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August 30, 2004
RedStar
By QBlog in
I had a dream last night. In my dream Jakob Nielsen, Steve Krug and Jeffrey Zeldman were all imprisoned by some unseen force. Their captors brought each man into a dark room furnished only with a single wooden table. At one end of the table sat a computer terminal and at the opposite end was a glass of water and a small pill. One at a time, they were given a choice: Spend the next 24 hours surfing the Quixtar Web site or swallow a lethal cyanide pill. Within five minutes all three men were dead. Then i woke up, relieved that it was all just a crazy dream.
Not to self: Must avoid pizza after midnight.
The reality contained within my "dream" is that the Quixtar Web site is a usability nightmare. I've been a vocal critic of the site ever since I first visited over two years ago. It violates so many fundamental design rules that I'm amazed it's remained virtually unchanged for nearly five years.
I'm not alone in my criticism. An article from Baseline Magazine points out some of the problems I've mentioned in the past.
Quixtar's Web site suffers from design kinks that any e-commerce company should avoid.The article's author, Kim S. Nash, points out that Quixtar.com "lacks a consistent look, and is organized to reflect how Quixtar works rather than how a shopper shops."
However, Quixtar seems to finally be working on some major improvements to their Web site. Quixtar spokeswoman Anna Bryce is quoted as saying that the Web site will receive a "fairly comprehensive redesign" this fall.
The redesign efforts have been confirmed in the "Real Quixtar Blog's" August 24, 2004 post titled "User Designed" (get some permalinks Kia!):
Many people here have been working on one of the coolest projects in Quixtar's five-year history -- the redesign of Quixtar.com. Internally the project was called Redstar, which is short of Redesign Quixtar. Not too long ago, the Quixtar site received a poor rating by the GoodExperience people as being too confusing for users. Well, we already knew that and were working on it. We hope they take another look at us when the redesigned site is launched, because the user experience will be greatly improved and users will discover that it's much easier to find what they're looking for.All I can say is "It's about time." Five years is an eternity in Web time and every IBO should be relieved that Quixtar is working to improve it's clunky site. I just hope that this time it lives up to the hype.
Comments
They need to work on their products. A $40-$50 Liz Claiborne can be purchased at the mall when on sale at a much better price.
I could have sworn in Orin's speech he said the Quixtar folks had already figured this 'web-page' thing and it was rock solid.
How much are they going to charge the IBOs to get this done? I'm sure sacrifices must be made somewhere along the way.
Hello Eric,
Well, I found your quixtar blog just fine. Interesting reading ....
As you know, I'm a Quixtar IBO. My webpage at biznetproductions requires guest to use the letter S at the end of the ibo number. For example: 3716850S. You are welcome to have a look around whenever you can.
By the way, I am Kaba8
Oh! Now they can say they have another 2 to 5 year plan that will work because it was the sites fault.Prove it to everyone tell how many people went Diamond the last 5 years?I mean just Quixtar Ibo's not old Amway Distributors who finally made it.There should some or the plan is not working right?The 2 to 5 year plan has been preached for 5 years so where are they?Is there fruit on the tree or just no such thing?Is this just like Amway only better cause they get in quicker and quit quicker because of all the high tech?
I just read the baseline article, http://www.baselinemag.com/article2/0,1397,1610587,00.asp and they have google ads on the page. Qrush showed up. Man those adwords are gonna have to come back and bite them in the @$$. People viewing things at "responsible sites" are gonna get linked back to Qrush. After reading good things about the company...then to be thrown into the cesspool of Qrush will raise some eyebrows.
"Red Star?" Sounds pinko communist to me. Maybe Qrush should look into it!
Seriously, the Quixtar site could use a re-design. Couldn't hurt. The question is, why did it take so long? Six months is plenty to realize the design's positives and negatives and start on a re-design. Five years is way too long, especially when the site stinks.
Posted by: dmm | August 30, 2004 3:40 PM