Earlier quoted context omitted.
I'm guessing that he's talking about Barclays in the UK. There the only one's i know who do this.
The Royal Bank of Scotland does this too, though they don't enforce crazy long passwords.
Lloyds TSB in the UK, too.
Ask HN: What are the websites that you rely on but have horrible UI?
81–90 of 149 posts
Re: Ask HN: What are the websites that you rely on but have horrible UI?
#82Slashdot! Especially on iPhone/iPads. It randomly switches between normal and some large font special rendering for no apparent reason. The comments interface is barely usable on these devices too - no drag/drop of the comments filtering threshold, expanding a hidden comment on the ipad scrolls you off a mile down the page, fortunately with a small arrow showing the chosen comment when you scroll back up to find it..…
I agree on the Slashdot iPad issue. Expanding a hidden comment is useless.
Re: Ask HN: What are the websites that you rely on but have horrible UI?
#83MSDN. They improved it a bit with somewhat recently added layouts with less scripts, navigation trees, iframes and whatnot, but it's still unusable without Google (or Dukgo -> !msdn) for me.
I call it NASCAR navigation. I keep clicking links, thinking each will lead me to the info I want, but more than once I found myself clicking in circles. The other big issue is the number of broken links.
Re: Ask HN: What are the websites that you rely on but have horrible UI?
#84revision3.com - I watch the show Filmriot. Each tv series has its own section, but you must navigate through several clicks to watch the current episode.
Also, if you don't interact at the end of the episode, it will start automatically playing older episodes in reverse chronological order.
...and there is no cohesive source of information. It is spread between revision3, facebook, and twitter.
Re: Ask HN: What are the websites that you rely on but have horrible UI?
#85Several of the TV shows I watch put the episodes online (which is great), but the websites invariably fall short in the way they organise those videos and the rest of the site. They are definitely popular in spite of their UI, not because users "unconciously" prefer it.
Which TV sites do you not like and which do you consider good UI?
I am currently working on a video site, and looking for suggestions.
Re: Ask HN: What are the websites that you rely on but have horrible UI?
#86HN? :-) If Reddit is "Spartan but functional", HN is positively Hittite. "We'll impale you on an iron stake and let you die slowly outside the city gates if you don't like it" user friendliness. Oh well, at least it keeps the barbarians out.
HN feels quite usable to me. The only problem is the few remaining links based on closures (x?fnid=...), because they expire and it's just dumb. I may be mistaken, but I think closure-based links have been slowly phased out over the lifetime of HN, and now they seem to be used only for "more" and "logout". Why not throw them away completely?
About possible enhancements: ajaxifying the "reply" link, as billswift suggested, would help. Ajaxifying the "edit" and "delete" links would definitely help. LW does both and it's much more convenient. Making the vote buttons light up on hover would make the interface feel more consistent, because links already react to hover.
One thing HN does very right (compared to Reddit and LW) is that users' "comments" pages are threaded, not flat.
Re: Ask HN: What are the websites that you rely on but have horrible UI?
#87Re: Ask HN: What are the websites that you rely on but have horrible UI?
#88Every single credit card gateway's web interface I've used.
Perhaps unrelated, but I've always wondered why http://www.authorize.net/ insists on generously using 1990s-style stock clipart all over their site. Does the picture of the lady with the headset really make their operation that much more trustworthy? Not to mention, anything with this sort of clipart now automatically looks like spam/domain landing page to my eyes.
I think "stock photography" is the phrase you're looking for.
> Does the picture of the lady with the headset really make their operation that much more trustworthy?
Actually, yes. I would definitely bet that that style of corporate stock photography is what their target audience associates with "trustworthy".
Re: Ask HN: What are the websites that you rely on but have horrible UI?
#89Malaysian Airlines website. I was trying to buy a return ticket to Hong Kong. I entered my credit card details, clicked next and received an email saying I've bought the ticket..... to Kuala Lumpur. It's probably that I entered the wrong destination but, for a plane ticket, why is there no confirmation page!? I called them up and they said it'll cost $150 to fix it.
Off-topic but: what is your recourse here? Can you cancel the charge at your CC company? What's the impact of doing that?
Re: Ask HN: What are the websites that you rely on but have horrible UI?
#90boardgamegeek.com