ebuzz - Mouse Rage

Mouse Rage

Badly designed sites will drive customers away.

That's the conclusion reported this week by the UK's Social Issues Research Centre, which published a study of 2,500 users commissioned by Rackspace Managed Hosting. The study found that five technology flaws in websites might have deleterious effects on people - and, in certain cases of extreme frustration, even cause "mouse rage."

The five flaws?

• slow-loading pages
• layouts that are difficult to navigate
• pop-ups
• unnecessary ads, including banners
• site unavailability

(In a singular bit of irony that one cannot help but find amusing, the publication reporting the findings, the EE Times Online, demonstrates several of these flaws on the very page where this article appears: pop-ups interrupted our reading twice, and it was impossible to see where the article ended and the advertisements began!)

Rackspace Managed Hosting's managing director, Jacques Greyling, said the study shows that businesses selling online have a duty to provide an Internet experience "as stress-free as possible." He added, "The message is clear: Businesses need to provide simple and easy-to-navigate layouts, whilst focusing on speed and uptime."

And that's our take on the news today!

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