I was talking to a co-worker and I realized one thing: I hate clicks.
As in mouse clicks. I surf the web like a bullet train and I want everything right there in front of me and want to do as little as possible (you can call me lazy). If I had it my way, there wouldn’t be anymore “continue reading” links or thumbnails and everything would be laid out right in front of you. And they call me an interface designer. Hah. But of course that can’t happen or imagine the size of websites and not everyone properly saves their images for web!
- Pictures: I prefer seeing pictures resized and laid out nicely in front of me. I HATE clicking on thumbnails— in fact, 95% of the time I don’t. I’d rather wait for big images load which usually isn’t a problem nowadays as long as they were properly exported. Just for the record, my Flickr bar up there is just for aesthetics. I have an online photo album and all the pictures are all laid out vertically (for myviewing pleasure, not yours).
But some thumbnails are okay as long as they are big so I can see what I
Left/Right navigation arrows makes it a little better, although I still think there are too many clicks. It
Perfect. Everything laid out, simple, clean and all I need to do is scroll. Of course, there is the debate about portfolios needing more
- Annoying pagination. Eg: Listing each point of a blog entry on different pages and it’s the worse when the page takes forever to load. WHY? Are you trying to build suspense?! FAIL. AND let’s not forget multiple-paged blog entries.
Lightbox — It looks good but I can’t stand sites that use it. Is it just me or is it EXTREMELY slow …or the loading icon just makes it seem like it’s taking FOREVER to load?- Loading Icons. Functional and works aesthetically but I don’t need to be reminded that your page is taking forever to load and it’s ONLY at 19%. I swear, loading bars makes loading seem longer than it actually is.
- STFU I don’t want to “hit the jump.” If a blog has a “continue reading” link, chances are I won’t continue unless it’s an informational post. Sometimes the link is so useless and obnoxious… is your content THAT good for someone to want to see it that bad? And what’s the point of it if there is nothing but one sentence after I “hit the jump?” I applaud you for saving a whole 20px of vertical scrolling though.
- I never use the “back” button on my browser; I’d rather have a billion tabs open. It’s a pretty bad habit because sometimes I’d accidently close a page if I forget to open it in a new tab and I’ll forget which site I was on.
What do you prefer in terms of UI?
KATY:
wow, you’re hilarious haha i pretty much agree 100% with you. call me lazy too but i HATE clickingggg. especially pictures. i get annoyed when i have to click to see enlarged image then back to the next pic. they should have a medium sized there so u can see if its actually worth clicking or not. and thats why i love my documents>my pictures. so easy to use!! x
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I pretty much agree with you. I don’t care that my blog’s front page goes on for ages, because you know what? That’s how I like to read blogs! If I’m interested in a person’s first post, I’m most likely going to keep scrolling down ’till I get bored. If I have to open a new tab for every entry, you can better believe I’ll be gone by the 3rd post down.
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LOL. I understand the clicking thing. I myself hate those “click to continue reading” kind of blogs UNLESS it’s a photoblog then I understand (since loading time would be crazy slow for large images).
I’ve yet to encounter a blog that breaks their posts into multiple pages… that just sounds crazy.
About lightbox, I’m guilty of using it. THOUGH I love it haha. What I hate more is when I click on a thumbnail and it opens in a new tab and I have to go close it. Plus the picture will be sitting in the top corner of the window and I can’t view it properly.
For my posts I usually put important images that I think people would like to see full-sized, and more useless images in thumbnails just because not everyone is going to want to look at the pictures I take of myself lol. I tend to put lots of pictures in my posts too, so everything just looks more organized when I put it in thumbnails. I, myself, don’t have problems with lightbox loading slow but I guess that depends on how big the image is. I try to keep my pictures small and I save for web!! =D. OH with lightbox you can use arrow keys to navigate through pictures and I think you can press “x” on the keyboard to close the window =).
You said you read my blog through a rss feed… so the thumbnails must be super annoying lol hahaha. Sorry =/!
