Reviewing websites

47. Look at Peter's Top 10 Web page annoyances on his home page. Which ones are similar to the annoyances which annoy you personally?

1. Frames

Don't you hate those silly boxes in Web pages? Sometimes the text doesn't fit in the frame and you have to use the horizontal scroll bar. This makes it very hard to read.

2. Downloading plug-ins

The little programs that you have to download to get an audio or video message before you can enter the site - they make me want to go
somewhere else!

3. Pop-up ads

The horrible advertisements that suddenly appear - they drive me crazy.

4. Bad design

Too many buttons and links on different parts of the page are confusing.

5. Blinking fonts

Brightly-coloured texts are difficult to read, but fonts that blink on and off? Ugh!

6. Counters

It's wonderful to know that I'm visitor number 345, 345, 218, but I feel terrible finding out I'm visitor number 11. Why not put counters in a separate link? Then, if you want to know your number, you can just click there.

7. Flash

These animations are good if they download quickly, but please make them relevant to the website, and not just there to make the site look pretty.

8. No Privacy Policy

I never give my e-mail address to a website that does not have a privacy policy. I want to be sure that they won't sell or send it to another site.

9. Silly sound files

Sound files that start with a bang, or a dog barking make me jump! They're really annoying, and you can't turn them off.

10. Why only English?

Doesn't anyone realize that we live in a multilingual world?

48. Write the number of the annoyance that matches each sentence.

a. Websites should have rules about giving e-mail addresses to other sites. ⽙
b. Web pages should have options for different languages. ⽙
c. Animations should be about the same subject as the Web page. ⽙
d. Web pages should not need special programs to run. ⽙
e. The text should not blink on and off. ⽙
f. Dividing a Web page into a lot of small frames is bad design. ⽙

49. Find the opposites of the adjectives (1-6) in the text.

1. clear __________

2. very bad __________

3. unrelated __________

4. ugly _________

5. uncertain _________

6. monolingual ________

 

50. Complete the sentences (1-5) with the words in the box.

Confusing, else, fits, relevant, scroll bar

1. This is a well-designed Web page. Everything ______well on the screen.

2. Web surfers will go somewhere ______ if the page doesn't appear quickly.

3. That animation is good because it is pretty and it is ______ to the Web page.

4. That website is very _____ because I couldn't find the Back button.

5. It's annoying when you have to use the horizontal _____ to see all of the text.