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An example of a poor website


14th March 2008, 381 views

IMO anyhoo, http://www.primelocation.com. I think it's pants for these reasons:

  • The background is black. Inexcusable. And now that I'm hard of sight, it's even worse. Seems like the authors need to read this. Oh and the black shows up the dust on my monitor.
  • It's dog slow. Also inexcusable in this day and age.
  • It has adverts. Doesn't look good IMO. Get yourself a decent business model and you won't need them.
  • It has animated adverts. Yes they get better results and presumably that makes them much easier to sell to advertisers, but as a user, I don't like them.
  • The navigation is unclear.
  • The pages are "too busy".
  • It makes my browser pause. Presumably some Jabbascript running, but still shouldn't do that.
  • The URLS are shit. Compare http://www.primelocation.com/uk-property-to-rent/ with http://www.primelocation.com/rent/uk. Which, as a Customer, are you likely to remember?
  • It uses dotted borders for mouseovers. Not exactly a cardinal sin, but not great either. I'd advise choosing a more common background colour mouuseover instead.
  • Too many visible navigation items. I would advise using drop down menus at the top of the page. Depending on how they're implemented, they wouldn't necessarily hinder usability.
  • The blue icon in the top right when viewing a property is not clear, and it has no ALT text.
  • In fact, none of the links seem to have ALT text. Not good for SEO
  • The "Boookmark" links at the bottom are just lame.
  • The links at the bottom are tiny and very hard to read. For me.

All IMO of course.

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Comments

Author: Edin
Posted: 14th March 2008 15:56
I was checking the website out when it stopped working :-)
"Server not found
Firefox can't find the server at www.primelocation.com."

On in all I agree with you, it's too busy.
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Author: Amanda
Posted: 14th March 2008 23:40
ok, so its a crap website... however (and you won't like this but I'll say it anyway cos I'm a woman and therefore I'm right), it clearly does business and makes money! If it ain't broke, don't fix it! ... LOL!
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Author: Richard Heyes
Posted: 15th March 2008 19:06
Amanda:
> ok, so its a crap website... however (and you
> won't like this but I'll say it anyway cos I'm
> a woman and therefore I'm right), it clearly
> does business and makes money! If it ain't
> broke, don't fix it! ... LOL!

Not necessarily - they could be using finds which investors have provided. Just because they're on TV (adverts) doesn't necessarily mean they're making a profit. Lovefilm was making a huge loss after investment.
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Author: Jeff Badger
Posted: 15th March 2008 20:41
I agree they are shit urls it would have been much better if they had been something like http://www.primelocation.com/page.php/123
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Author: Stu
Posted: 23rd March 2008 17:31
> Oh and the black shows up the dust on my monitor.

Eek!
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