I was looking at orchestra websites today. They annoyed me. I started to wonder what they would say if they could talk.
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Proper Discord 
“Websites don’t annoy, web designers do.”
Brilliant
I think this XKCD strip needs to be printed out and nailed violently to the door of every web designer on Earth.
Quite right. I almost stole that idea. What am I saying? I did steal that idea.
Orchestra websites should be more like fetish photography blogs (IMHO), less to read and more to look at =P
No link?
I would supply one but I’m not speaking from experience, just hearsay =D
Maybe more to *listen* to… and keeping in mind that you only have a minute or less to engage and interest the viewer…
So true. Any musician’s website is like this, however, not just orchestras! They all suck. People arrive and those first few seconds are crucial, and no one gives visitors a good call to action or shows them what to do.
Too funny for words, thanks for sharing! I agree with Chris in that a number of musician websites suffer the same problems as motion picture websites: too much Flash design and not enough thought into UI. What’s really funny is just about every item in that gag is something orchestra are routinely marked down for in the annual orchestra website reviews.
I also agree with Elaine, that line about designers is brilliant.
Man I really want to believe that there’s an oboist out there called Puffy Sphincter
Use #PuffySphincter to tag all poorly designed web pages. LG.com is guilty.
Hilarious, sad, and oh so true. It’s reno time.
Wow. So So True!!!
This is very funny, but you missed the part about websites with annoying white on black text. We have other ways of making ourselves go blind.
Show me substantive evidence that white-on-black text is harder to read than black-on-white, and I’ll change it. See:
http://www.joedolson.com/articles/2006/08/on-the-readability-of-inverted-color-schemes/
It literally hurts my eyes. And I’m using the word literally literally. And I don’t see how your link does anything but reinforce the idea that people don’t like it – even if it’s just a matter of what we’re used to (though the pain I experience – am experiencing even reading what I’m typing now – suggests otherwise), Id’ think you’d care about it, especially since you spend so much time making fun of other websites. It’s a faux cool look. “Ooooh, my background is black, look at what a hipster I am!!! I’m like John Adams!!!” Yeah, well I stopped reading his blog – BECAUSE OF THE PAIN!
I’ve seen many others complain about this problem and also swear off white-on-black sites. I first hated it back when ESPN the magazine came out with that light-on-dark look. Maybe it only affects certain people, but it’s stupid to turn off a significant group of people because you think you’re hipster cool. It’s horrible design. Very simple.
John Adams is a hipster? Has anybody told him?
I don’t think you’ve made a very convincing case, but give me a week to look into it. I might just become the first person to redesign their entire website because an anonymous person on the Internet said I should. Still, since the basic premise of about half my posts is that other people should redesign their stuff because I say so, I suppose I should at least consider your suggestions.
In the meantime, the good news is that you can subscribe to my blog by email and read it in the color scheme of your choice.
That’s a very fair comment, especially given that I was unnecessarily hostile. I do feel strongly about this, and can very honestly say that this kind of design is uncomfortable to read for me. But I have subscribed to your blog via Google Reader – very well worth reading.
Ok. Here you are: black on white. It feels a bit bland to me. I suppose I’ll get used to it.