Form over function at Fopp
Pashmina’s been to Fopp, which I know is one of Jamie’s favourite places to buy DVDs, too. I clicked on the link to find out where they’re located.
Unfortunately the people at Fopp have placed form over function. Their website is entirely Flash-based, which means it’s pretty but user-hostile to anyone but the most naive of web users. Here are some of the things you can’t do with a Flash-based website:
- Use your browser’s Back button. This is because the “website” is actually one page with a single Flash application on it. You may click around inside the Flash app, but as far as your browser is concerned you haven’t moved from the page you landed on. So after you’ve clicked through from, say, the home page to the Music page you’ve got to use their own navigation to return to the home page — your browser won’t help you. Similarly after leaving the site you can’t return to it and expect to land on any page except the home page.
- Bookmark any page except the home page. Again, your browser sees it as just one page with a fancy gizmo on it. If you go to the Music page and bookmark it, then when you use your bookmark you’ll just get back to the home page.
- Use Google or any other search engine over it. Google doesn’t read Flash applications, so is blind to the site’s content. I wanted to find the location of Fopp in London. A Google search for “london” across the Fopp site produces something peculiar and different. A Google search generally across Fopp produces an obscene-looking photograph, among other things. Probably not what their brand managers wanted.
- Have a disability. (The words of Neil Kinnock come back to me here). If you have a motion disability you can find it hard to use a mouse or otherwise navigate a website. If you have a vision disability you can find difficult or impossible to read the words. Such people often have tools to help them, such as a screenreader, or exploit their web browser’s features by enlarging the text or using the keyboard. A lot of work has gone into these applications and into the browsers to enable all this. Unfortunately each Flash application has to redo all this work to make them accessible, and their creators rarely have the time.
I’m sure Fopp is terrific in its bricks-and-mortar form. But they’ve not yet engaged with the online world.
