Worst web design idea ever?



  • The Toyota Motorsports site does an infuriating thing while loading ... it shows a darkened version of the page. You can almost read it. You can see that all the stuff you want to read is already there, but they're hiding it while something mysterious loads. WTF were they thinkin? Somebody needs a dope slap. WIth a piston on the end of a con rod.

    http://www.toyota.com/motorsports/ 



  • I think they are loading the background graphics and a java applet then. TBH, on my PC it's like that for just a second or so, and IMO it doesn't look bad.



  • I can't believe I'm going to type this, but I agree with ammoQ. Their site is not bad at all.



  • I guess it might be frustrating with a slow connection if you had to wait a minute and were trying to read the page while it loaded.  But from here I didn't see any problem -- it was  darkened for less than one second.

     



  • I for one do not welcome our new darkened page overlords...  it's a nice idea from a design point of view, but a dreadful idea from a standards and accessibility point of view... I have javascript off by default so I just ended up with a darkened page with a still 'loading' image on top.



  • @CPound said:

    I can't believe I'm going to type this, but I agree with ammoQ. Their site is not bad at all.

    I begin to see a rather disturbing pattern. ;-)



  • This is obviously a design choice. ("OMG, no people can't see the site without everything loaded, my design is perfect, and can only be seen when complete")

    personally the site loads fast enough for me not to care, but i've seen worse implementations that suffer because of this kind of stuf.
    Especially the javascript lib based websites that handle regression when there's no JS availible can be annoying as hell.  

    some sites just show you the content for a split second and then go blank while the javascript lib is loading all of it's crap, and a few seconds later the site will come back.
    Mostly with some kind of *amazing* animation thingy. 



  • Dear. God.

    That is awful.

    They've taken an acceptable page, and made it inaccessable to anyone with either a slow connection, or no javascript support.

    It works ok for me personally, since I have a fast connection, but it doesn't really add any value at all. So, in the best case, it adds no value, and in the worst case, it detracts greatly from the page. Brillant!

    Seriously, if they are concerned about unloaded java/javascript type things, they should have individual 'still loading' states for those - that way, it doesn't impact on the usability of the rest of the site. 



  • This one is not too much WTF'ed but that concept seems quite hyped nowadays : display a "loading" layer until the website is loaded.

    That's like taking the worst of flash ( bad design in flash leads to applets that can't display any content until it's 100% loaded ) without any of its advantages ( easy and smooth animations that take far more CPU and cross-browser compatibility issues when re-made in DOM manipulations ). The real WTF is that the real content ( text ) is already there and ready for the user to read, and in an anachronistic and retarded gesture, we don't want the advantages of modern multiplexed connexions and wait for the whole content. Good programmers hide implementation details and those geeks proud of themselves want to show they master technical stuff. Hey look at me ! I'm loading ! That's the exact opposite of elegance ...

    That's one of the worst things about web2.0. Spit on flash but trying to do the same with javascript+DOM manipulations. That leads to CPU-greedy sites which must be a real nightmare to maintain like the well-known gucci. Okay, that was a challenge. Great for them.
     Like writing a chess game in cobol as a challenge with AI. That would be impressing but who's going to buy it ? Or like painting while in fire, maybe. 



  • About a year ago Netflix changed their site to do something similar.  When you click the button on a movie to add it to your queue, the screen dims and they overlay another one with other movie suggestions on top of it.  I think it's obnoxious as all get-out, plus it's a bit confusing.  (No, you can't click on any of the movies on THIS screen, you have to choose one of THESE OTHER movies.)  As soon as I saw that I wrote a polite complaint, but they've ignored me.  Idiots. 



  • What tickles me most is when I temporarily enable javascript for toyota there's a short pause and then the bright brightens, identical to before except for the flashblock icon showing in a couple of places.



  • @jetcitywoman said:

    About a year ago Netflix changed their site to do something similar.  When you click the button on a movie to add it to your queue, the screen dims and they overlay another one with other movie suggestions on top of it.  I think it's obnoxious as all get-out, plus it's a bit confusing.  (No, you can't click on any of the movies on THIS screen, you have to choose one of THESE OTHER movies.)  As soon as I saw that I wrote a polite complaint, but they've ignored me.  Idiots. 

    Surprisingly enough, the e-retailer newegg Loves customer feedback about their website.

    One time i did a search for "noise cancelling head phone" and it was coming back with speakers and USB microphones and ipods and crap.

    I submitted (after buying a pair) a request to have it looked at... they fixed it (really.. go check out the site!) and sent me a free t-shirt!


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