Lame Web Developers

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I’m listening to the hold music for Healthnet, so I’ve got a few minutes to toss up an anecdotal post. (Side note: during my projected 80 minute……….yes, 80 minute……..hold time, the little voice keeps popping in to remind me how valuable it knows my time is, so I’m actually pretty psyched). Anyway, I was filling out their lame-ass web form, and I was presented with this:

0220-lame

It probably comes as no surprise to long-time readers that I have very little patience for bad design. So let’s just take a moment to contemplate the above image. Do you see what I see? Do you recognize the problem? I certainly hope so. Because what we are confronted with here are a series of checkboxes which, unlike every other checkbox known to mankind, don’t present themselves as an empty box or a box with an “X” in it. No, no. It’s either orange or not orange.

What. The. Hell.

Is orange an affirmation or not? What are these colors supposed to mean? There’s no key or legend of any kind. Now I will assume that white is the equivalent of unchecked, and orange is not. But why on earth should I have to make such an assumption? I could be wrong! And it’s so unnecessary!

This is just the kind of thoughtless, outsource-the-programming-overseas crap that irks me (and don’t even get me started again on credit card numbers). Yo, web developers. Get the basics right. The simple stuff. Maybe have some real users test it. Because you are a gigantic, multi-zillion dollar organization with infinite resources. Don’t suck, OK?