Not Found
One of the largest flaws remaining in on-line media is the server error 404, or page not found. This is not a difficult error to avoid, yet many developers simply ignore this. I recently came across an example at Humanized.
Humanized is a web/software development studio from Chicago extolling the virtues of making computers that work like you. A great precept, finding a way to take obstacles out of modern tools to make them more efficient. However, their own website is woefullly inhuman. Though it’s very well designed from an aesthetic and structural standpoint, it’s the two (maybe there are more) 404 errors I recieved from the top level navigation items Products and Support.
Certainly, the hash-marked background of the menu items does indicate that they are perhaps under construction, but clicking on them reveals a most machine like response to finding nothing Images reveal what I saw. Hmm. I was disappointed for the Humanized folks not only because they didn’t do anything to prevent a user from seeing the 404, but they also missed a huge opportunity to market these service areas of their company.
At this point in the history of web development there’s really no need to see these useless error messages. There have been pages and sites full of information dedicated to the subject.
Developing your website to avoid 404 errors is a simple way to demonstrate to site visitors that the site is intended for human comsumption.
- See All Industry, Observations
2 comments-
2 Comments
While I’m never happy, per se, to hear about broken links, I must thank you for bringing this problem to my attention! “Products” and “Support” were not supposed to be links at all, until those pages are operational. They were links-to-nowhere due to a Movable Type bug, but this is now fixed.
By calling our company “Humanized” and ranting about humane interfaces all the time, we risk looking like hypocrites if we do not live up to our own high standards. People will expect a lot out of us, and we will have to deliver.
Our first product is now entering its beta-test phase, and as part of the preparations for release [we're] currently building a comprehensive website testing program, which ought to catch errors like these before they escape into the “blogosphere” and embarass us again.
Oh, and by the way, the “A List Apart” page on the perfect 404 that you linked to above is a great resource. Thanks!
It was actually difficult to write this post calling out your site as a _404 offender_ when I knew full well this was a machine glitch. I’m pleased that you’re good natured about it. _Humanized_ is a great name, and certainly does set the stakes high, however, I suspect you’ll live up to them.
I can’t wait to see your new product and was hoping to find some screenshots which is what got me poking around.
Cheers!