New dabs website

Has anyone seen the new dabs.com web site? It's pretty but the functionality
is terrible!

How am I to know that modems are under 'hardware' not 'components'?!

Where is the complete list of product categories on one page?

Do they know that the description/features/specification info can't be
viewed in any browser other than Internet Explorer?!

Do they know that the 'Refine search' box displays incorrectly in all
browsers other than Internet Explorer?

Why does it take so many page views to get where I want to go now?
Previously if I wanted a list of AMD processors in price order I would start
at the complete list of product types and get where I wanted after 2 more
page views.
Now starting at the main page I have to go to :-
components (not hardware)
processors
processors (CPU)
then select AMD and press go and wait for the page
then click the up arrow to get them in price order
That's 6 pages rather than 3, and they take longer to load than before too.

Viewing a list of products by 1 selected manufacturers is no longer
possible.

What pointy haired boss dreamt this up?
I hope they put the old functionality back or I'll be using them a lot less
frequently.

I am airing my complaints here rather than contacting them because they
provide no way to contact them except for order enquiries or press
enquiries.

Parent:
Earlier Paul Roberts ] uttered:
Has anyone seen the new dabs.com web site? It's pretty but the
functionality is terrible!

How am I to know that modems are under 'hardware' not 'components'?!

Where is the complete list of product categories on one page?

Do they know that the description/features/specification info can't be
viewed in any browser other than Internet Explorer?!

Do they know that the 'Refine search' box displays incorrectly in all
browsers other than Internet Explorer?

Why does it take so many page views to get where I want to go now?
Previously if I wanted a list of AMD processors in price order I
would start at the complete list of product types and get where I
wanted after 2 more page views.
Now starting at the main page I have to go to :-
components (not hardware)
processors
processors (CPU)
then select AMD and press go and wait for the page
then click the up arrow to get them in price order
That's 6 pages rather than 3, and they take longer to load than
before too.

Viewing a list of products by 1 selected manufacturers is no longer
possible.

What pointy haired boss dreamt this up?
I hope they put the old functionality back or I'll be using them a
lot less frequently.

I am airing my complaints here rather than contacting them because
they provide no way to contact them except for order enquiries or
press enquiries.

Replace the 'dabs.com' logo with 'pcworld.com' and suddenly the layout
makes sense.

--
Andrew
The above address IS valid but will go straight to my spambin. If you
want to make sure I read your email unmunge

"Paul Roberts" wrote in message
...
Has anyone seen the new dabs.com web site? It's pretty but the
functionality
is terrible!

How am I to know that modems are under 'hardware' not 'components'?!

Where is the complete list of product categories on one page?

Do they know that the description/features/specification info can't be
viewed in any browser other than Internet Explorer?!

Do they know that the 'Refine search' box displays incorrectly in all
browsers other than Internet Explorer?

Why does it take so many page views to get where I want to go now?
Previously if I wanted a list of AMD processors in price order I would
start
at the complete list of product types and get where I wanted after 2 more
page views.
Now starting at the main page I have to go to :-
components (not hardware)
processors
processors (CPU)
then select AMD and press go and wait for the page
then click the up arrow to get them in price order
That's 6 pages rather than 3, and they take longer to load than before
too.

Viewing a list of products by 1 selected manufacturers is no longer
possible.

What pointy haired boss dreamt this up?
I hope they put the old functionality back or I'll be using them a lot
less
frequently.

I am airing my complaints here rather than contacting them because they
provide no way to contact them except for order enquiries or press
enquiries.





its very amazon

"Paul Roberts" wrote in message
...
Has anyone seen the new dabs.com web site? It's pretty but the
functionality
is terrible!

I don't even think that it looks that pretty - I'm generally more concerned
with what I'm trying to buy than how pretty the site is anyway.


How am I to know that modems are under 'hardware' not 'components'?!

I got caught by this as well this afternoon- completely illogical IMHO.


Do they know that the description/features/specification info can't be
viewed in any browser other than Internet Explorer?!


What problem do you have with it?
I'm using Firebird & the The lists of products starts OK, but it won't allow
me to scroll down the page to see anything more than about the first three
items.
Oh - except that occasionaly it does display OK. Isn't one of the first
rules in testing a website of this size that you should try it on a large
number of different browsers to check for problems like this?

My next annoyance, is that due to their use of Javascript to update the page
that you are already on, there is no way of opening multiple windows of
product details at the same time. In the past, You could go down the list &
click on the details of four or five products & they would all open in
separate windows. now they update in the same window - so a quick comparison
of features is impossible. At least they should convert this Javascript into
proper links, so that we can choose to open it as separate windows rather
than opening in the main window.

I also agree with you comments about the number of clicks to get anywhere,
which seems to be way more than it needs to be.

The old site was far from perfect, but it was fairly efficient to use & the
search features on it always worked well - I could always manage to find
whatever I was looking for in a couple of minutes at most.
Now, unless I swap back to using IE & firebird I coan only see anything if
it is one of the first three items on the list.

