Lazy Web Designers...

System

Customer: Why aren't you responding you my emails? What shoddy service!
Company: You're @homail.com address?
Customer: No it's hotmail! Your system must be broken.
Company: We're ever so sorry... we used to ask people to enter their emails twice, but people complained about that because, well, people are lazy. So your email is whatever@hotmail.com? We'll update that for you.
Customer: My human rights have been violated, I demand compensation.
Company: Thanks again for wasting our time!

Oldfatgrumpy

The one that annoys me is when I'm required to create a password, and after I've done so I'm told it's wrong because it doesn't fit their complex required formula. Why not make the requirements visible before I start?

NBLondon

geerex wrote: »

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

I mentioned this in the OP - it makes sense in business data entry circles when someone is typing from a paper form (yes - it still happens!) but it's pretty pointless for a newsletter/brochure signup. Auto fill and RoboForm take it away sometimes.


I said lazy rather than cheap because it seems they often don't think it through from the customer point of view (which is a basic skill for most IT professionals however cheap they are). Yep, budget and DIY is often the reason - small businesses may even be handing off the job to an apprentice (or the owner's teenage offspring).


So from Vent to Praise... I was prompted to post this when ordering a shirt from Charles Tyrwhitt - who offered me a country drop-down of England, Scotland, Wales, Northern Ireland. Which doesn't really make much difference - it can probably be looked up from the postcode - and only practically benefits their couriers but it shows they did think about it.

Pennywise

Classic fail are the websites that gives a drop down list for county, but there's no option for Cumbria - your only choice is Cumberland or Westmorland - counties that disappeared many years when boundaries/councils were changed. That's what you get when your lazy web-designer gets a free bit of code from an internet search rather than doing it properly themselves!

Leo2020

My husband has built a few websites as a side line. He would use OpenCart as it had many features already built it but he would always custom code parts of and he even made some money selling these customisations as OpenCart add ons.

He was not a professional but he and me have seen what some "professionals" do and the standard of coding is way below what he does. I have also do a bit of web design (the pretty side of things) again I'm not a professional but some professional design is anything but. The thing is neither me nor my husband can get paid employment working in the web design industry as we don't have enough experience/qualifications.

However having said you also get customers who want to pay £100 for a website like Amazon or eBay - something has got to give. This may well be the finishing touches such as amending code here and there because the developer has to cut back something to fit into their budget.

But yes it is annoying and it is a shame that businesses don't always value good website design. I sometimes just give up on a site because of the poor design and go to a better site. Even in this day and age I think they are still business owners who haven't caught on to how powerful the web can be. People check out so much online these days, if I can't find out about a business online then I tend to look at another company.

reehsetin

Pennywise wrote: »

That's what you get when your lazy web-designer gets a free bit of code from an internet search rather than doing it properly themselves!

Or a stingy client who won't pay for the time. So many clients are results orientated and focused on the final product doing what they need to do - not making it easy peasy for the user "What do you mean it will take a week/month/year to do it properly...I can do it online myself in 10 minutes it should take you less"

szam_

reehsetin wrote: »

That's not a professional web designer or developer

Exactly right.

Probably one of the hundreds of thousands of former students who did a bit of web content management in Uni and now think they are a web designer and developer - over half the CV's I've seen lately have this "free-lance web developer" rubbish on it. I started looking them up and found the ones who did have an online presence, were templates that even had the companies name on for who designed the bloody things!

The last guy we employed who had this was booted after a couple months for not having a clue about anything in web code, not even the most basic HTML or CSS and struggled to learn a thing - yet he claimed he had "many satisfied clients". Yeah, OK.

Pennywise

reehsetin wrote: »

Or a stingy client who won't pay for the time.

Surely any professional simply wouldn't do the job if the client wasn't prepared to pay for it to be done right? It's their reputation on the line after all isn't it?

I know in my profession, I simply wouldn't agree to do any job unless we could agree a price with the client that enables me to do it properly. But then again, I'm in a regulated profession, so if I do something wrong, the client can sue my !!! off and me saying the client wouldn't pay the right rate for the job wouldn't excuse me.

Gavin83

Oldfatgrumpy wrote: »

The one that annoys me is when I'm required to create a password, and after I've done so I'm told it's wrong because it doesn't fit their complex required formula. Why not make the requirements visible before I start?

This is really annoying. We have systems at work that have really complex password requirements but don't even tell you what they are, you just have to guess. It's not that hard to stick a box in to inform the user.