Staples, websites and Flash

Is it just me or is OK to consider Flash the scourge of the interwebs? I just spent 10 minutes trying to navigate Staples (the office supply folks) updated website and am hereby pronouncing it unusable. Let's start with the really awful and move to the less awful.

Online version of print ad
This is, to use a Twitter term, a complete and total failwhale. Once you go into this Flashed-out zoomy, flippy, scrolly, rollover driven hell, there's no escaping. You can't get back to Staples regular website (easily), the add to cart feature doesn't carry to your regular Staples page and you can't view detailed specifications or reviews on any of the products. Maybe the online print ad is really hosted by Office Depot and they don't want you to buy anything. Whoever designed this system should be sent back to HTML 1.0 school.

Don't click on the Easy Button!
If you do, you end up in another Flash-driven subsite hell. Why does anyone think a glowing, rotating, panning, scrolling text Easy Button page with no clear logical links to anywhere is going to make me want to install something? And you are stuck on this page forever. Try clicking "Home". You'd expect it to go to Staple's home page. Well you'd be wrong. It restarts the Easy Button Flash crap all over. I'm calling this Web -2.0. Try it yourself.

Staples Easy Button

Changes stores, lose cart.
And my last little peeve. I realized after sticking a couple items in my shopping cart, that the store location was pointing to a Staples 20 miles from me. So I clicked on change store location. Poof, cart goes bye-bye. Yet another failure.

OK end of short rant. What do you think?

06.05.2009. 13:56

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