"History will be kind to us, because we will write it"
The “Like Canberra” website is looking for votes having proudly taken in the public’s nominations.
[The tiled interface is a particular mess, because the world loves Windows 8 right? (er...)]
I was intrigued by the “Only in Canberra” tile. And what a cornucopia of bollocks it is!
Is this really the best we can do?
Highlights for mine include:
I’m buggered if I can see anything there that is completely unique to Canberra.
Anyone else waded deep enough into the website to find any other gems?
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My original suggestion as to what i likes about Canberra was the hyperbole- Based on the fantasies of various political leaders and self appointed ACT opinion makers and glitterati, I recalled such visions as our world standard Fussball court/field, the artificial surf beach and flying boats landing on Lake Burley Griffen, our high speed light rail /TGV connecting Civic with Gungahlin or Sydney or even Perth as well as the many reports commissioned on the subject. It is also wonderful to think of the absolute chutzpah of calling a water starved townshipthe Garden capital.
poetix said :
I’ve worked in Fyshwick for nearly 25 years, the last 20 or so years one door down from a knocking shop. So thank you for your vote, even if it was unintentional.. We Fyshwick non-sex workers need all the morale boosting we can get.
LSWCHP said :
So long as it’s only your morale…
And, as we push this thread inevitably towards the top 100 things we hate about the top 100 things ‘we’ like about Canberra, can I just add one more? ‘Great hairdressers.’ I spent some time today with a friend from St Kilda who informed me that they have great hairdressers in that part of Melbourne! And shops!
However, I think she was just jealous…despite the clarity of the purple dye in one lock of her gorgeous hair.
poetix said :
I am terribly sorry, it says ‘good hairdressers’, not great. But all the above still applies.
out of morbid curiosity i looked at the website – its absolutely appalling. i am not exactly sure how its supposed to be navigated. i was at a page of squares and i see ‘tinys green shed’. why would anyone nominate a tip shop? i click on it to find out more and discover i have just voted for it. What The F?
fearing any more undeserved ‘votes’ i decided to just exit the whole site.
as well as whining on RA i decided to email Cr8ive and went to their website. They dont have a feedback form, so i clicked on ‘new business’ and left my comments. unless web designers learn from the end user, they will continue to foist poorly thought out web interfaces on us.
maybe we should convince the bloke who fooled the HWT online vote system to study the canberra likes website?
I suspect Charnwood is going to do very well in the voting.
It seems like there is no limit to the number of times one can vote for a particular suburb.
I’ll be voting at least once a day for Charny in that case.
I like everything about Canberra except it could use more culturally based options. I couldn’t have a career in film & TV there but there are only a few cities in Australia that you can. If it ticked those I would be back in a flash!
damien haas said :
It was truly said that the best thing about the collapse of the dot-com bubble was the decline in the number of “creative” web sites. Sadly, it didn’t last.
damien haas said :
+1
Sometimes I prefer to use the tab key to browse the Internets, instead of a mouse/trackpad. But the likecanberra website is unusable.
chris820 said :
The Like Canberra campaign made no attempt to censor any of the ‘likes’. The intent was to solicit authentic and heartfelt responses, in whatever way they were expressed and however odd, quirky or individual they might be. Other than racist, sexist or any other inappropriate suggestions, no filter was part of the process.
The categories on the website were created to facilitate voting. They attempt to group the ‘likes’ so that people don’t have to scroll through over 1,000 nominations to vote.
The Centenary marketing team is working to improve the design of the website to make it more user-friendly. We appreciate your feedback.
Jeremy Lasek.
Canberra100 said :
lol, so other than censorship, censorship did not occur.
Well it’s taken me a while, but a colleague sent me the link this morning and I had a quick look. As was stated earlier – someone has a bit of a crush on Metro! http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Metro_(design_language)
The site is an abomination. It’s beyond slow, the font used inside the tiles is dull, and the colour selection is offensive on so many levels. It’s appalling to get around and understand what you’re doing. It’s like a bloody committee of public servants sat around a table and designed it.
Simply one of the worst government-(inspired) sites I’ve ever seen. Hang your heads in shame, devs.
cmdwedge said :
WTF? I thought this was just some garbage put together by a random 17 year old local kid who had smoked way too many bongs. Adults were PAID to do this ???
It’s a classic case of bad website design, where someone has become fascinated with all the things you can do with a website, rather than first thinking: what is the purpose of this site? How can the site fully serve that purpose, and the people using it?
Remember when word processing programs first came out, and people would try to use ALLLLL the fonts and colours, because they could? It’s a similar thought-process. So, in the case of corporate sites for car brands or sporting equipment, where people will usually access the sites to get information about the cars or sporting stuff, they find they have to plough through flash animations, films, whirligigs, clutter and nonsense, and even then getting to some real information takes perseverence, and many exit the site and use google to find the info elsewhere (if the brand is lucky).
This site is a good example of people dazzled with their own cleverness, who didn’t stop and ask themselves the meta-questions of Why Is It There? It’s an abject failure on every level. Even those sites with whirligigs can be mildly entertaining IF you didn’t visit them needing information. This site doesn’t even rate as entertaining. It certainly doesn’t perform its function ,and through its amazingly bad design, actually does the opposite in many cases (collects votes that the voters did not intend to allocate).
It is truly depressing that in 2013, websites like this are still happening.
“Riding paths that go for 33kms or more from my doorstep” yes so why do you cyclists need to ride on the road again? and why do we have to pay $6 million to make it easier for you?
I also find it funny that Andrew Barr gets mentioned yet good old Katie doesnt..
The Like Canberra website has been enhanced – it’s easier to vote and you can now ‘unvote’ if you make a mistake. Check it out – http://www.likecanberra.com.au
Jeremy Lasek
It’s even easiler to vote for Charney now!
Canberra100 said :
Fortunately, the site still advises Canberra’s best universities are in Canberra. That’s a relief.
Just had a look at the website and noticed that one of the options to like under Food and Drink, Southside cafes, is ‘Red Brick at Curtain’. Are there that many suburbs in Canberra that it is too difficult to know the spelling, especially when they are named after quite well known people?