

Home Articles Site Comments Haburi.com	Articles About KB

Site Comment on Haburi.com

by Kristoffer Bohmann, June 8, 2000

Haburi.com makes several design mistakes, including too small windows and lack of navigation support.

Other Site Comments

• Boxman.com

• Apple Store.com

• Bokus.com

• Toycity.com

• Boo.com

Small Windows

All pages are shown in small windows that are non-scrollable and doesn't adjust to users' preferred window width. This simple choice has a number of highly unfortunate usability consequences.

Text size cannot be increased as it has been locked to control the user experience. There is no point in denying users text sizes that fit their preferences. This violates a fundamental assumption about the Web: Users are in charge, not Web designers.
Lots of valuable pixels are wasted as they are turned into inefficient white space. Users don't go to websites to get an aesthetic experience, but to learn about products and buy them.
Overview pages: Too few products are presented on each page. Small pictures are used to present products (nice!), but only 5-6 pictures are shown in the browser window.
Overview pages: Users are forced to click several times to get an overview of many products. I predict that 80 percent of users only look at 1-2 pages (6-12 products) on each product overview page.
Detail pages: Extra clicks are needed on product pages to get detailed product information. This is counter-intuitive. Users go to detailed product websites to learn and product information needs to be available fast and easy.

Under-Leveraged Homepage

The homepage is only used to choose country. I consider this a major waste of clicks. A better solution is to present the website in English as default and then make it possible to choose another language. Choosing country does not make sense as the Web ignores geography.

Further, the homepage states that products are only sent to the country chosen. So, English-speaking persons are excluded as customers if they happen to live in Denmark but don't speak Danish.

Meanwhile it makes me suspicious: Am I being cheated -- can I get products cheaper if I have it sent to an address in Germany instead of Denmark? Some users may even spend time comparing prices within the same website...

Splash Screens and Animations

A double-splash (!) window pollutes my screen when entering the site. The homepage is the first splash, and upon entering the site another splash seeks to teach users how to use the site. (Web users don't read manuals.)

Further, the same two animations steal user attention from the content on all pages.

Link Colors and Navigation Support

Non-standard link colors are used and followed links have the same color as new links. This makes it impossible to see where the user has been (e.g., did I click this link?).

Navigation support suffers as information about URLs is unavailable before clicking as the browser status bar is occupied by a message ("Coming soon: Ghost." So...?).

Admittedly, the sites information structure and complex URLs makes URL information difficult to use. Here is an example leading to a shirt for men named Bedford and manufactured by Hanes:

www.haburi.com/cgi-bin/ncommerce3/ExecMacro/haburi/macros/default_2.d2w/report?dept=5020&checkcookie=Y

An improved information structure would leave to more informative links such as this:

www.haburi.com/mensdepartment/brands/hanes/bedford_shirt.html

Navigation support can also be strengthened by providing more "where am I"-information in plain language like this: (both techniques are used on the page you are reading right now)

Men's Department > Brands > Hanes > Bedford Shirt

Usability Improvements Compared to Boo.com

Criticism is easy. So, I will also point out some improvements on the Haburi site compared to Boo.com.

Linking and bookmarking is possible as URLs are visible. So, news about products can spread by word-of-mouth.
No 3D graphics. In general the site also uses more text and less graphics.
No horizontal scrolling on product overview pages. (But standard vertical scrolling is not supported either.)
Shopping basket is called "Basket", not "haburi basket" (or "boo basket").
Multiple languages are handled pretty nice despite the splash homepage.

Related usability comments: Toycity.com and Boo.com.

About the Author
Kristoffer Bohmann (biography) M.Sc. thinks and writes about high-quality user experiences. His philosophy: Users first. You can contact him at kb@bohmannusability.com.