The Worst Interface Designers Stand Between You and the Net by cogdogblog
posted 19 Apr ’08, 6.08pm MDT PST on flickr
This was the entire visible form trying to log into the Sherton’s wireless- lacking the remaining fields and forms, there is no way a Mac user on Firefox can "Belong". The form is chomped in half because of lame web design.
Some of the most wretched, poorly designed interfaces are those of our very entries to the net. The jumps, hoops, and hurdles by the firms that usually take your money for this access are in the category of criminal negligent design.
I see better interfaces on rinky dink little business sites. I would think the Wayports, the IP3s, etc that suck $10 a night from us can do better. But they actually do not *have* to- they can provide a miserable user experience because the sap user has no other options.
Accessing the net in public places out to be a zero click experience. But that rarely happens.
This is the screen I got in Frefox on a Mac at a San Diego Sheraton. The CSS or javascript does not even render the rest of the form as shown above so there is no button to submit the form– I can see it in the sloppy javascript encrusted source. Do these f*****ers even test their interface? I had to load in another browser (Safari) just to get the right buttons.
And more. The hotel had these computers in the lobby available to print boarding passes. You had to"log in" to the PeeCees with a name and room number, and although there was a printer sitting there, I had to run it through some PrintMe web service, get a 6 digit code, walk over to the printer, enter the code in a keypad, to do a simple print.
Does anyone get tired of wretched interfaces!
When I make my own travel plans I always check for free, in-room web access. But this week was for my husband. He is a marathoner and he was qualified for his second Boston Marathon (yeah!).
So I found myself in the Boston Sheraton where I was originally told the wired access was free. And when I attempted to log in, found the ridiculously expensive service promoted on the poorly designed access page you show above. The free wireless service in the lobby was extremely slow and glitchy. It was really intolerable.