ISP redesign unites the web in nausea
Internet service provider Be There has redesigned its home page in a way guaranteed to get it talked about. The site is absolutely hideous. But worse, several Reg readers were presented with other people's account details when they first logged in. Customers could see other customers' addresses and phone numbers but payment …
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Rly?
Ok I'm going to say it: The new web site is quite nice. A brave choice and not to every bodies taste but I like it.
WTF
It looks like someone let a 5 year old loose with a set square and a bunch of highlighters.
Bad attempt at looking retro
Also, the colour 'scheme' brings back memories of old games using CGA graphics, bluerghhh... that was headache inducing enough (added to the dodgy CRT monitors that had your local opticians rubbing their hands with glee).
Also a quick search on Brand Republic (http://www.campaignlive.co.uk/news/922278/Broadband-kicks-off-integrated-review/?DCMP=ILC-SEARCH) shows that they're after a new design agency to handle their integrated account (which may include the site, I'm not sure) and as quoted "The company has selected three agencies to pitch for the business. The incumbent, My Agency, was not invited to defend the account.". Coincidence, shurely not?
Screenshots?
Can anybody provide screen captures? The site is currently down and I would like to experience its mind-melting uglyness first hand.
-dZ.
Sounds Great
Can't see it, certificate borked.
Oh, and anyone still using IE6 is a moron.
Epic fail
Oh deary me! They did find the site I designed some 15 years ago and well... took the worst parts only!
UGH!
Just took a look at it for the first time; all that's missing are little anumated gifs of workmen digging with the words "UNDER CONSTRUCTION" in large yellow and black striped letters!
Seen the personalise...
.. bit on the left hand side?
I personally like the one with the pink baloons!
Cyan, yellow and magenta!
Be: the ISP for Sinclair Spectrum.
Nearly forgot: <vomits>
Someone in print design...
...has done this. Classic CMYK colour 'scheme'.
Well, when I say 'design', there's certainly no intelligence behind it. Maybe it was done by the people that did the 2012 Olympics logo.
90s Retro
I rather like that look, reminds me a bit of NTK or something.
Not something that would appeal to everyone I guess, but it doesn't cause me pain. Also, who actually looks at their ISP homepage more than once or twice a year?
And the Epic Fail continues, although I have apparently been spared my eyes...
I get:
www.bethere.co.uk uses an invalid security certificate.
The certificate is not trusted because the issuer certificate is unknown.
(Error code: sec_error_unknown_issuer)
And Firefox does not display the site. Oh well, I would only have been a gawker anyway.
I thought I'd lost my mind ...
I too followed their email link and thought I must have ingested some funny mushrooms in the quiche I'd just eaten.
Is it a clever joke? I thought. Has it been hacked? But no, this was meant to be genuine. What a genius must have came up with this!
Anyhow, not only did it look grotesque it didn't even work (you waited 15 minutes when you clicked on a link to be taken there -- if it felt like it).
You couldn't have made it up. I'm off to see if they have done anything more acceptable and if they haven't I'm canceling my account.
WTF?
I'm with BE and although the connection is rock solid and fast, highly rate that! I've never been happy with their support.
I received the email from them last night to look at the 'new site' and promptly replied to ask if its a joke? 'my first website' springs to mind...
My eyes! MY EYES!
Dear sweet mother of God! MY EEEEYYYEESSS....
I can't draw a straight line with a diamond-edged ruler and a laser-guided light pen but even I could do better than that monstrosity.
I thought it was a joke...
... because phishing sites at least attempt to look like their targets.
I truly hope Be isn't at the vangard of a new wave of pants websites but the recent Channel4 redesign suggests otherwise...
*Glorp*
As a child of the seventies I have seen some truly nausea inducing sights. Even so this redesign has given me a headache and made me feel sick.
Needs a bucket icon or a person vomiting icon
Whyyyy???
Okay, so the old, pink monstrosity was, well, a monstrosity... but this is a leap backwards, not forwards.
The email they sent me announcing this 'makeover' says:
"Since then we have seen the dawn of Web 2.0 and Social Media, and to be frank we haven't done much about it. In particular the one area that hasn't changed much has been our website, so we've taken the liberty to make it much better."
Aside from the fact I can change my own background (whoop!) I really don't see '2.0' in this... in fact, it's barely 1.0 and reminds me of something that might have squeezed down through my 14.4 modem in days gone by.
Perhaps the new member centre will be where the goodies are hiding... but who knows, it's still down whilst they figure out what they did to the security.
Oh, and if you think this new design is 'quite nice' perhaps you should try setting the background to the 'jirobevis' option. Sweet cheeses!!!!!!
Not so bad
Doesn't seem too bad to me. Maybe they fixed it already?
Not so bad
The design isn't what I'd choose, but it's not so bad really. I can see the effect they're aiming for, and it pretty much works. I can understand why some people would dislike it, but the universal hatred seems odd.
The SSL certs, account mix-ups and failure to validate are unforgivable of course, and should be fixed ASAP. But as for not rendering in IE6 - good on you! Point me to the dev who made that decision and I'll buy him/her a pint.
oooh yuk
Does anyone know who designed it? I need to update my blacklists...
Screenshot...
