ZDNet: The Computer Experts
March 3rd, 2008
Someone just walked up and asked me to check out this web page:
Photos: OLPC, Classmate and Eee
He wanted to know if I could figure out how to view the remainder of the article. The summary page ends with this tease:
In the following pages we take a comparative pictorial look at the OLPC XO, Intel Classmate and ASUS Eee.
I can’t figure it out. The first comment on the article is great:
Am I retarded…or is there no way to get to the next page of the article? All I see is “In the following pages we take a comparative pictorial look at the OLPC XO, Intel Classmate and ASUS Eee” and then… nothing.
He then follows up with:
Nevermind. I see how it works.
Worst. Navigation system. Ever.
I must agree, although I still can’t figure it out.
One way is to click on the photos. Since the webpage is ‘Photos: OLPC, Classmate and Eee’, I guess they figure you will click on the photos to navigate. I agree they should have a next-page link at the bottom.
That’s also what I figured out. That navigation system is a major WTF.. It almost deserve to be posted at thedailywtf.com.
When stymied by a bad navigation interface such as that, I just look for the “Print Article” button. That shows you the whole thingall at once without having to be reminded page after page just how horrific the navigation really is..
Wow, I can’t believe how hard that was. I couldn’t figure it out. I checked the comments here to see if anyone else could figure out where to go next.
I am less than impressed by the response from ZDNet in the comments: “We mustn’t offend Mr [Jacob] Nielsen must we? — so we’ll take a look at the navigation issue. The photos have been suitably de-credited too”.
Easy, but it feels a bit awkward (to say the least). I can imagine that some people would find it difficult to navigate.
The comment from the ZD net person didn’t help either…
That was the worst interface whatsoever that I have ever personally experienced.
AAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
(click on the text links at the bottom to navigate as well)