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Posted by Steve Pugh on 11/24/05 15:14
Travis Newbury wrote:
> Here is the grim reality of the world. The new Georgia Aquarium
> was just built (the largest in the world I might add) Anyway, they
> obviously needed a website.
>
> Starting from scratch they could have done anything. But they
> didn't they did this (warning it may not work in your particular
> browser with yor particular settings):
>
> http://www.georgiaaquarium.org
Yikes. Horrible, horrible, horrible.
Very slow to load. Major usability problems. Major accessibility
problems.
Numerous "Connection closed by remote server" errors.
What is the point of having the purchase tickets form on the home page
for everyone if only logged in users can use it? The same form even
appears on the login page that appears after you tried to purchase
tickets from the home page. And does it remember the number of tickets
I entered so that after I have registered I don't need to re-enter that
information? No, of course it doesn't.
Why put the e-mail subsscription form in the location that has become
de facto standard for the search form?
The School Group Reservations in the menu is a sure sign that very
little QA was done. Works in IE but not in Firefox or Opera.
Why <title>Georgia Aquarium - 43</title> for the home page? What does
that 43 mean? And does every other page just have <title>Georgia
Aquarium </title> instead of a unique title?
> I am not bringing this contrast up to argue which is better as
> there are more than enough threads in this group that talk about
> that. (Hell I have myself participate in one or two threads like
> that...) But rather to point out how there is a HUGE job market
> for many of the skills frowned upon in this group. As a matter of
> fact in Atlanta, the job market for IT positions is at pre-internet
> bubble burst levels. So what is causing this boom in the "evil
> technology"?
Most of the problems with http://www.georgiaaquarium.org have nothing
to do with the skills/technologies used to create the site. It's just
bad design, poor planning and very little QA. With a bit of thought the
same site could be accessible and easy to use with no loss of style.
Same in every industry. Lots of jobs for people who do quick, cheap
jobs and don't contradict the client. And a smaller number of jobs who
do quality work. Just thank your lucky stars that people like surgeons
have professional bodies that regulate and license practitioners. Good
job web sites are just web sites and not anything important like heart
surgery.
> Could the growing number of developers aware of validation etc, be
> shrinking the number of developers heading in the "non validating"
> direction, thus causing a need for these type of developers in the
> companies where the web page is still run by marketing?
The whole sector is growing, thus the small sub-sector who do good work
and the large sub-sector who do ordinary work will both be growing.
What is positive is that the principles of good web design and
development are trickling down. Yes, the majority of work being done is
still poor, but on average it's not as poor as it was in the late '90s.
> Or could it be that more people want the web to be more interactive
> and sites like these are making tons of money, and that is why
> there is a boom for these types of developers?
Interactivity has nothing to do with it. Lots of interactivity in well
made sites. Just lots of clients who want a web site cheaply, quickly
and exactly how they want it and who don't want any so called 'expert'
advising them differently. Luckily there are also clients who want
decent web sites.
Steve
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