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Posted

Arcteryx gets this year's nomination for most slicked-up, pretty-looking, pain-in-the-butt navigation-nightmare of a website. It should be illegal to spend this much money on something and get a result that useless. [Wazzup]

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Posted

When you're making $390 profits on jackets you can afford to buy an NYC hipper-than-thou web package (i.e., one you can barely load, much less navigate). Bonus points for unnecessary flash files and trace mp3 stream. [Roll Eyes] that crap is so 1998 [sleep]

 

me, I stick with stryper: [rockband]

Posted

I couldn't agree with you more. Given the negative reviews, I went there myself. I was so frustrated and disgusted I sent the following email - see below:

 

NOTE TO 'bird@arcteryx.com' (I would encourage everyone to send their own sentiments; these are mine)

 

Bird:

I have a lot of respect for your brand. I own a storm top and bib bottoms. I say this so you know I'm not a grumpy kook. Your web site SUCKS. You have gone over the top for art and left navigation behind. Hell, I can't even get to the selection of roll-tops. Plus this is the 2nd email I have written. I composed one in your 'Product Feedback' section. But there is no way to send it so I lost it. I'm not a neophyte to the WWW. I have been in the digital business since 1994. Your site is the biggest abuse of art I have ever seen.

 

You will be advised to drop the art and get to some real and easy navigation.

Posted

interesting...

 

i am a web developer/graphic designer/copy writer. i've been in the industry for 2+ years.

 

arcteryx.com is a beautiful site from a purely aesthetic point of view. there are a lot of things i love about the movement, style, flow and layout. however, these things are more suited for a personal/experimental site, not a major corporate site, especially one with e-commerce potential.

 

there are some serious issues with that site...

 

1. the use of flash is bad. i mean, seriously, i waited something like 4 minutes on dial up for the site to load. make more of the elements load in the background or only load upon clicking. so much of that site could have been html or dhtml and javascript. it would have been lighter, faster loading and more accessible. some of the text is pretty poor in quality as well. the choice of fonts could have been better. some render far more superior in flash than others.

 

also, the product detail windows are draggable. that's pointless in a site like this. it adds nothing and just adds to file size and loading time.

 

2. large audio files? so fucking unecessary... a truly great media firm would realize that the benefit of rapid entry into the site is paramount over audio effects. 10% of that load script was devoted to audio. unless it some how drastically enhances your site, don't bother with audio tracks. complete waste of time. in this case, i wasted a half minute or so, so i could hear some stupid roll-over sounds and have my mp3's interrupted.

 

3. accessibility. the site has none. flash kills many possibilities of interacting with disabled or challenged consumers. bah.

 

4. navigation. the site navigation and IA structure is somewhat poor. i hate 'mystery meat' navigation - where you have to mouse-over an area to see what the link it. this is a quick way to frustrate and infuriate visitors.

 

5. where's the e-commerce? this company/site has a lot of potential to sell products on line.

 

anyway, there are more things i can think of, but i'm tired and going to grab some zzzzz's.

 

the bottom line is this - the site is beautiful and has some great features/movement/etc. however it ignores a lot of basics and proves to be a poor use of technology wrapped in an inaccessible, confusing shell.

 

peace out.

Posted

exactly. On first visit sites like that make me thing "hey that's cool." but the subsequent visits get to be a chore. That stuff works great as a corporate faceplate if you are a rich media developer or something similar, but for your typical consumer climber who wants to get the specs on something quickly, it's a little stiff on the download. Then again, your typical arcteryryryx'didas' teryx consumer probably has the bandwidth to swallow this thing. I happen to have a fast cxt'n. I found it pretty to look at, but pretty annoying in the long run.

 

PS. How'm I supposed to outrun the cougars if I have to wait for my namesake site to load? [Confused]

 

Now for some Midnight Oil [rockband]

Posted

here is a hint - no one at arcteryx ever reads email sent to bird@arcteryx.com. Go to the office in Burnaby, get a handful of business cards and start sending emails to the names on the cards. [big Grin] or just walk in, say I hate you all and leave a coiler on the rug.

Posted

quote:

Originally posted by Greg W:

Get ahold of Scot'teryx. He and Arc'teryx have the same last name, maybe Scot' has some pull.

Arc'teryx designers are known 4:20 ers (just walk by the parking lot at 4:20 and take a sniff...) so maybe Scotty better change his name? Wouldnt want to wear clothing designed by STONERS it might kill you or leak!!

[Razz]

Posted

Shit, Arc'teryx designers could be smoking ground up children for all DFA cares. They design the most bombingest (yes, bombingest) shit ever. See Arc'teryx Vapor, best sports climbing harness ever conceived, and Arc'teryx [insert name of pack here], most comfortable pack ever to haul shit. See also 90% of Arc'teryx garments, excepting the $150 Schoeller shorts. That's pushing it. But shit, the Doctor says give them boys more dope if that's the products that result!

 

Then again, perhaps this alleged consumtion of the "kind green nuggets" explains the labrynthine and counterintuitive nature of their website? "Duuuuuude, the links magically appear when you mouse over them! Whoah, who ate my Cheetos, dude?"

 

[ 08-16-2002, 03:54 PM: Message edited by: Dr Flash Amazing ]

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