When good Mice turn bad
In the first case of it's kind that I have heard of a large corporation has turned it's back on a well designed, CSS based, standards compliant accessible website in favour of a "new" web site.
First off I checked the date and it was indeed the 2nd of November and not the 1st of April as I had assumed. Then I saw it with my own eyes.
On first glance the store looks to have suffered considerably in the aesthetics stakes.
Gone are the crisp images and the (dare I say it?) sensible Flash only to be replaced with a main branding image that is poorly optimised that can only be described as "fuzzy" at best.
The rest of the images don't actually look much better. The buttons at the bottom advertising other services/sites provided by Disney are especially poor quality to be honest.
Under the hood is where this site really lets itself, and Disney, down.
The pages take an age to load which is due to the code bloat associated with table based layouts and the fact that they are littered with obtrusive poor quality (Dreamweaver generated?) javascript wont help either.
I wouldn't like to get their bandwidth bill thats for sure. No wonder Mickey mouse talks with such a high pitched voice. The hosting services must have him by the balls.
Apparently they are also using a new tag: (note the mixed case)
It must be in the XHTML 2.0 spec or something as I have to admit I haven't heard of it before. Although they state in their DOCTYPE definition that they are using HTML 4.01 Transitional (allegedly) so that must be a typo ;)
I always associated Disney with quality. Disney has many imitators which, as they say, is the sign of a great company. Imitation is the greatest form of flattery after all.
I really feel that Disney have let themselves down with this one and has delivered a real kick in the teeth of the push for web standards.
Are Disney a quality brand anymore? Undoubtedly they are.
Why then, did they create a "new" site that looks like it is straight from 1998? They already took the plunge and scored a smash hit with a standards compliant, accessible web site which has been held up the world over (literally) as being an exemplary site that should be used as a benchmark for how all websites should be done.
Maybe Disney reached their own 12 o'clock and "Cinderella's coach" really did turn back into a pumpkin.
First off I checked the date and it was indeed the 2nd of November and not the 1st of April as I had assumed. Then I saw it with my own eyes.
On first glance the store looks to have suffered considerably in the aesthetics stakes.
Gone are the crisp images and the (dare I say it?) sensible Flash only to be replaced with a main branding image that is poorly optimised that can only be described as "fuzzy" at best.
The rest of the images don't actually look much better. The buttons at the bottom advertising other services/sites provided by Disney are especially poor quality to be honest.
Under the hood is where this site really lets itself, and Disney, down.
The pages take an age to load which is due to the code bloat associated with table based layouts and the fact that they are littered with obtrusive poor quality (Dreamweaver generated?) javascript wont help either.
I wouldn't like to get their bandwidth bill thats for sure. No wonder Mickey mouse talks with such a high pitched voice. The hosting services must have him by the balls.
Apparently they are also using a new tag:
It must be in the XHTML 2.0 spec or something as I have to admit I haven't heard of it before. Although they state in their DOCTYPE definition that they are using HTML 4.01 Transitional (allegedly) so that must be a typo ;)
I always associated Disney with quality. Disney has many imitators which, as they say, is the sign of a great company. Imitation is the greatest form of flattery after all.
I really feel that Disney have let themselves down with this one and has delivered a real kick in the teeth of the push for web standards.
Are Disney a quality brand anymore? Undoubtedly they are.
Why then, did they create a "new" site that looks like it is straight from 1998? They already took the plunge and scored a smash hit with a standards compliant, accessible web site which has been held up the world over (literally) as being an exemplary site that should be used as a benchmark for how all websites should be done.
Maybe Disney reached their own 12 o'clock and "Cinderella's coach" really did turn back into a pumpkin.
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