Somebody: fix “Nokia at 3GSM” site quick!
General
- February 2nd, 2007
Nokia Nseries CES blog was bad, but it seems that our Nokia at 3GSM site is even worse.
Key problems:
- pages are not linkable
- can’t press browser back button
- copy-pasting text is disabled
- no RSS
- misuse of Flash slows down navigation
Seriously, folks. This is not funny anymore. This is not what an Internet company does. How do we expect people to follow what’s happening? By subscribing to our email ads? Yeah, right. How do we expect people to spread the word? By every day checking the site for updates, and then copying the relevant piece of text manually? Dream on.
No intention to offend anybody personally, but right now we are, as a company, making a fool of ourselves.
Luckily, we still have 10 days to fix this.
Via: Ring-Nokia
Thanks Tommi!
I would like to thank the guys who did the Nokia World 2006 blog. That was brilliant! Bring those people back to do the 3GSM blog.
However, this site looks great in PowerPoint and when is shown to the top management in case the management doesn’t have time for the own internet browsing
The site is very pretty and there has to be a cool Flash designer in its back office. Too bad that Flash presentations are unusable on the web.
Well done Tommi.
Since it is Flash-based, integrating RSS might be a little bit tricky, e.g. where to link?
Honestly, the layout of the site is pretty good…
We just need “Web 2.0″ touch.
well…
I at last have understood sense of a phrase “it`s like porn…” ))
I did not expect to see such internet strategy from Nokia
Another criticism for the page is that it is simply unavailble for Nokia S60 v3 multimedia and business phones, because they cannot handle the flash on the site.
It is also a bit sarcastic that the only Nokia device on the market - capable to open the page is the N800… Which is NOT a GSM device… May be the N95 will be anounced to be at the shops with this slogen: now you can read our 3GSM site…
There is one scenario, which would acctually make me, and million others happy: getting a browser update which can display the Nokia 3 GSM page with flash. Now that would be a nice touch to the show!
Regards!
Aron
What I find makes this really funny is that the layout actually tries its best to imitate the “normal” HTML-based looks of the Nokia website, and uses Flash mainly for some fancy transitions when you click, rather than for genuine fast, local interaction. At least as a first impression, the pages do very little that cannot be achieved with pretty straightforward HTML - apart from the transitions.
On my screen, another side effect is actually *worse* font quality, because Flash doesn’t do quite as good a job in font smoothing as a properly tuned ClearType setting in XP does.
And, finally, presenting text in scrolling Flash actually means worse accessibility (think of blind people with screen readers!), and loss of features like the use of scroll wheels or touchpad edges to move through text.
Are these enough arguments to pass on in favour of going back to standards-compliant design?
Unfortunately the “internet” message does not seem to have yet penetrated the marketing departments.
I think everyone should just go to any senior Nokia people they see and ask “why are Nokia’s own web sites not browseable using Nokia’s own devices?” That should be a simple enough question to penetrate even the thickest marketing skull
Laughing and pointing with finger works too. Marketers hate that…)
(You can continue with “If Nokia’s web browser is the best, then why does Nokia deliberately prevent its own web sites from working with it”, and “Why does it seem that cell phone devices not a part of Nokia’s internet strategy?”, if you’re feeling particularly bold. Anyone with technical skill already knows using Flash is dumb - it’s the marketing folks that need convincing, and they don’t understand tech talk. So don’t use it
Tommi,
I’m thinking it must have somethign to do with all the “flash” and fancy code. The links (tabs) work fine for me - perhaps they have been repaired. Correct, you can’t hit back but you fon’t really need to.. simply hit the tab (ie. home) to return to that page - can’t copy/paste.. indeed, seems like a common practice these days although why? Is there really a fear of someone copying the page??? Surely anyone could also do a screen capture… Indeed the site maybe “ver designed” but its pretty much functional… what ever happened to simple html… ah the good old days ;0)
on a side note, can someone please enlighten me on the differences between the N80 and the N80 internet edition??? I updated my firmware on the N80 but I can’t see anything different, besides the fact that I had to reinstall all my applications … any help out there???
glenn
Heh, thanks for comments. I should have added to the list:
- does not work with Nokia’s own web browser
- not searchable
- actual design is gorgeous
And agreed: I think Nokia World 2006 “From the Floor” blog was a success, and I think we should learn from it.
Glenn: I think the main differences/additions in N80IE are integrated SIP/VoIP support and Wi-Fi Wizard. In addition, I think there are a number of minor tweaks here and there. Check the details from the press release:
http://www.nokia.com/A4136001?newsid=1072566
1 week left, tick tock Tommi.
Worst of all, if you subscribe to their newsletter or news update by email, they will send those updates to all recipients with their email addresses in clear To:field for all to see…
Thanks for the subsequent spam
Yeah, I just received the same email with 1000 other email addresses in the TO field. Thanks Nokia for adhering to EU data protection laws.
How do I unsubscribe from this spam?