Graphical Text-Based UI?



  • So, going to www.fedex.com brings up a 'world map' where you click on the region where you live so they know what services are available to you. Clicking on the North America region brings up another map with a list of regions to click on. The map is not clickable.

    At the same time, at the bottom of the page is a clickable list of the regions and the specific sub-regions.

    Click on the map! Then click on the list but not the map!

    Yay for context-switching?



  • What's also interesting is that if you pick a country from the top level landing page, you get sent immediately to the appropriate area of the site, and don't have to go through the "this map isn't clickable" page.



  • I hate the FedEx site. Why don't they automatically detect your country and then let you change it if it's wrong? That would work in 99.99% of cases and would save me from having to click around on some damn map.

    Also, who the hell is it who thought that clicking on a fucking map is a better UI than clicking the name of your country/state/whatever? Ever tried to use a map to select Rhode Island? Or Luxembourg? It's ridiculous.


  • ♿ (Parody)

    And the actual country list was the last thing I saw. My eyes were drawn to all of the purple links of other regions down at the bottom. It's like they're trying to make it difficult.



  • @morbiuswilters said:

    Also, who the hell is it who thought that clicking on a fucking map is a better UI than clicking the name of your country/state/whatever? Ever tried to use a map to select Rhode Island? Or Luxembourg? It's ridiculous.

    The Pope must have a lot of trouble with such sites... "Vatican, Vatican, where are you Vatican... NO, I did NOT mean to click on Italy! Is it that pixel over there, maybe? Screw this, I'm gonna excommunicate whoever developed this site..."



  • @ekolis said:

    @morbiuswilters said:
    Also, who the hell is it who thought that clicking on a fucking map is a better UI than clicking the name of your country/state/whatever? Ever tried to use a map to select Rhode Island? Or Luxembourg? It's ridiculous.

    The Pope must have a lot of trouble with such sites... "Vatican, Vatican, where are you Vatican... NO, I did NOT mean to click on Italy! Is it that pixel over there, maybe? Screw this, I'm gonna excommunicate whoever developed this site..."

     

    Remember those globes they used to sell with a touchpen?  You'd select some feature like "national anthem" or "population" from the base, then click the pen on the country you wanted to learn about.

    China was easy.  Burkina Faso, you had to have a steady hand.  San Marino, forget it; you'd click and click in what seemed to be exactly the same spot and it would say "Albania. Italy. Italy. Albania. Adriatic Sea. Italy...."



  • @da Doctah said:

    San Marino, forget it; you'd click and click in what seemed to be exactly the same spot and it would say "Albania. Italy. Italy. Albania. Adriatic Sea. Italy...."

    The latest models have fixed this. Now you click and it says "European Union; National Anthem: 'Money For Nothing'; Population: Dwindling".



  • @morbiuswilters said:

    @da Doctah said:
    San Marino, forget it; you'd click and click in what seemed to be exactly the same spot and it would say "Albania. Italy. Italy. Albania. Adriatic Sea. Italy...."

    The latest models have fixed this. Now you click and it says "European Union; National Anthem: 'Money For Nothing'; Population: Dwindling".

    This.



  • @morbiuswilters said:

    Ever tried to use a map to select Rhode Island? Or Luxembourg? It's ridiculous.
     

    or imagine your average american trying to use the site while on holiday/business trip in europe.



  • @SEMI-HYBRID code said:

    or imagine your average american trying to use the site while on holiday/business trip in europe.

    It's funny because Americans are stupid. Ha. Ha.



  •  

    Albania... Albania... it borders on the A-dri-adic...

    RIP, Coach.



  • I don't think the idea of using a map as opposed to a list is a problem, but in this inception it is.

     The graphical installed on most Linux distributions uses a map to select the region for the timezone. If you pick a time region that has a large area then it works like you'd expect, but if you live in a small country/area/timezone, the first click selects what it though you clicked on and zooms in, allowing you to click again to select. This works great for those small areas which use half hours on their timezones, or smaller countries that don't use the same daylight savings. Much nicer than a list which could be quite large depending on the context.


  • ♿ (Parody)

    @blakeyrat said:

    @SEMI-HYBRID code said:
    or imagine your average american trying to use the site while on holiday/business trip in europe.

    It's funny because Americans are stupid. Ha. Ha.

    I have it on good authority that the U.S. American edumacational system suffers from a lack of maps.

    No, the real problem for the American is that those Europeans have crazy ideas about what an electrical outlet should look like, so his battery is probably drained..


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