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DSE takes you back to 1995

When I first started writing this column over a decade ago it was easy to find really, really bad websites.

Fortunately, things have improved immensely.

Now most sites are built by skilled professionals who not only understand the technology from which they're constructed but also the basics of good design, ergonomics and psychology.

In fact, these days it's pretty hard to find a website that's based on really bad design decisions in the commercial arena.

However, in their quest to offer customers things that can't be found anywhere else -- Dick Smith has come to the rescue.

This morning, as I trawled the news-wires, I spied with some optimism the announcement that DSE had launched a new online music website where you could pay for and download popular tracks or even entire albums.

Perhaps sailing a little close to infringing the trademark of others, DSE has called its site RipIt.co.nz.

Now if you've just clicked on RipIt.co.nz and you're using Firefox you'll probably have noticed something *very* strange.

Look at the title of that first page... it says "BrowserNotSupported".

However, the page itself proudly states "We are pleased to inform you that the Ripit Music Store is compatible with Firefox".

Confused?

Well read on and it advises you to click here, which takes you to a pop-up window that explains how you need to download the "IE Tab" extension before you can access the site with FireFox.

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This extension appears to actually embed a copy of IE in a Firefox tab.

Yes, that's right -- DSE's music download site is only compatible with Firefox if your copy of Firefox is configured to actually run IE code.

What a crock of dung!

What idiot web designer would be so stupid these days as to design a website that only worked in Internet Explorer?

Everyone knows that FireFox is making very useful inroads into what was a virtual monopoly held by Microsoft's IE. People have gotten rather tired of their IE version number clicking over faster than the odometer in Helen Clark's LTD on the way to a rugby match -- as new security holes are patched over and over again.

This ramshackle method of trying to make a website cross-browser compatible is a shocking admission of incompetence by the web designers involved.

Since I'm not prepared to download this plug-in just to use one website, DSE misses out on my (and possibly a whole lot of other) business.

What's more, to claim that the site is FireFox compatible is a blatant lie -- since it's actually IE that is doing the rendering -- effectively opening up anyone who installs the plug-in to all those nasty vulnerabilities we just know are lurking out there.

The very reason most people switch to Firefox is to get away from Microsoft's browser in the first place.

And what about all the Linux users who might want to give their $ to DSE through this website? Tough bikkies I guess.

I guess it's kind of nostalgic to see a site designed with 1995 levels of contempt for the customer and last-century standards of competency -- but that's not a good thing at all.

Maybe someone who's actually still using IE or who's prepared to download this "look, I'm a lame webdesigner" plugin can give the rest of us an indication of what lies beyond the door that remains bolted shut for non IE-users.

I wonder if I'm correct in thinking that this site needs the IE plug-in because it also relies heavily on Active-X/COM extensions that represent even more potential security holes in your system?

Could it be that at least some of this is linked to the inevitable draconian DRM that will be hooked to those WMA files in which the music is delivered?

Will you be bothering to download/use this plugin on your FireFox browser just to get a look through RipIt.co.nz's doors?

And isn't the price of $16.90 for an album just a little steep -- considering there's no disk, no packaging, no stock to be held, no freight, no expensive retail display space involved in this operation?

Have your say on this...

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