Definitely not an improvement over the old site IMHO.

Matthew

"Matthew Taylor" wrote
I don't even think that it looks that pretty - I'm generally more
concerned
with what I'm trying to buy than how pretty the site is anyway.

I agree. What I want out of a site like this is a fast, functional tool.
Google and Ebay have the right idea. Dabs was never been fast but it used to
be reasonably functional. The changes make it less fast and less functional.
In fact non-functional unless you happen to be using Internet Explorer v6
(see below).

Do they know that the description/features/specification info can't be
viewed in any browser other than Internet Explorer?!

What problem do you have with it?

The problem I was talking about was on the page that shows details of a
single product. The tabs to switch between description, features and
specification don't work, except in Explorer.

I'm using Firebird & the The lists of products starts OK, but it won't
allow
me to scroll down the page to see anything more than about the first three
items.

I have since noticed this problem too, in Opera - as has a client of mine
using Netscape.
I tried switching to Explorer to get round the problem - but the same page
crashes my installation of Explorer (v5). It hasn't crashed on any other
site.

The only way I have of using dabs now is to use Opera to start with, but
when I meet one of these problems to cut and paste the address into an IE
window and hope it lasts long enough to view the page.

Isn't one of the first rules in testing a website of this size that you
should try it on a large
number of different browsers to check for problems like this?

Indeed - I know that and I'm not in the web site business. It's either
extreme incompetence or their web designer has been bribed by a competitor
to kill the company off.

My next annoyance, is that due to their use of Javascript to update the
page
that you are already on, there is no way of opening multiple windows of
product details at the same time. In the past, You could go down the list
&
click on the details of four or five products & they would all open in
separate windows. now they update in the same window - so a quick
comparison
of features is impossible. At least they should convert this Javascript
into
proper links, so that we can choose to open it as separate windows rather
than opening in the main window.

I agree - I used to do this too.

I also agree with you comments about the number of clicks to get anywhere,
which seems to be way more than it needs to be.

The old site was far from perfect, but it was fairly efficient to use &
the
search features on it always worked well - I could always manage to find
whatever I was looking for in a couple of minutes at most.
Now, unless I swap back to using IE & firebird I coan only see anything if
it is one of the first three items on the list.

Definitely not an improvement over the old site IMHO.

Matthew

Do they know that the description/features/specification info can't be
viewed in any browser other than Internet Explorer?!

What problem do you have with it?

The problem I was talking about was on the page that shows details of a
single product. The tabs to switch between description, features and
specification don't work, except in Explorer.


I have since noticed this problem too, in Opera - as has a client of mine
using Netscape.
I tried switching to Explorer to get round the problem - but the same page
crashes my installation of Explorer (v5). It hasn't crashed on any other
site.

The only way I have of using dabs now is to use Opera to start with, but
when I meet one of these problems to cut and paste the address into an IE
window and hope it lasts long enough to view the page.

I'm using Opera 7.11 in XP and the desc/features/spec tabs all seem to
work for me. But I can't open a link in neither a new page (tabbed)
nor a new window.

MJ

"Paul Roberts" wrote in message
...

The problem I was talking about was on the page that shows details of a
single product. The tabs to switch between description, features and
specification don't work, except in Explorer.


I didn't spot this one, as the products that I looked at were all ones that
had no detailed information available.

Matthew

"Matthew Taylor" wrote in message
...
"Paul Roberts" wrote in message
...

The problem I was talking about was on the page that shows details of a
single product. The tabs to switch between description, features and
specification don't work, except in Explorer.


I didn't spot this one, as the products that I looked at were all ones
that
had no detailed information available.


Looking at the source in Firebird reveals something that is possibly part of
the problem.

If you look at the source of a typical page displaying details, at about
line 325, there is some JS code that Firebird thinks is commented out, as it
doesn't have script language tags around it. (fixing this still doesn't make
the tags work properly though).

Matthew

wrote

I'm using Opera 7.11 in XP and the desc/features/spec tabs all seem to
work for me. But I can't open a link in neither a new page (tabbed)
nor a new window.

MJ

It was Opera 6.05 I had the problems in. The latest version of Netscape
(7.1) behaves the same.

On some occasions in these browsers the product list displays no products at
all! e.g. "Found 17 products" followed by an empty list. That's not going to
be good for sales.

"Bagpuss" wrote in message
...
On Sun, 5 Oct 2003 10:47:51 +0000 (UTC), "lbockhed"
wrote:

SNIP



its very amazon


as in up sh!t creek without a paddle :-)

with the tabs for the categories at the top

--
This post does not reflect the opinions of all saggy cloth
cats be they a bit loose at the seams or not
GSX600F - Matilda the (now) two eared teapot, complete with
white gaffer tape, though no rectal chainsaw