10 things I hate, 5 things I love (about the Web)

10 things I hate about the Web

1. Antiquated information

Information should to be kept up to date. In a world which is advancing at a rapid pace, information quickly becomes redundant and superseded by more recent information. Little is as annoying as reading a page only to reach the bottom and discover that many significant events concerning the subject have taken place since the publishing date.

2. Inconsistency in navigation and design

For me, a major drawcard of a site such as Wikipedia is that all the information is presented using a fairly consistent navigation method, and the same design from page to page. Web sites that require the user to become accustomed to the design or navigation of each page tend to interrupt the browsing process, and make the user think!

3. Over-bearing advertising

I feel that as with any medium, the Web should have its fair share of advertising. However some ads are far worse than others.

4. Email Spam

If I want a canned meat product, I'll buy it at the supermarket. (or, if I want your marketing offers, I'll subscribe)

5. Not finding the information I searched for

With the modern algorithms of advanced search engines, this is not much of a problem from dedicated search engines, such as Google. However, insite searching is often a tedious process. Why not just make sure the site gets indexed by Google and have a Google search box? (of course not for sensitive areas of the site)

6. Things not where they're supposed to be

Somewhat of an marginal point, however just as annoying as the others. Just little things, such as the "Submit" and "Clear" buttons being placed the opposite way to convention.

7. Flash sites without a suitable HTML alternative

Fairly self-explanatory!

8. Long and elaborate registration processes

I prefer not to divulge enough information to fill an autobiography just to access information I can get elsewhere.

9. Forced compliance to a particular design parameter

Includes things such as not being able to change font size, or not being able to use any [mainstream] browser.

10. Sound in web pages!

Often I browse with music playing in the background, only to stumble across an unfamiliar site and be scared out of my wits by a loud "song" which could be straight out of Star Trek.

5 things I love about the Web

1. Huge amounts of free information

Of course with a mention to Wikipedia.

2. User-built web sites

Again with reference to Wikipedia, and also to sites such as Digg, Flickr and YouTube, this really brings the web into a whole new generation. No other medium has had such an incredible reach to connect people and groups.

3. Simplicity

Most (if not all) of the large and popular web sites are very easy to use, because the are simple. The steps taken to do a task seems logical. Of course this is not true for all web sites (dare I say only a few).

4. Business to Consumer and Consumer to Consumer eBusiness

These technologies have made it far easier to shop. Especially for those of use who don't fancy shopping malls!

5. Lack of centralised control

A medium which is not owned or regulated, and more-or-less free from government or institutional intervention. I know this statement would be easy to find fault with, but I'm being general.