Lesson 9: Usability
Assignment: Identify a usability problem in a major Web site; then, find a different usability problem in an additional major Web site.

iVillage
Problems: too many ads; bad search results
To get to the main page I had to sit through a Weight Watchers ad (or was it Jenny Craig? I already forgot everything except the annoyed feeling) that felt like it took 10 seconds (so it was probably just 5). This site might have some useful articles but contains so many ads it's too annoying to use. The left column (or frame?) is all ads, there are ads in the header, and the pop-ups keep coming as you look around and click new links.

I thought this site was likely to have a review of the new "Dirt Devil Sweeper Vac" so I typed this phrase in the site search box. I came up with many recipes for devil's food cake and deviled eggs; finally, result # 29 was an article about vacuums, though it actually mentioned a different Dirt Devil model.


Montessori.org
Problem: the link, Montessori 101 for Parents, pulls up an issue of Tomorrow's Child magazine (Vol. 8, No. 5, year 2000) as an unprintable .pdf file full of columns (most pages have 3 columns), very difficult to read at an 800 x 600 resolution. (Even at 1024 x 768, only half the page fits on my screen so I still have to scroll up and down.) There is no other option available for viewing this information. All other links, however, contained HTML files which were much easier to read.