I get annoyed online because so many companies, certainly their marketing departments, continue to think that pretty pictures and so on, with little actual information, are better than informing the consumer and engaging in a conversation.
I still think that. I wish corporations would take a cue from successful blogs which, in most cases, depend on text and actually interacting with their visitors.
But …
While giving a few moments to Windowshop in order to see what it was, I came across the movie, on DVD, The Visitor. And now I’m going to track it down and buy it after watching the trailer.
So I guess it works. On the other hand, I live in Canada and went to Amazon.ca to see if the movie was available and what that the price might be. Well, the price is too high. I’m pretty sure I’ll find it cheaper elsewhere. I can even wait a bit and possibly get it as a previously viewed DVD at an even lower cost.
In that sense, it didn’t work. But that has little to do with the site and more to do with the pricing.
But back to Windowshop … I’m skeptical. Maybe it will catch on. But like Microsoft Office and it’s redesign that goes against what people are use to in programs like Word, which is frustrating and requires changing long established habits and demands oodles of time to figure out how to do the simplest things (and by default saving files in a format only Word 2007 can open), the Windowshop site has some curious navigation. You can get use to it pretty quickly but, as with all things Flash, it has quirks which can be annoying.
Maybe it’s me. I find Flash to be user-unfriendly. To me, Flash is pretty but clunky and slows everything down. And I’ve never understood why it’s popular.
Is that just the luddite in me?
Follow Writelife on Twitter
