fool.co.uk

I’ve just posted a rant on www.fool.co.uk about their awful site design. Hm. Feel a bit guilty. A bit soiled to be honest… I actually think the site’s content is fantastic. But the form of that content really, really stinks. The last straw was their announcement of some forthcoming “layout changes” which (I assume) have now gone live. In classic 1995 style, they’ve just made things worse. The site needs major surgery.

I can imagine what it must be to work on the design of TMF though – assuming somebody does design it. Getting second-class treatment from their parent company in the States, probably. Lumbered with godawful in-house development (the site search! the forums!); tied up in knots by internal fiefdoms and big advertisers calling the shots – it’s all so obvious when you look at it. Poor bastards.

Still, I’ve got some great info there, and even bought some of the products their advertisers are selling (although I transferred my L&G ISA to Fidelity today). Let’s hope thing get better on the usability side. Getting much worse would be pretty much impossible. Hey – maybe they’ll gizzajob?