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Katy
November 17th, 2009 |
I actually don’t hate Lightbox THAT much.. I think I exaggerated too much. I guess it’s okay for blogs to use it because most of them don’t have TOO many pictures and I do like the look of it but I really don’t like portfolio or gallery-type websites that uses Lightbox. I don’t know if Lightbox is actually slow but I swear, it SEEMS slow but I think it’s because you have to look at the loading icon and then wait for the window to grow. :duhh: I use the arrow keys too and they work but that’s so much clicking and I like having full-sized images in a row/side-by-side to compare to. *whiny voice* Hehehehe.
Your thumbnails aren’t too bad because I can still see them without having to click but it’s annoying when thumbnails show only a PART of the photo or super tiny ones. I’m sooo guilty of doing that way back in the day. :suspicious:
I sound sooo picky.
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haha i agree with you with all of these but there are occasions on my blog post for example i think it’s rather to long and i feel bad that a viewer has to go through all my wedding pictures when they don’t care to see it. hahahaha. but your right im actually going to redo my portfolio soon and i hate “creative” portfolio’s online… i like to look at people’s work nice and easy without distractions of overly done design.. might as well go to myspace ^_^
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Katy
November 17th, 2009 |
I use the jump link for pictures too because that’s understandable even though I don’t have too many picture-posts on there but I’m talking about people who write short entries and still use that function. What’s the point!?
I agree, I think portfolios should look clean and simple because their work should stand out more. Employers probably have dozens of portfolios to look at and if yours is too complicated, they’ll probably give up and move on. Don’t get me wrong, I love those [flash] portfolios with the super unique navigation and compositions but they usually take a while to figure out.
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We’re pretty similar in where I stand for preferences. I hate those “jump for more” things too because I just want it in front of me. And I hate waiting for pages to load, I usually open like 20 different tabs and get them all load at once, then read one after the other. Although, I do prefer a lightbox over, say the full size picture loads in the same window and then i have to click back for the entire page to reload. When that happens, I just click the X and leave it.
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same! oh my gosh i hate thumbnails to bits! they’re so annoying! and i know it’s not much, but it takes that extra second for me to see the image! pffft… im too impatient for that shizz lol
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I agree with you on most of these things. I HATE thumbnails, especially ones that are only a small part of the image. Give me the image, even if its only at 40%. I’ll take a look and keep on going.
I’m a tab nut, I have 6 open right now; thank you firefox and your coloured tabs add-on.
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Katy
November 18th, 2009 |
I go the most tab-crazy when I’m on Wikipedia… I usually have like 20 tabs open of articles I want to read because they link so much within them. Sigh.
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I really enjoy big buttons. something about clicking that big button and knowing i can move my hand a bit to the left (right, up, down) and i’d still be able to hit that. mmmm. same goes for big text links.
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I think for the most part most of these things are convenient for readers to be honest. I like for everything to be on one page without having to continuously scroll down because sometimes I don’t have the time to scroll, I do have the time to skim, though. I utilize the “read more” links because if my reader reads one paragraph and finds my content to be uninteresting, he or she can choose not to read further. I usually put the more important things before the “read more” link and the crap after. In my opinion, it just looks neater and my readers don’t have to keep scrolling just to read things they don’t care about. I don’t really use pictures in my posts unless they clearly pertain to my post in some significant way. I swear, I just HATE scrolling. I like the lightbox, although I don’t use it much. Once again, it gives the reader the option of seeing a larger version of an image if he/she wants to. Same with the back button functionality… I really like that one because I’m always all over the place clicking on things I didn’t mean to, so the back button works for me lol
One thing that does peeve me is when people divide their websites into so many parts. For example: Domain > History > Credits.. Why does history and credits have to have their own separate subpages? Doesn’t make sense to me to be honest. I try to keep my website as simple as possible, minus my poetry section of course.
GREAT post!
