Thank you very much.
According to Alexa, 99% of other web sites are slower, so that feels good. Feels good that I have done my performance homework.

Matt,

Thank you!
Sure, it’s not like everything’s wrong with the Flash versions of their web sites (although overall, personally I don’t prefer them). And the web is full of people using things just because it’s possible, but not necessarily always the most suitable.

Steven,

Thanks!
I won’t go into Arts Tasmania in detail here, but thanks for the rant!

Also, congratulations to the camera! I have no idea where that bastard comment would have come from…

http://www.arts.tas.gov.au/

I’d truely love to see how this could improve the stats. It’s the local poster child for worst practice BTW. I’ve been meaning to do an article on it but it’s just too easy. Swishy navigation you have to chase, and all that swishy stuff.

When they mentioned this site at my initial interview I burst out laughing very loudly. Couldn’t help it – they’d just grilled me for 10 minutes about web standards and best practice. Anyway, there’s nothing like the analogue arts industry to get shafted by the shiny Flash object lol… personally I think on that site JS off is the best experience.

What really gets me though is that when you go ask these guys they’re – Nokia team, for example – they’ve had so many “designers” and “managers” slapping each other on the back that there’s no way they’ll see their work as flawed. For christ sake it was in the company newsletter! The general manager sent an email!!!!!

OK I’m a bit jaded in my new unemployment but having just come from a “Flash Banner on everything” environment I could draw and quarter Mr Flash developers far and wide for this kind of stuff.

Apologies for the rant everyone [did I mention I bought a Nikon D90 to console myself - Robert called me a bastard but I had lost faith in Santa so got it myself]

I’ve been spending quite a bit of time at both sites lately as I’m thinking of upgrading my phone. Currently, I have a Sony Ericsson – and I like their phones more than Nokia. Yes, I like the iPhone – but I don’t like O2 (the phone’s UK exclusive provider) – so that’s not an option for me.

Both web sites (Nokia and Sony-Ericsson) rely far too much on scripts and that’s definitely bad practice.

I don’t think it’s all bad for the Sony-Ericsson site: I mean, for the visitors with javascript and flash enabled, I think it is the better of the two sites and has some nice design touches in there. I’ve enjoyed using the site far more than the Nokia web site. There is no excuse for the lack of non-javascript support though – and they’d be wise to resolve that soon (but I doubt they will).

Over-reliance on Flash with the Sony-Ericsson site reminds me a lot of some car manufacturers’ web sites too…similar thing: “Ooh, it’s slick, it’s trick, it looks wonderful….we must use it for everything!” (while completely abandoning best practice for accessibility and usability too! Not smart!!)

Good observations and comments Robert.

Loved the pagerank test, dead on target I’s say.

Cheers, Stefan

Thank you, I hope so too!

I mean, somewhere along the line, someone have to explain that they knew nothing of accessibility or completely ignored it. Either is really, really bad, especially more so for the template of a world-wide site.