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WORST. INTERFACE. EVER.

Why is there a flying saucer on this page?  Seriously.  It must mean something, right?
This probably isn't worth breaking blog silence for, but I just can't help it.  I am so completely guffawed by this screen.

If you're not a Lotusphere presenter, then presumably you haven't read the instructions on this page.  So I therefore challenge you, dear reader, to tell me what to click on to upload the file once you've selected it.

Please note, there is nothing hidden except the instructions.  These are all the controls that are available to you once you've selected a file to upload.

(Note: it's not really that big a deal -- the impacted audience is pretty small and close-knit.  I'm just stunned that no one pointed out how incredibly confusing this is.)

Comments

1 - Hey bro that looks like one of your UI designs. I am looking for the screenshot in an old prez you gave. Emoticon

2 - For a one-shot deal used by a couple hundred people.... they went for quick and dirty. Did it need to be public?

3 - @2: I think Nathan is pointing out that there is no (obvious) "upload" button... Instead of spending time on finding a UFO icon, what about creating a button called "upload"?

4 - @Karl,

The instructions that blurred out tell you to click the up arrow to upload a file.

5 - Well, I have to agree that is pretty bad UI design... You should not have to read text, the button/icon should be obvious. What does the back-arrow do then?

6 - File nameing? (sic!)

7 - @2 - Of course it didn't HAVE to be public. And I noted exactly your point -- that this is a site that targets a narrow audience.

I'm literally just wondering what the person that put that control on a graphic instead of a "submit" button was thinking. There's every chance it wasn't even IBM, of course.

@5 - The back arrow goes to the previous page.

8 - Meanwhile, David has posted something unrelated, but very useful: { Link }

9 - That is so funny that I just read your post after I uploaded my presentation tonite.

I spent 2 minutes before I got up the courage to click on that up arrow! This is mainly because the instructions that were sent to us say that once it is uploaded you cannot edit the file. So you have one shot at doing this. So you assume it will be obvious as to what to do...until you get there.

John
Emoticon

10 - Criticising the benefactor ? oooh. Brave.

---* Bill

11 - @9 - That's the thing that killed me. It's an up arrow on an FTP site. That's universal for "navigate to the parent folder."

It's also pretty much universal, on the web at least, that the confirmation action is just below or to the right of the point of data entry. So to add one or more files to the list, and then go backwards by having the action further UP the page is incredibly counter-intuitive.

Notes does things this way all the time, but at least it uses a clearly bordered Action Bar for that process.

None of this, of course, explains the flying saucer.

@10 - uh... whatever, dude.

12 - Dude - didn't you ever see the movie Swordfish?! It's the final test to see just how good the speakers are.

If you can find a way to submit the form, then you're eligible to speak.

... I thought that was fairly obvious Emoticon

13 - Sorry, I completely missed this. I saw the mail to upload my presentation via FTP, so I dropped to DOS, ran FTP and was done in two minutes. If you hadn't blogged about it I wouldn't even have known about it.

14 - What was that book....err...Don't make me think...

Emoticon

15 - On the plus side, it was fast.

Chris
(FYI - your remember me checkbox seems to be disconnected from the text. Now, go back to blog-silence!)

16 -
Oh, a few things here:

I agree, the upload button was fantastically stupid.

Worst interface ever? Hardly. I've just spent two days in Lotus Sympathy and Openoffice.org Depress. I can think of at least two other worse interfaces that I've used in the past 48 hours.

What I'm curious about is -- If its just an FTP site, why not just use FTP? I mean, why did it need to have a web interface at all? Frankly, anyone who can't be given an ftp server address, username, and password and figure out how to upload a presentation successfully should not be allowed to present one.

For a throwaway quick-thing, I see no real problem with it. The upload button thing was stupid. Other than that it was a bit cloying and overly complicated but functional.


17 - @16 - *cough* { Link } *cough*

18 - [quote]None of this, of course, explains the flying saucer.[/quote]

ha ha ha. Emoticon

This reminds me in a way of the cliche about eating your own dog food.

What does the power button in the top right do? ... and why didn't they simply present a button on where to download filezilla?

19 - @18 I'm assumin' that the power button turns off the server?

"Last one to upload, please help us be green and turn off the server."

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