SSOTD: AEAllAccessPass.com

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I bring to you another Shoddy Site of the Day. This one comes from the clothing retailer, American Eagle. I’ve always had a problem with AE’s style because the girl’s clothing looks so nice and sophisticated whereas the guys dress as if they can’t really see the mixture of colors they just put on.

Now I feel the same about their ‘All Access Pass’es website. I don’t know if their designers really saw what they put together. Heck, I don’t even know if they tried it out themselves.

I guess what everyone is trying to do with websites these days is stand out. Yes, a weird unusable website is what makes you unique… just like everyone else.

In any case, this user-interface is laughable. I don’t even want to share it but you can see just from opening up aeallaccesspass.com and clicking one of the buttons. Warning: yes you indeed are at risk of having a seisure from all the movement. Don’t say I didn’t warn you. It gets worse if you actually login. Honestly, I don’t pay $60/month to watch the website load itself. I thought the point of high-speed was no waiting.

Again, this looks like a classic designer’s case of ‘I can do it so I should‘. Hovering navigation windows and popup windows are so ‘cluttery’ that I absolutely detest having to take on so many active objects at once.

Plus, in Firefox the page loads, you can see it but there’s something in the background that takes another (literally) 5 minutes to load the page. During this time you’re held hostage and you can’t click on anything else.Oh, and when you click any of the navigation the image breaks and shifts down and does all sorts of troubling things. Essentially the one way to get around the website breaks when you want to use it.
This website sucks as much as the men’s shirts. This site alone is too much trouble. I don’t care how much I can save on jeans next time I stop in, I’m done with the ‘All Access Pass’.

Keep it simple, stupids!

Sleep Cycles

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I admit, I got a little burned out at work today (8 hours in front of the monitor, no lunch, pretty tough). So, I took a break and read a bit about polyphasic sleep on Steve Pavlina’s blog. I then dug around more and more and read some wikis and all sorts of articles. I’ve decided to embark on Glen Rhodes’ bi-phasic sleep pattern and see how it works for me. I’ve never been much for sleeping a lot, but I’ve never really understood why I’m tired one day and just fine another. I’m looking into how I can schedule a routine 90-minute nap every day and then get 6 hours of sleep every night. The sleep cycles seem to make sense. If I get up at 6:30 every morning I could probably get a lot done in a day. Look out breakfast, I’m making a come-back..

Bibliography Generator

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A while back, Seth posted on ‘stuck systems‘. Seth talked about turning a list of ISBN numbers into a fully functional bibliography (and more). I figured, ‘that can’t be too hard’ so I made a quick page to demonstrate how simple it is. He agreed it was pretty simple by showing the world my quick creation.

So what’s the problem?

Unfortunately, concepts like bibliographies are too far engrained in our behavior that any kind of change seems nearly impossible. Making an idea like this ‘stick’ with people is the real marketing challenge. Unfortunately, as he mentions, it’s hard for anyone to readily accept this concept.

But, I’ve always loved a challenge.

That’s why I’d like to take my ~100 line script and turn it into a fully functional resource. I’ve run into another student, Jonathan, who has already embarked on this (ThatsCrazyHot.com) and it’s a good start. I hate the name though. Sure, it’s one thing to be radical but the name does nothing for anyone. It tells us nothing, it sounds sopohmoric and I don’t see many people embracing it to begin with.

So, I’ve decided to start developing this project a bit furthur. I think, as with any service, it has to be exceptionally easy and fully functional. No logins, no forms, just add the ISBN and go.
The biggest problem I’ve run into is getting all of the required information. Sure, Amazon.com has the publisher and date.. but almost no one has the publisher’s location. I’ve found a site but it doesn’t allow automatic scripts to load their page. Anyone else with it requires you to license their content. This should be fun to get around. My only thought right now is load the available data I can into my own ‘ISBN database’ from Amazon.com and allow users to either comfirm or edit a located ISBN’s information.

I was thinking I’d take that aforementioned site and load it in a frame below the page. This page will have already loaded the correct book (apparently that’s allowed) but then the user will need to enter the publisher’s location manually. In other words, there is an input box at the top that says ‘Location’ and a page loaded at the bottom that says ‘Location: New York’. Keep in mind, this is just at the beginning as the database is populated.

I don’t know, I keep tossing the idea around. I wish the information were more readily available. That would certainly solve the ‘easy’ issue.

Then, and only then, could I even consider marketing this product and making it, as Seth said, “viral”.

…but I guess the product itself should be viral.

Hmmm…

SSOTD: Breckenridge.Snow.com

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I’d like to introduce you all to The Shoddy Site Of the Day: Breckenridge.Snow.Com. Overall the site is pretty nice. Very informative. I popped online last night to figure out the conditions for today. I can find everything I need on this site…

Except a useful map.

Seriously, at a ski resort, your product is the mountain. Why do you force me to look at what you’d like to call a ‘new interactive trail map‘. People are not so dumb that they need a drop down to show them what a trail is. I’d guess its all that space inbetween the green tree-looking stuff. I wish I knew what that stuff was… but it’s not labeled on the interactive trail map. Sigh…

Seriously, I have to look at this thing first to then realize what I really came for is a little link at the top of this window.

You be the judge: stupid, useless, busy, and animated map or practical, even printable, trail map.

This is a classic designer’s case of ‘I can do it so I really should’. I find none of this to be useful. If I want to find the black trails, I look for the… black colored trails? Honestly. Look at the compass in the bottom corner. If you hover over it the compass blurs.

What the hell? Why? It does me no good to see a blurred compass!

“Hey Mark, look, its called ‘onmouseover’, I should really make it do something!” “Yeah man, since you can you really should.”

…and that is why I call this my Shoddy Site of the Day.

Hidden Facebook Connection

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While busily checking up on friends today I decided to snoop around on Facebook. Long story short, I found the following options (hidden) from everyone’s friends details. These two options aren’t currently accessible but are definitely in the ‘facebook code’ under ‘Met Through Facebook’: Is a Facebook whore, Never spoken in real life. Interested in more random Facebook facts? I found a whole bunch of good ones over at TheBillyGoatCurse.com. Yes, I do have a problem…

Complainers, Men v Women

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Scott Adams yet again puts life into perspective. The following gems should sum up his latest post. “Complainers rarely mate with other complainers” and “Statistically speaking, if your mate is upbeat, there?s a very good chance that you?re a huge pain in the ass”. If you’ve missed out, the latest acronym out there is BOCTAE, meaning, ‘but of course, there are exceptions’. Try it out, impress your friends.