least, they should have the most common countries at the top of the list.

There is no good reason for a UK-based retailer to list Afghanistan and Albania as the first options for a shipping address. That they come first alphabetically and that's how the country list was entered is a poor excuse.

giraffe69

To annoy more when asking for confirmation of the email address they can disable cut and paste!

dodger1

NBLondon wrote: »

Is it just me or do you find it irritating when a company based in UK, selling online to the UKonly, asks for a zip code? Or makes you choose UK from a long drop-down list of countries?

Not in the slightest.

geerex

giraffe69 wrote: »

To annoy more when asking for confirmation of the email address they can disable cut and paste!

To stop you entering the wrong one twice. You'd be the first to complain if you did, then couldn't log in etc.