Why is it that the main organization for my profession has such a crappy online presence? The URLs are days long, pages are slow to load (even on a fast connection), and the organization is just plain chunky. It’s sad that we can take our own professional website and use it as a “how *not* to design an interface” example. *Ahem!* Design isn’t hard when you’ve got the user in mind…
They can’t even seem to choose contracted systems well either- the ALA Event Planner is make by Cistems. “Programmed for Excellence,” my a$$. For the last 3 ALA events I’ve attended I’ve attempted to use said Event Planner. It’s very clunky and annoying to use. And Slow, of course. Because of this, I’ve never used it to it’s full potential; i use it only to look up the locations of meetings/events so that i can create my custom Google map so i know where i’m going.
When trying to use it today, to get ready for Annual, I was unable to even LOG IN! I used my email and default password. Nope. Tried the alternate work email and default password. Nope. Then i tried each email with each of the 4 standard passwords i use in the event i had changed the password from the default at any point. NOPE!
This isn’t *so* bad- i’ve been unable to log in to things before. The problem, however, is there is no presence of a “forgot your username/password?” There is also no email of someone to contact (but i’m pretty sure I bugged Jenny Levine last year when I had similar issues with the system). On top of which, i was given an option that wasn’t an option for folks, i’m assuming, that aren’t on site @ALA…
You can also swipe your Expocard through the magstripe reader to log in.
Um, no.
After a few more tries, i finally get a page that lists a person to bug- Karee Williams@ALA.
Email ensues.
At the suggestion of an ALA ambassador I ended up using a spreadsheet to track everything.
You are right this was super clunky.
Add to my Bookmarks ;)