Apple Website A Poor Online Experience?

Well, I for one don't like those tabs much. I'd rather see them use more CSS and fonts instead of those heavy graphics... Also, the menu structure seems rather random to me. 'Hardware' is under Apple, however iTunes/iPod is not. Store is at the top level, though... I think they _could_ do a much cleaner and more logical interface...
 
One thing they need to add the store that is extremely aggrivating is dimensions in the image tags, because when they load they blow up to size and everything moves all over the place.

Also I tend to agree with the search function, it's quite terrible.
 
They definitely need to gain some ground on accessibility and usability. Of all the other computer companies, I'd expect them to follow standards a bit more too.
 
Well they might have to rework the whole menu to make it consistent because most things like developer and switch are repeated in the Mac OS X Menu. Perhaps Software and Hardware could replace .Mac and Quicktime. Made4Mac and Where to Buy I can see in the Apple store submenu. I would like to see the tabs like they are in Panther.
 
I've always thought the site was visually very appealing (scores big in my book), but overall quite mediocre - nowhere near the best, but far from the worst.

I'm really not a fan of the online store
 
fryke said:
I'd rather see them use more CSS and fonts instead of those heavy graphics...
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I think CSS for any business actually wanting customers is a big mistake. And considering that Apple still has tons of customers who are using systems that can't handle CSS, their choice of design technique seems like the best one.

Their site looks the way they want on almost any browser. They haven't excluded anyone by going with CSS, and they still have an attractive site.

Until CSS is supported by enough browser still in use, it is as bad a design choice as designing your site for monitors bigger than 1024x768 (considering that more than half of the people on the net today are still using 800x600 displays).

You don't make money by alienating people.

As someone who does browse using a system which will never display CSS, I find it refreshing to come to sites which look as good on my old systems as they do on the newest systems. It shows that the people behind the site care.

How do you think Apple's site would look using CSS in an older browser like OmniWeb 3.0? I highly doubt as good as it does currently.
 

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poor online experience ? not at all..

when i wanna find somethin at apple.com i find it really fast.

today i went looking for a hard drive a toshibas and ibms website and it took soo much time until i found what i was looking for.

at apple.com u find it right away. i consider the tabs a fantastic idea....
it was weird at first when i saw the iPod + iTunes tab suddenly appear....
but its very logical.
if u have 2 million iPods selling and 800000 macs all in total, then its a very good idea to promote and make it easy for stupid wintel users to find the iPod by creating a tab for it. having it under hardware makes it difficult..

these are basic concepts of design but at the same time common sense. it might be difficult for fryke to grasp these concepts... but ... its ok... :p
 
By my assessment, it's the single most ripped-off website on the internet. Those pseudo-tabs at the top are on every site you SEE these days.

I don't think it's accessible or usable. I do want it to be redesigned in XHTML and CSS.
 
I like the Apple store, could be faster (i'm still stuck on dialup for the moment) but it's easy to shop on it. I bought a shiny new powermac recently and a few other bits and pieces through the Apple online store. I considered buying a xeon workstation through Dell so I had a look through their site. It's impossible to find what you are looking for! So many sub categories leading back to the same machines! At least everything is there in front of you with the Apple Store!
 
out of curiosity, those of you who say you don't like the site or don't think it's great - could you post a site that you think is really good and that the Apple site should aspire to?

and I don't mean nice as in http://www.quietplease.net/ I mean nice as in large site, lots of info, large audience etc...
 
RacerX said:
I think CSS for any business actually wanting customers is a big mistake. And considering that Apple still has tons of customers who are using systems that can't handle CSS, their choice of design technique seems like the best one.

Their site looks the way they want on almost any browser. They haven't excluded anyone by going with CSS, and they still have an attractive site.

You don't make money by alienating people.
Click to expand...

No, no, no, no, no ,no!

There's more to a website than just how it looks (although looks ARE important).

It would be interesting to see how well blind people and others with disabilities get on with the current site. Accessible sites are becoming more and more a legal requirement. HTML/CSS helps here.

It would be interesting to see how much bandwidth could be saved using leaner and more efficient CSS (and how much it might improve dial up users' experience).

Not that this is necessarily a huge issue with Apple's site but a well written HTML/CSS site will do well in search engines too.

I don't have huge gripes with the Apple site but I do think that it isn't up to their normal high standards.

I remember ages ago that zeldman was in talks with Apple in relation to the site. Anyone know what came of it?
 
seriously .. the company that made that "research" : http://www.keynote.com/
look at THEIR website

dell.com ranked as one of hte best. look at dell website.

so nice 3 words .. i dont get how people get keynote telling THAT so seriously when their own website experience plain sucks
 
arguments about the design of the site could go on forever. that's pretty subjective.

The issue I have with apple.com is the information architecture. It's all over the place, and things aren't in the most logical categorizations. I'm sure it began in an organized way, but as has been mentioned, it's a huge site with TONS of information. it's probably just grown out of control.

I think if Apple were to come up with a strict taxonomy for their info architecture, and STICK TO IT, things would be much easier to navigate to and the site would be a better experience (for those who aren't web savvy, or just don't like the site).
 
goynang said:
I remember ages ago that zeldman was in talks with Apple in relation to the site. Anyone know what came of it?
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Haven't heard anything about it lately. The quote below is from Zeldman's site (http://www.zeldman.com/daily/0803a.shtml) at the bottom of the page under 27-28 August 2003.


Apple, Stopdesign, and Happy Cog
Apple Computer has contracted Douglas Bowman of Stopdesign and Jeffrey Zeldman of Happy Cog Studios to assist in bringing the benefits of standards compliance and forward compatibility to the company’s well-known, much-admired site. We’ll be working with Messieurs Rand Hill, Douglas Vincent, and Chad Little of Apple’s web design team.
​
 
quicksan where have you been all my life (on this site anyway)! :)

I think this raises a really important point. Apple's site may be pretty, branded and styled, but the real issue in this type of evaluation is how well it supports users tasks. Can users (customers) easily find what they are looking for? I think Apple lacks in this area. It is ironic since they led the world in ease of use and usability in their products, but fail to demonstrate the same expertise on their site. Designers and marketing are always important, but they cannot be allowed to run the whole show - you need experts in usability and information architecture to have the primary lead in designing a sites structure and interaction characteristics first, then let the branding be applied to that. Perhaps Apple's site and its flaws reveals Apple's rumored leaning toward design over usability?

I always thought it was funny that the ugliest site in the universe (and not a very efficient site for my user experience) seems to sell more stuff than anybody - eBay!
 
And CSS helps in Safari how?.....yeah thats right.

I like Apple's little aqua website going on. Its like John Kerry snowboarding without the politics.
 
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