The Old Joel on Software Forum: Part 3 (of 5)

Frog Creek web site = yuck!

<vent>

Although Joel still has my vote for software management, he should start taking his design cues from someone else. If he thinks the new Mozilla site is "eye-popping" then he ought to get both his eyes and his head examined.

1) Dave Shea's site (http://www.mezzoblue.com/) is mostly garbage. I have the current IE and the title block blanks out when I hover over it. Everything else looks quickly thrown together and smack of photoshop eye candy rather than serious work.

2) The CSS Zen Garden is better, but sadly, Joel's site has hardly any of the cool stuff from this site.

3) The Mozilla site blows. I have to scroll down a main page that is twice as high as it should be to find worthless information. Yeah, I know, white space is great. Perhaps if they didn't use a 36 point font for everything they could cram everything into a normal size page.

4) The graphic on Frog Creek is pretty cool and I like the color. Unfortunately, the site sells an image more than a product. Perhaps this isn't bad, but when I see the pathetic nav bars at the top and bottom (with aren't even the same!) I get crazy. All this work and such silly looking navbars!

5) The product pages are pretty much just copied and pasted from his old site. Thus, I have to scroll down to find out what I want to know. This stink. Having the old info on a new site is, to veteran users, like having an Under Construction sign. Couldn't he just have waited another week and posted a better attempt?

Ugh! </vent>

StickyWicket
Wednesday, November 5, 2003

Spell with me: t, r, o, l, l. Starting a new thread for this topic (that has already been discussed) = sucks.

uncronopio
Wednesday, November 5, 2003

All that talk was about the Google bar. Plus I'm bored.

However.... I love the fact that Joel put Chicago on top of the City Desk page. Much better than smelly New York.

StickyWicket
Wednesday, November 5, 2003

Actually, it didn't "ping" in my brain last time around, but I just realized that Joel's home page now looks like every dotcom corporate "hire us we're fuzzy" page I've seen over the past few years.

Philo

Philo
Wednesday, November 5, 2003

There is still one difference between Joel's Site and DOT COMS, it passes the 7 second test, that is you can tell what fog Creek does Sells FogBugz and City desk within 7 seconds of entering it. The look is a bit more dot commy but the BS factor is not anywhere near .COM level, i.e. nothing about leveraging e-synergies or some such nonsense.

the artist formerly known as prince
Wednesday, November 5, 2003

At least there's no Flash, Philo.

When I check out a new company, I really hate to scroll just to read about a product. Scrolling really isn't that hard, it's just a bummer to have to do it again and again. It's especially annoying when you're reading a simple product description as opposed to a long like as in a blog.

StickyWicket
Wednesday, November 5, 2003

Actually I commented about this to a fellow JoS reader the other night. The FC site is okay, as are the others, but I really wouldn't call them "eyepopping". I left feeling "uh, yeah? so what?".

You don't care, do you?
Thursday, November 6, 2003

"so what" is right. The Fog Creek page didn't do much for me one way or another but thats fine as i had no expectations for it.

But after Joel calling the new mozilla site "Eye Popping" I was definately underwhelmed. I don't see why that (or the Fog Creek page) are any better than some of the good template designs on the open source web design site.

I'd certainly be unhappy if I comissioned the mozilla site or the fog creek site as a bit of work i was expected to pay for.

Robert Moir
Thursday, November 6, 2003

I agree, the FrogCreek pottery site is just plain ugly, but it gets the job done.

http://www.frogcreek.com/

www.MarkTAW.com
Thursday, November 6, 2003

By the way, the "eye-popping" version of the Mozilla site is here:

http://website-beta.mozilla.org/

I'm not sure it's eye-popping, but it's about 1000% more usable than the existing home page.

Brad Wilson (dotnetguy.techieswithcats.com)
Thursday, November 6, 2003

What are you guys talking about, the fog creek website changed my life! Now there's a spring in my step and... Ok I'll cut it out. But how exciting did you expect a web site to be?

My biggest complaint is that Joel's face really sticks out like a sore thumb. Can't he make a blue and blue-green Icon of himself? Or he could do himself up in blue and blue-green face paints and take a new picture.

Flash animation would be a great idea. He should have himself run around the page. You'll have to catch him and click him to go to the JOS webpage!

Keith Wright
Thursday, November 6, 2003

Do you mean Flash like this:

http://www.2advanced.com/flashindex.htm

Personally, I don't like it at all (2Advanced that is) but each to his own I suppose.

Interaction Architect
Thursday, November 6, 2003

Sounds like "QUALITY SERVICES" is going to make some money now. BTW, the regular Mozilla site is now the "eye-popping" one; no need to use the old beta link.

StickyWicket
Thursday, November 6, 2003

Wicket, it's not the new site when I view it here. It's the old site.

Brad Wilson (dotnetguy.techieswithcats.com)
Thursday, November 6, 2003