Curse of the Black Pearl Media
As you know, I have a special place in my heart and on this blog for media companies whose own Web sites are, erm, less than optimal. For example, Black Pearl Media:
Let’s see, what do we have?
- No title tag, so it’s forever immortalized as Untitled Document.
- No meta keywords or description, so its search engine results choose the client login and associated links as well as the privacy policy information as descriptions.
- Reliance, probably, on an out-of-the-box content management thing that renders many pages with actual Times New Roman font.
- Reliance on Flash to cover for the fact that the content management system relies on a really old technology (Cold Fusion).
And…..
- The fact that clicking the Client Login Login button without changing what’s in the boxes to begin with causes a Cold Fusion error:
Oops.
So what are today’s lessons, children?
- You Flash-happy developers need to remember that your Flash resides on a Web page, and make sure to include basics like title and meta information so it’s spiderable and sensible.
- You need to handle situations where the user clicks Submit without entering any data.
- If you’re one of those designers who insist upon populating controls with default text instructions, you need to handle when the user doesn’t change that information.
- If you’re expecting to build a solution with an out-of-the-box technology you cannot maintain or don’t understand, you’re in for it.
