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This is one of the most frustrating page navigation experiences I have had in long a while. I tend to scroll with pgup/pgdn or arrow keys (or more occasionally,

by chao- 9y ago

This is one of the most frustrating page navigation experiences I have had in long a while. I tend to scroll with pgup/pgdn or arrow keys (or more occasionally, space/shift+space) and when I got to the big "IBM" logo the page just kind of stopped. I thought that was all. It wasn't until I came to this thread I realized there was more, and I should look again, but even then it took me forever to: 1. Realize I needed to put my hand on my mouse, hover the tiny, thin red line to get it to expand, and then use that to navigate. 2. Flip between pgup/pgdn and arrow keys. Sometimes one set worked, sometimes another did, and it would flip at random points in the experience. Why on earth would you selectively enable and disable the browser's interaction with common navigation keys repeatedly in the span of a single page? I can understand blocking/swallowing one set if you intend to use it somewhere for something else (i.e. the text input sections), but flipping them on and off with no other use for those keys while they are blocked? It boggles the mind.

minieggs 9y ago
Wow, shift+space is great. I wish I knew about this years ago.
hammerbrostime 9y ago
Very funny, I viewed the page on my iPhone and the experience was a joy. Perhaps they overfit the experience for mobile?
munk-a 9y ago
I think you just need to get hip to the Web6.0 design patterns. This site is just the beginning of the next style revolution... that we really need to get in front of and stop quickly.
BoorishBears 9y ago
Before clicking the link: grumble grumble typical HN, top comment is whining about the webpage instead of focusing on the content. sigh After clicking the link on my smartphone: Sweet mother of Jesus, what have they done.
- paulddraper 9y ago
  Not even ad blockers can save us.
- zeth___ 9y ago
  Kill it with fire.
- meggar 9y ago
  I thought they turned my iPhone into a Zune for a second.
tomsmeding 9y ago
If you scroll with your mouse, you can actually scroll past that IBM logo. It's an animation. After the logo, you get a nice huge button to the next section. I didn't even spot this at first, a friend did.
- chao- 9y ago
  Oh wow, and it's even kind of a neat effect! Thanks for the tip. Unfortunately it only works with the scroll wheel, or scroll events on a trackpad. It works finger-crampingly slow with my scroll wheel, about 15 full seconds of constant action, but I just found a laptop to try it on, and I think I finally got the effect they were going for with trackpad scroll effect. Much smoother and a neat effect. Spoiled a bit by my first, finger-cramping impression, but otherwise smooth enough that if I stumbled onto that experience first I might have thought nothing of it, or even been impressed. Still see no reason for it not to responded to normal navigation keys.
kevin_thibedeau 9y ago
Not to worry. It sucks on mobile too. The whole thing feels like a throwback designery Flash landing page. Took way too long to scroll before seeing full typeset paragraphs of the font.
mlazos 9y ago
This reminded me exactly of that Dropbox design page at dropbox.design - it was the exact same frustrating experience. If this is a trend please make it stop.
- chao- 9y ago
  For what it's worth, and setting aside opinions on the design itself, at least https://dropbox.design/ https://dropbox.design/ never steals focus or disables core navigation keys in frustrating, alternating ways.
  - saberworks 9y ago
    I don't understand this comment. That page removes the ability to scroll via pageup/down, via arrow keys, via spacebar, and via a scroll-bar on the right (even when force-enabled via operating system settings). It appears that the only way to scroll is via mouse wheel. How is that not disabling core navigation in a frustrating way?
    - chao- 9y ago
      Interesting. They all work fine for me. I wonder why? I have tested on Firefox 59 and Chrome 65 in Linux.
      - CoderPuppy 9y ago
        For me they didn't work until I clicked in the page. Chrome 60 and Firefox 58 on Linux.
        nawgszy 9y ago
        Doesn't that just mean your browser window didn't have focus? I can scroll on apps in the background with scroll wheel but not arrow keys, etc.. That's just an OS thing
        9y ago
jccalhoun 9y ago
I honestly started wondering if this was some early April Fools joke web site or something.
bmpafa 9y ago
Fun related story: I once stumbled on a minor(ish) UI bug in IBMs PaaS dashboard and reported it via their contact form or whatever, even included an animated gif screen cap. _five months later_, I got a reply asking to explain further. I couldn't even remember what the bug was.
elviejo 9y ago
I got to the same spot... can't move past the IBM logo. And that's it... there are many things in life more important than learning to navigate this one specific page.
_Chief 9y ago
On mobile the the UI is just as bizzare; random horizontal lines, the page jumps for no reason, touch/scroll randomly stops working. It's takes talent to make website UX so uncomfortable
Traubenfuchs 9y ago
How utterly horrifying. It's also broken on my PC on Chrome, I need to scroll A LOT to advance the page...
danso 9y ago
I always chuckle at seeing the "The damn page hijacked my back button/spacebar/Tab/cursor keys!" comments because even though they are technically right, they usually exaggerate the inconvenience. But goddamn this has to be one of the most frustrating websites from a huge company/vendor I've ever used, despite the very cool offering. It actually was pretty straightforward on iOS Chrome mobile. On Desktop though -- WTF, users are supposed to eventually figure out how to activate the hidden menubar at the top? My first thought after mousewheeling to the giant IBM logo was that Chrome had crashed, because motion/interactivity had seemingly stopped so suddenly. Not since the Flash days have I seen a bespoke interactive web experience with such prominent navigation/UX confusion. That said, when I figured out how to navigate, I enjoyed reading the narrative text, and I definitely plan on trying the font out in my next project.
- sfifs 9y ago
  In my company, I've often used an IBM created expense reporting tool as an example of how NOT to design UI :-) Looks like the mindset permeates the company. Thankfully we use a far superior tool now :-)

by chao- 9y ago

minieggs 9y ago

Wow, shift+space is great. I wish I knew about this years ago.