I sent this in earlier but I'm not sure if El Reg will post it. So for anyone who hasn't see it.
http://i215.photobucket.com/albums/cc88/andrewranyard/Image9.jpg
enjoy ;)
(PS I didn't create the 'boarder', it was another Be* user)
no worse
than the reg redesign
actually it is, a lot worse!!
Off with their heads !
That is just nasty, aliased text, bad layout and the large FF warning saying the site cannot be trusted.
It's not a bold design choice it's a lack of design choice, yikes they need to join us all in the 21st century not go back to the mid nineties.
They just put me off leaving Virgin and joining BE Well done guys.
Who commisioned this ? Off with their heads !
Untrusted Connection
Anyone with Firefox will have to get past the Untrusted Connection screen first - looks like someone at Be made a mess of the SSL cert.
SSL certificate?
Quite aside from the "interesting" design, I had to add an SSL exception in FF to access the site. Not really terribly professional looking when your users get a nasty warning when they try to access your site.
Woooot?!
Perhaps the singular most visually offensive example of web-design work I've ever seen, unless you count the stuff I did when I was 10. Actually, nope, wait, that was better.
Get the burning torches and the pitchforks!
It was Dave (www.dave.biz) what done it. One of their employees turned up on the Be* forums and promptly got the flaming of his life.
I have never seen anything quite like it; the posts on the Be* forums are 100% negative; it is open revolt down there.
Wow.
Sure wish I could hit the sauce like that while I'm working.
Also, screencap: http://aaron.acephalo.us/be-there-ugly.png -- that's with stock Firefox 3.5, no special whatsits or widgets, no Flashblock or Adblock or NoScript or what-have-you. Ugly as sin, ain't it?
Heh
That's pretty funny, a shining example of what happens when the client overrules the designer.
Goes back to the start of the interwebs
I think I remember seeing this back in 1993 or so. I suppose it does prove that MS Word can be used to design web pages. Sorta.
Paris, 'cause she looks hot in any year.
I can sort of see the idea
An attempt to invoke the fuzzy feeling of the "good old days" when all this was still wild and novel. When UK WiReD mag was not quite as shit as it seems now. To tap into that nostalgic goodwill.
The actual effect, however, is "Ow! Holy fuck, my eyes! I'm blind!"
#00FFFF, especially that much of it, should be against the Geneva Convention.
Be site not My Agency work
Hi
I work for My Agency and just wanted to clarify that the new Be site is nothing to do with us. We are continuing to work with O2 on www.o2litmus.co.uk but not Be Broadband. We wish them well with future endeavours.
James Easterbrook
Client Services Director
My Agency
Why so slow?
I know I am disadvantaged, sat behind a corporate firewall using IE6 (FFS) but given the "minimal" design on the home page it took a loooooooong time to open the link!
I quite like it
Why all the hating? It's a bit bright but hardly tripod / geocities
Ze goggles! Zey do nozzing!
Wow. Just needs some animated GIFs of something in 3D, a frameset and 120k picture of some middle-aged couple on a beach and we're right back to the days of IE4. They might as well have hosted it on one of those crappy old free hosting sites you used to get, just to really get in the vogue of the time.
Plus I had to temporarily add an exception for their SSL cert - now that's just added class!
Hey, Be!
The 90s called. They want their website back.
Seriously though, it looks hideous. I've heard Be are a good ISP but I wouldn't touch them with a fifty foot bargepole with that website. Could you honestly recommend a friend to join them when you know they're going to be confronted by that monstrosity?
I quite like the design...
"Ok I'm going to say it: The new web site is quite nice. A brave choice and not to every bodies taste but I like it"
I think it looks quite nice, however:
1. It displayed other people's details
2. It's a NEW site, they specifically say they DON'T support ie6... and it's not valid html. No excuse
btw for me the certificate worked when I checked...
(if you _really_ want to see it looking hideous, change backgrounds from the drop-down box...)
all it needs
All it needs is the "ants" effect and some blinking text and it would be bang on there. I was only talking about frontpage the other day, we thought nobody would be using it lololololololol.
Not sure . . .
. . . the site requires the ire it's receiving.
Yes, the colours could be toned down, but the actual site layout is reasonably clean and tidy and everything is readable.
In comparison to many of the abortions that are around (so many trying desperately to look like StalkerBook it's getting silly), it's not that bad.
Protect the plants
I'm using printouts around the garden to kill slugs.
Was it designed with a Corona Typewriter, sticky notes, glue and a colour photocopier?
I could not even log in. And...... Eeeeeew.
I tried the once and Firefox (3.5.12) critted out with an unexplained failure.
My colleague had tried to log in and was presented by nothing but back end errors.
When I first saw it I thought the look was just because they had got the content working first and would dress it up later but given that it blatently doesn't work either...
If anyone out there is a software tester who needs work due to the recession thingy BE is a company badly in need of some.
Yep, it's nasty...
The site looks terrible, but Be's still a great ISP, so I'll forgive them!
I still haven't forgiven El Reg for the fixed width atrocity that passes for their new design though. Fuck you!
I know what it's missing...
...a few sparkly LOL animated gifs and maybe a rotating e-mail/@ image in garish colours, oh and a dancing baby too, every page like this needs a dancing baby.
Absolutely god awful site, can't think what was wrong with their old one and why they needed to change to this one...
Rob
BBC...?
That looks like a BBC.. BE!
Now all it needs is classic space trading sim Elite and they've got a new customer!
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