Elliot calls them web design pet peeves. He did such a great job of framing these in terms of the user, that I think anyone who browses the web will understand many of the same problems. Here are the three I’ve been seeing most lately:
- Blogs not having an RSS feed. This might be more of a geek thing, but it’s bound to become a bigger deal to more people as they begin using RSS to save themselves the time of checking sites they visit often. Ever since Mike Duffy told me to just sign up at BlogLines, it’s the way I consume most frequently-updated content. I have a friend who has a blog without RSS… and I visit once per week tops.
- Using frames so I can’t link to a specific page. I would extend this beyond frames. It’s any page that’s not easy to copy, save, and revisit.
- Playing crappy music without giving the option to turn it off. Real estate sites do a lot of this. Since people tend to surf at work, I imagine a lot of those sites blasting music get closed right quick.
And lastly, I would add one to Elliot’s list:
- Opening new windows. Use simple links and let me choose where to open it. No Javascript popups, no target=_blank.
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