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Eug · Jul 3, 2008, 06:22 PM

Is this a web design no-no?

Fido.ca - iPhone 3G price plan

There is almost no text on this page, despite the fact the whole page is text... It's just a great big JPG (208 KB) of text.

Plus, they put in the wrong contact info. Instead of contacting Fido, the page says to contact Rogers (which is the parent company with the same plans).

TETENAL · Jul 3, 2008, 06:36 PM

They probably did it to hide the text from search engines.

besson3c · Jul 3, 2008, 06:38 PM

Originally Posted by TETENAL

They probably did it to hide the text from search engines.

That's what a robots.txt file is for.

besson3c · Jul 3, 2008, 06:39 PM

Eug, yes, that page is dumb... I don't know why the opted to design the page that way.

Eug · Jul 3, 2008, 07:21 PM

I guess one of the reasons I posted this is because the text has a mild JPG'ish look to it. It is ever so slightly fuzzy around some of the text in the grey boxes.

Originally Posted by TETENAL

They probably did it to hide the text from search engines.

Hmmm... Why would they even care?

Originally Posted by besson3c

That's what a robots.txt file is for.

Learned something new today. However, do the search sites respect these requests to ignore info?

turtle777 · Jul 3, 2008, 07:29 PM

Originally Posted by besson3c

That's what a robots.txt file is for.

Huh ?

That's just a recommendation.

It's not like a robots.txt file is like a password to an encrypted site.

-t

Oisín · Jul 3, 2008, 10:48 PM

Yes, that is a very big web design no-no.

Uncle Doof · Jul 3, 2008, 11:33 PM

I firmly believe that designing a web site in such a way should carry a mandatory custodial sentence.

BasketofPuppies · Jul 4, 2008, 12:48 AM

Maybe the designers were behind schedule and were forced to use their Photoshop mock-up as the Web page?

Andrew Stephens · Jul 5, 2008, 05:43 AM

maybe since the page loaded in my browser in a fraction of a second anyway they don't give a monkey's doo-dah.

Eriamjh · Jul 6, 2008, 09:53 PM

It should be a gif, not a jpg.

moep · 08:36 AM

Originally Posted by BasketofPuppies

Maybe the designers were behind schedule and were forced to use their Photoshop mock-up as the Web page?

yeah, that was my first thought too. either way, it definitely is a big big nono.
imagine people trying to view that on a 3 year old cellphone, heh. so much for accessibility.

//edit: wow, they actually use imagemaps for the links. imagemaps. dubya tee eff.

Code:
<map name="Promomap">
<area shape="rect" coords="0,1513,110,1531" href="http://www.fido.ca/portal/promos/personal/iphone/en/promotion.jsp" target="_blank" alt="View News Release">
<area shape="rect" coords="1,1533,175,1552" href="http://www.fido.ca/portal/promos/personal/iphoneterms/en/promotion.jsp" target="_blank" alt="View the terms and conditions">
</map><img src="/promos/personal/iphone3/en/PRINCING_IPHONE_V2_EN_3.jpg" alt="" border="0" usemap="#promomap" />

OwlBoy · Jul 7, 2008, 07:01 AM

Originally Posted by Eriamjh

It should be a gif, not a jpg.

Or XHTML + CSS

-Owl

andi*pandi · Jul 7, 2008, 08:46 AM

scenario: company creates indesign brochure. Company needs to get chart on web, doesn't want to pay a web designer/coder, asks print designer to make jpg.

Happens a lot, and no it's not very accessible. You'd think they'd want the text searchable.

analogue SPRINKLES · Jul 7, 2008, 10:12 AM

Ha, lazy bastards.

olePigeon · Jul 7, 2008, 10:25 AM

Originally Posted by OwlBoy

Or XHTML + CSS

-Owl

Could even do the same thing in SimpleText or NotePad using HTML 1.0. What's so hard about tables?

Eug · 09:30 AM

Originally Posted by moep

//edit: wow, they actually use imagemaps for the links. imagemaps. dubya tee eff.

Code:
<map name="Promomap">
<area shape="rect" coords="0,1513,110,1531" href="http://www.fido.ca/portal/promos/personal/iphone/en/promotion.jsp" target="_blank" alt="View News Release">
<area shape="rect" coords="1,1533,175,1552" href="http://www.fido.ca/portal/promos/personal/iphoneterms/en/promotion.jsp" target="_blank" alt="View the terms and conditions">
</map><img src="/promos/personal/iphone3/en/PRINCING_IPHONE_V2_EN_3.jpg" alt="" border="0" usemap="#promomap" />

Heh. I thought they were real text links. I see that I am mistaken, as they are also part of the image above.

----

So this isn't a no-no I guess, but nonetheless I thought it was weird... Here is a Yahoo! Mail ad. The background is this:

This is the text on top of it.

NOW YAHOO! HAS MORE WAYS TO
GET YOUR PERFECT EMAIL ADDRESS.

@ymail.com and @rocketmail.com

GRAB YOUR NAME.

Simple enough, but what's with the guy with the Michael Jackson outfit?

(Sorry I didn't post a screengrab, but I wasn't at the right computer for that.)

EDIT:

Here is the screengrab:

I guess the ad worked though, since I'm talking about it.

P.S. In this case I wonder why they didn't just make it one JPG, instead of having text on the JPG. Come to think of it... Is that a potential no-no then? Cuz if you change the font size, everything gets all screwed up.

Eug · 05:51 AM

So, www.fido.ca has now changed. They redesigned the site, with a new colour scheme.

However, I think they took the lazy route again:

1) The iPhone plan description is still just all text in a JPEG. They removed the image map links though.

2) The rest of the site's content is basically unchanged, but they've changed the background and style of the site so that the background is black. What this means is that the background where you navigate and sign into your account is hard to read, but when you get to a page, all the content is the same white as before. Inconsistent looking:

EDIT:

The formatting is all borked on some pages with Safari (and Firefox 2 on the Mac too):

Just in time for the iPhone.

turtle777 · Jul 9, 2008, 08:21 AM

Ha, this thread worked. It actually changed something

-t

TETENAL · Jul 9, 2008, 08:48 AM

Website doesn't load properly.

Who is Fido anyway? Sounds like a dog. You should probably get your iPhone from Rogers instead. They may be expensive but at least they appear to be professional.

analogika · Jul 9, 2008, 09:00 AM

Fido IS Rogers.

turtle777 · Jul 9, 2008, 09:15 AM

Originally Posted by TETENAL

Who is Fido anyway? Sounds like a dog. You should probably get your iPhone from Rogers instead. They may be expensive but at least they appear to be professional.

Now THAT'S quite ironic

-t

Eug · Jul 9, 2008, 09:30 AM

Originally Posted by turtle777

Ha, this thread worked. It actually changed something

Fido just announced a 6 GB for $30 data plan. I guess the protests worked too.

Originally Posted by TETENAL

Who is Fido anyway? Sounds like a dog. You should probably get your iPhone from Rogers instead. They may be expensive but at least they appear to be professional.

Fido's advertising is all based around dogs.

And as mentioned, Fido is Rogers. It's a wholly owned subsidiary.

analogue SPRINKLES · Jul 9, 2008, 09:47 AM

Are you part of Fido's new website quality control team?

Eug · Jul 11, 2008, 01:45 PM

Originally Posted by analogue SPRINKLES

Are you part of Fido's new website quality control team?

Hey, if they give me my iPhone for free, I'm willing to put in a few hours for them.