hammerbrostime 9y ago

Very funny, I viewed the page on my iPhone and the experience was a joy. Perhaps they overfit the experience for mobile?

munk-a 9y ago

I think you just need to get hip to the Web6.0 design patterns. This site is just the beginning of the next style revolution... that we really need to get in front of and stop quickly.

BoorishBears 9y ago

Before clicking the link: grumble grumble typical HN, top comment is whining about the webpage instead of focusing on the content. sigh After clicking the link on my smartphone: Sweet mother of Jesus, what have they done.

paulddraper 9y ago
Not even ad blockers can save us.
zeth___ 9y ago
Kill it with fire.
meggar 9y ago
I thought they turned my iPhone into a Zune for a second.

tomsmeding 9y ago

If you scroll with your mouse, you can actually scroll past that IBM logo. It's an animation. After the logo, you get a nice huge button to the next section. I didn't even spot this at first, a friend did.

chao- 9y ago
Oh wow, and it's even kind of a neat effect! Thanks for the tip. Unfortunately it only works with the scroll wheel, or scroll events on a trackpad. It works finger-crampingly slow with my scroll wheel, about 15 full seconds of constant action, but I just found a laptop to try it on, and I think I finally got the effect they were going for with trackpad scroll effect. Much smoother and a neat effect. Spoiled a bit by my first, finger-cramping impression, but otherwise smooth enough that if I stumbled onto that experience first I might have thought nothing of it, or even been impressed. Still see no reason for it not to responded to normal navigation keys.

kevin_thibedeau 9y ago

Not to worry. It sucks on mobile too. The whole thing feels like a throwback designery Flash landing page. Took way too long to scroll before seeing full typeset paragraphs of the font.

mlazos 9y ago

This reminded me exactly of that Dropbox design page at dropbox.design - it was the exact same frustrating experience. If this is a trend please make it stop.

chao- 9y ago
For what it's worth, and setting aside opinions on the design itself, at least https://dropbox.design/ https://dropbox.design/ never steals focus or disables core navigation keys in frustrating, alternating ways.
- saberworks 9y ago
  I don't understand this comment. That page removes the ability to scroll via pageup/down, via arrow keys, via spacebar, and via a scroll-bar on the right (even when force-enabled via operating system settings). It appears that the only way to scroll is via mouse wheel. How is that not disabling core navigation in a frustrating way?
  - chao- 9y ago
    Interesting. They all work fine for me. I wonder why? I have tested on Firefox 59 and Chrome 65 in Linux.
    - CoderPuppy 9y ago
      For me they didn't work until I clicked in the page. Chrome 60 and Firefox 58 on Linux.
      - nawgszy 9y ago
        Doesn't that just mean your browser window didn't have focus? I can scroll on apps in the background with scroll wheel but not arrow keys, etc.. That's just an OS thing
        9y ago

jccalhoun 9y ago

I honestly started wondering if this was some early April Fools joke web site or something.

bmpafa 9y ago

Fun related story: I once stumbled on a minor(ish) UI bug in IBMs PaaS dashboard and reported it via their contact form or whatever, even included an animated gif screen cap. _five months later_, I got a reply asking to explain further. I couldn't even remember what the bug was.

elviejo 9y ago

I got to the same spot... can't move past the IBM logo. And that's it... there are many things in life more important than learning to navigate this one specific page.

_Chief 9y ago

On mobile the the UI is just as bizzare; random horizontal lines, the page jumps for no reason, touch/scroll randomly stops working. It's takes talent to make website UX so uncomfortable

Traubenfuchs 9y ago

How utterly horrifying. It's also broken on my PC on Chrome, I need to scroll A LOT to advance the page...

danso 9y ago

I always chuckle at seeing the "The damn page hijacked my back button/spacebar/Tab/cursor keys!" comments because even though they are technically right, they usually exaggerate the inconvenience. But goddamn this has to be one of the most frustrating websites from a huge company/vendor I've ever used, despite the very cool offering. It actually was pretty straightforward on iOS Chrome mobile. On Desktop though -- WTF, users are supposed to eventually figure out how to activate the hidden menubar at the top? My first thought after mousewheeling to the giant IBM logo was that Chrome had crashed, because motion/interactivity had seemingly stopped so suddenly. Not since the Flash days have I seen a bespoke interactive web experience with such prominent navigation/UX confusion. That said, when I figured out how to navigate, I enjoyed reading the narrative text, and I definitely plan on trying the font out in my next project.

sfifs 9y ago
In my company, I've often used an IBM created expense reporting tool as an example of how NOT to design UI :-) Looks like the mindset permeates the company. Thankfully we use a far superior tool now :-)