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Ask HN: What are the websites that you rely on but have horrible UI?
61–70 of 149 posts
Re: Ask HN: What are the websites that you rely on but have horrible UI?
#62All the banking sites I have used have highly unusable UI. The same with my mobile and broadband service provider websites. Sometimes it is just not about the UI. I can live without the best looking websites, but if the functionality is equally broken as the UI, then it is really frustrating. One of my biggest pet peeves is the back button not working in many websites. Many systems just tell you to log in again and i…
The all-time worst I've ever experienced is Korea Exchange Bank.
It only works in MSIE. You have to install a panoply of ActiveX controls. You have to install a "keyboard security" device driver (ha!).
Then, for an actual transaction involving funds transfer, it's a long-winded, 15-20 step process requiring so many layers of authentication that the typical person keeps an unsecured document around detailing what to enter on each step.
I'd kill for plain old HTTPS.
Re: Ask HN: What are the websites that you rely on but have horrible UI?
#63Earlier quoted context omitted.
arXiv is not just for crackpot physics. A lot of the papers on arXiv are there to allow wide access to science research that would otherwise not be possible with the prohibitive cost of journal subscriptions. I know several fantastic physicists and major international collaborations that publish on arXiv 6 months before the paper is published in a journal. It's true that you need to be an expert in the field to tell…
Oh, I stand corrected then. I discovered ArXiv over a decade ago, but from early on, it was filled with people of questionable insight, if not sanity, and I began to avoid it. There are some notorious USENET trolls who used it to build their credibility, and it kept me away since.
It's got no data quality checks, so you need to use it with caution, but something like http://arxiv.org/list/hep-ex/recent is a really nice tool for High Energy Physics (you can see quite a few of the first results from the LHC there, for example, without paying any journal subs.)
But it's a much better academic tool than a commercial one, and I would not be surprised that a lot of cranks put stuff up there and claim respectability by association, especially in theory or mathematics.
Re: Ask HN: What are the websites that you rely on but have horrible UI?
#64Earlier quoted context omitted.
You could use Wells Fargo instead - they limit you to 14 characters, which isn't even what I would consider a medium length password.
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.
Re: Ask HN: What are the websites that you rely on but have horrible UI?
#65Blackboard, at every university.
I really believe this market is ripe for disruption. Like right now.
The problem is that as soon as you are any threat to them, they'll either sue you (they have a ton of e-learning related patents) or buy you. Not sure you want to go into that area.
Re: Ask HN: What are the websites that you rely on but have horrible UI?
#66I'll second all the bank comments. My own bank is horrible and has no way of escaping from statement view without logging back in (same with print friendly pages).
Of all the others, the one that got me most recently was Skype. Trying to upgrade my account, I spent a good half hour trying to figure out which links did what (some go to help, others to order pages). It's never entirely clear that you are buying what you think you are until you get to final payment page.
Re: Ask HN: What are the websites that you rely on but have horrible UI?
#67Hotmail, even after its recent Gmaily redesign.
I find all the View options distract my eye from the Actions that I am more often looking for, and I still find it clunky and too time consuming to use easily. I'm only still on there for old contacts who don't have my gmail address.
Re: Ask HN: What are the websites that you rely on but have horrible UI?
#68All the banking sites I have used have highly unusable UI. The same with my mobile and broadband service provider websites. Sometimes it is just not about the UI. I can live without the best looking websites, but if the functionality is equally broken as the UI, then it is really frustrating. One of my biggest pet peeves is the back button not working in many websites. Many systems just tell you to log in again and i…
The all-time worst I've ever experienced is Korea Exchange Bank. It only works in MSIE. You have to install a panoply of ActiveX controls. You have to install a "keyboard security" device driver (ha!). Then, for an actual transaction involving funds transfer, it's a long-winded, 15-20 step process requiring so many layers of authentication that the typical person keeps an unsecured document around detailing what to e…
Major Chinese banks are about the same. The best part is that the ActiveX controls are optimized for IE6 (seriously) since various security settings in IE7+ prevent them from working.
Yes, the controls for added security only work with lower security settings. We keep around an dusty old Windows XP machine in the house just for using these websites.
Re: Ask HN: What are the websites that you rely on but have horrible UI?
#69Pretty much any Indian website that I use including:
www.icicibank.com/
www.bangaloreone.gov.in/
www.bookmyshow.com/ (Mainly the payment processing piece)
www.irctc.co.in/ (I challenge anyone to find a website that has 4MM unique visitors/mo. and that has worse usability)
timesofindia.indiatimes.com/ (Popovers/unders, floating ads. Annoys the crap out of me each time I use it. But I still use it. Go figure)
Re: Ask HN: What are the websites that you rely on but have horrible UI?
#70GoDaddy. I was going to cite some specific examples but really the entire site is a perfect case study for bad UI. On the other hand, it is extremely well optimized for revenue (but that's a different discussion).
Just finished transferring all my domain names to NameCheap for that very reason -- I got tired of sifting through tens of pages with links in various font sizes to find that ever-elusive DNS setting ... among other things.