Bad interface design May 28, 2008
Posted by jameyo in presentism.Tags: user-experience, web-design
add a comment
I’m one of the few people still using go.com’s webmail service. Long story but I use it for a few subscriptions that I’d rather not clog up other, more widely utilized email accounts.
It’s always been a horrible service to use (no spam marking, slow) and its even gotten so bad I don’t even get spam there anymore! If the SPAMMERS don’t use it, then you know a service isn’t cutting it.
Today, I logged in for my bi-weekly flush and found they’ve managed to make a horrible design even worse!
Note that, in my 1024 x 768 resolution, I have exactly two messages visible in the message list. Of the messages I select, I can preview exactly five lines of text! My mail message that I come to the site to read, is presented to me in about 8% of the available screen! It’s almost impossible to read.
Nice work, guys!
I understand the need to generate revenue via ads. I’m accustomed to losing some content area for those ads. When the ads squish content down to a minority of the space available (and I’m talking about you, chron.com!) then your design has lost its focus.
I think in go.com’s case, they’re more concerned about getting me to visit one of their real sites when I’m done using their email service. Too bad they’re not concerned with the actual service they’re providing. It’s all AJAX-y but that doesn’t excuse the poor design. And it won’t make me visit their sites.
If you design websites, don’t do what go.com does. Make your bucks where you can, but remember why I’m going there (hint: it’s not so I can look at your ads).
