Posted on August 10, 2012
I recently came upon a very unusable website, http://thealdermangroup.net/ where an interactivity idea was taken overboard.
The idea for the interactivity is really interesting, but the actual follow through was poorly done. As you hover over letters on the website you get different pop ups.
The implementation problem is that they use different letters in their name to make these items pop up. There’s no cognitive mapping as to why these pop ups should be connected to the letters that you hover over. Also, if you look at the image at the top you can see that some letters are just slightly more white than others and those are the ones that you can hover over in order to find the information. When you go to the slight this is not readily apparent. My first time through I moved my mouse down to find out if there was something under contact and a bunch of things popped up, which was startling because I was not expecting it. Further, there is nothing clickable on this site aside fromt he contact button. If I want to know more information about them or get away from the busy site, I cannot as this is their only page. Lastly, some of the text is big, some small, some boxes are scrollable, some make the whole page scroll, there is a large lack of consistency in the page.
How a marketing group who makes content and websites can have a website with such low usability and such a confusing user experience, I’m not entirely sure.
I would suggest that if they want to keep the interactivity that they have, that the letters that you can hover over for more information are apparent, that the pop ups are smaller with much less text, and that they then have links to further information and at least a portfolio. I can go to another marketing firms website and view a portfolio to decide if I want to contact them or not. If I cannot see your portfolio, I have no reason to contact you in the first place. Especially with a website where I get lost, frustrated, and ultimately do not wish to work with you in the end.