Monday, February 08, 2010

Frustration

Dear Firefox,

Please don't suddenly and randomly flip the value of the "Always use the cursor keys to navigate within pages" option. Having the down-arrow key change from "scroll the window down a few pixels" to "jump to the next link" is brain-shearingly annoying.

 

 

Dear Web Application Programmers,

If your web page presents a very complex form to fill out, which can take up to 20 minutes to do correctly, PLEASE program it so that if the user hits Backspace when not actually clicked into a form entry field, it doesn't just happily do the equivalent of hitting the Back button. I.e. ask me if I really want to navigate away from the form I just spent 20 minutes filling in and let me click "no" so I don't scream "NO!" and want to poke out my own eye.

Sincerely,
A Nearly One-Eyed Ranting Nerd

 

P.S. Feh.

8 comments:

Anonymous said...

Actually, the backspace thing is the browser's fault, too. (Ijust tested on this very comment page.) From my perspective, the real sin here is that no single page should contain a 20-minute form. They should break it up into sections and submit between them.

Anonymous said...

Actually, the backspace thing is the browser's fault, too. (I just tested on this very comment page.) From my perspective, the real sin here is that no single page should contain a 20-minute form. They should break it up into sections and submit between them.

rantingnerd said...

Yes, it's definitely a browswer issue (but it broke up the flow of the rant to mention it :-)). But that behavior is easily worked around on the form side.

kristin said...

you know what i hear is good for frustration? trapezing. :D

rantingnerd said...

Trapezing sounds fun, but not today -- in addition to my computer making me cranky, my fingers are also not doing what I want them to. That sounds like a really bad stat in which to go trapezing. :-)

kristin said...

admittedly, it requires working fingers -- or, at least, working hands -- to the point that i take precautions not to use my laptop for days leading up to my lessons.

hope your day improves!

Raven said...

FWIW, current UX research supports the notion that Reset/Cancel buttons (and their equivalent behaviors) are harmful and bad practice.

See: http://www.useit.com/alertbox/20000416.html

Marcy said...

Amen to that one.