Bike Friday Website
I visited the Bike Friday Website today and was shocked. They changed their site. It was a good idea to change their site, since the old one was nearly a mess and difficult to navigate. But it was a bad idea to change it to what it is now. it is really a mess now.
Starting with the color and the background graphics, it looks pretty silly to have a silhouetted imagery. Everyone knows their bikes. If some one does not know, the graphics does nothing to educate them on their products. FAIL.
There are 3 Menu systems on the front page. Count 3. I think it is totally unnecessary. I prefer their original One menu system. Colors are selection is outrageous. white fonts on light green? Who chose that? FAIL.
Menus respond to Mouse over. in an eagerness to embrace Web 2.0, there is way too much javascript enabled automation. I don’t care for fancy graphics, I need the ability to know where to find things. Menus overlap, I am lost. FAIL.
Some sections in the front page are collapsed – By Default. Why put it up if you want to save space I ask? Some sections cannot be collapsed. Why? Inconsistency is the cornerstone of bad user Interface. Please take a leaf from Apple. FAIL.
Menu Hides under Images. FAIL.
I thought I was out of the era of Flickering Graphics. What do I get on the Front page? A rotating set of customer images. I preferred the previous version showcasing one image in the front page. It is easy to randomly show images whenever the page refreshes like RBW. This flashing images is making me disoriented. FAIL.
The cloud on Top right is silly. Please remove it. If you want to highlight some dealers, put it in a more structured location. FAIL.
I understand what BF was trying to do. I suspect maintaining their website was very manual and laborious and decided to jump to a database driven platform to ease their process. But what they have ended up with is a mish-mash of badly implemented ideas with no sense of design.
BF is an engineering company and I do not expect their website design to be aesthetically pleasing. At the least they should strive for usability. The old site was a bitch to navigate but I suddenly miss it now.
Please do something.
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July 16th, 2009 23:56
I concur, Dr Web. Care to share your 2 cents on our new School website? Ha ha…
July 17th, 2009 23:43
Dear Friday Fan,
Thanks for the feedback. If you have the time and money to help a small, non-bailout receiving innovative company like Bike Friday make its website as good as its http://www.bikefriday.com/tikit, we’ll graciously accept.
Now don’t look too hard at my site either – it’s a mish mash of hacked former YAHOO geocities code, HTML and whatever – suffice to say, time and resources are tight when you’re trying to change the world – or even your own backyard
)
Thanks for supporting “made in ‘merica” by riding a BF.
July 18th, 2009 22:13
Wow. Lynette you work too hard. It is the weekend already
Sorry to have sounded harsh. I am not judgemental about appreances nor am a design snob. But I really think the front page seems to be a step back in terms of usability. I am not a websire or UI designer (nor am I a bike builder). But I can appreciate practical design when I use it. That’s why I do appreciate the Tikit and have been micro evangelising to people in the market for a bike. There is a tikit sitting at home and I have much fun stealing a ride in it. I am planning on getting a NWT derivative to ride around SE Asia.
So, getting back, I suppose I got a bit fidgety when I saw your new site and I thought it was not a good entry point for newer users of the site to find info (I count myself among of of the elite users and can get to any info on the site within a minute). When I recommend your site for friends to check out, I suppose people can get easily turned off with the new design and I will be unsuccessful in converting a few more.
I am not a web designer but have reasonable UI design sensibilities and can offer some time if you guys need. You can contact me at “nat AT pedscapades DOT com” and can let me know what you think I can contribute to make your site better.
I guess little contributions can go a long way and if I can help, I will be glad to do so.