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08/03/2001 Archived Entry: "3-August-2001 -- The FTSE 100 Usability Awards"

The FTSE 100 Usability Awards (other media) -- "Whilst gathering data for a survey that looked at the web sites of UK FTSE 100 companies, I found a surprising number of broken sites, "Page Not Found" errors and even a few "Under Construction" pages. We all know that creating large web sites can be a challenge and that it's easier to complain about a site than offering constructive criticism, but sometimes you've just got to get it off your chest haven't you?" (Comments: The page is loading slowly right now, but be sure to check it out until you make it. There are some great examples to look at.)

Replies: 3 comments

Typical. I make a page that pokes a little fun at big companies web sites and my server isn't fast enough.

I will move this page to faster server, but today, my company are moving into swish new offices so the server is probably rattling around on a van in central london right now.

cheers, tom

Posted by tom smith @ 08/03/2001 10:01 AM EST

It is always entertaining to see examples of bad usability, particularly in expensive corporate web sites where the tragic consequences of design over usability are so commonly found.

Tom’s FTSE100 collection is good, but it has usability problems of its own: if you want to find and try out the examples described, many of them cannot be easily located within the featured sites. Getting dumped in at the home page you have to find your own way to the examples given, which is a bit frustrating. Ok, some of the sites have been changed, which might partly explain this. Otherwise, good work!

Posted by David Stewart @ 08/05/2001 07:51 PM EST

Tom’s FTSE100 collection is good, but it has usability problems of its own:

Never :-) I have to admit that I didn't set out to write this page, I just started screen-grabbing ouch moments as they happened. I should have noted the url as well.

Mind you, some sites didn't allow me to share the url (they relied on POST or seesion information), another usability issue.

And lastly, I didn't realise that our IP numbers would change when we moved offices this week, so the new (more user-friendly url) is http://www.othermedia.com/tomsmith/ftseawards/.

Posted by tom smith @ 08/07/2001 05:51 AM EST

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