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Katy
November 18th, 2009 |
I’d rather scroll than cluck to go to another page because I usually have so many tabs /websites opened that I don’t want to open another one. It’s all personal preference and your web-surfing habits.
I notice that your blog entries are usually pretty long so in that case, the jump link works for you because it breaks up the text. I’m usually intimated by blogs with super long entries. Hehehe. =)
Lightbox/thumbnails is okay if used in moderation.
I remember dividing your website in so many pages is an old OLD web trend.. I remember doing it way back in the day but not so much anymore. It’s not efficient at all and I think usability nowadays seems to be a lot more emphasized than it was back then.
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I agree with a lot of that, although I do like Lightbox because it’s less annoying than having a picture open in a new tab or window. I’ll usually hit the “read more” button if it’s on a friend’s blog or something important, but otherwise… prrrobably not. Also, I too keep a billion tabs open because I’d rather not hit back and/or lsoe my original search result / point of entry.
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Katy
November 18th, 2009 |
I don’t mind these “annoying” habits if it’s someone’s blog that I’ve been reading for a long time too. I think their content has proven to be worthy of my time so I get over it (or just read it in Google Reader).
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This is a very funny yet incisive post! And I love the header imagery at the top of your blog – very cool.
You may enjoy this article from Website Magazine that reviews usability tools http://bit.ly/32mqlQ
I am affiliated with http://www.usertesting.com but the article covers many other tools as well.
Amanda
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I forgot to mention this! http://www.dontclick.it/
it’s a flash website completely click-free (well except for the first click to get started)
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Katy
November 18th, 2009 |
Lovee that site! If only the entire web could be like that… but the bad things are that it’s easy to accidently mouseover something that you didn’t want to “click” … and that IT’S IN FLASH (really don’t like flash websites). It’s a lot of fun though and seems way more interactive.
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I agree with all of your points, except a couple:
- thumbnails save the life of my bandwidth. We have sucky broadband deals here, see.
- “Click to read more” is bloody as frock annoying in personal blogs, and like you I don’t bother clicking through to follow up. But it’s ok if it’s used on LJ as it doesn’t kill your friends pages. ONLY on LJ though. Nowhere else.
Other than that, I agree with you all the way. Especially the tabs. Thank God for tabs!
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I am a tabs abuser. They are so convenient! Back in the day before they were initiated I always used to have tons of different windows open.
One thing that peeves me, but is thankfully uncommon, is when you get a pop up when you try to right click. I always right click my links to open them in a new tab and I hate getting a little popup telling me not to thieve work or some ish. Fool, I don’t want your stuff! I’m browsing your site and looking for other places to check out next.
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I’m guilty of using lightbox on my blog and I totally agree with you, the useability is rather crappy, most no one will ever click on it, and it does at least feel slow. But then again it’s really easy to add new photos and, well, I’m really, really lazy
I think my biggest “design” issue comes with having a post with a crap load of pictures — say a trip or something. If I don’t have much written content, it seems silly to split up the post, but I don’t want to do a photo dump either. So I usually end up posting three or four of the best pictures and hide the others behind a lightbox link. It’s either that or the “more” tag method (that I can think of), and I just tend to go with the previous. I dislike either way though.
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I agree with most of your peeves!
- Lightbox *IS* slow and I am guilty of using it just because I feel like most people don’t want to see ALL my pictures in medium//large and if they ARE that interested, they can deal. I can’t stand gallery/portfolio websites with it though.
- TOO MUCH FLASH! sometimes less is more!
- “hitting the jump” annoys me too.
- Pagination is annoying…I”m always clicking exit when I have to click next for EVERY entry. give me 5-20 posts and I’m happy.
- Too much shit on blogs. Especially the girls on blogger/blogspot. Annoying. I don’t want musical shit, animated/glittery gifs, or shit that makes loading your page too damn flow. I avoid this by putting them into my reader but still – when I discover new sites, I hate it!
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