Nothing like having an image that says “Register Now” and then not linking it to anything. A belated April Fool’s joke? Sadly, I doubt it. So much for us Brits having a smug sense of superiority over the Yanks.
Of course, the lesson to be learned here is that it’s generally not a good idea to tell people that something is coming soon – it harks back to the days of pages being “under construction”…forever.
I mean, what does “coming soon” actually mean? Coming when? A week, a month, a year? Am I supposed to keep checking back until the feature is available? Talk about an exercise in frustration.
It’s funny, because I’d actually quite like to sign up for these e-alerts, so why can’t I just enter my email address and be done with it?
Other Issues
That main navigation for this site is a serious mess. What’s the difference between “Britain in the US” and “UK/US Relations”?
Shouldn’t “British Culture” be within “All about Britain”? Why do some options start with “UK”, some with “British” and some with no country reference at all?
What’s up with the ‘mystery meat’ navigation (using cryptic images this time rather than icons) in the header? I didn’t even realise these images were clickable until I started looking around to see all the things that were wrong.
The first image takes you to FAQs about Wales – for someone not in the know, what on earth does that image have to do with Wales?
I don’t even know what it is and I’m from the UK! Likewise for the image for Scottish FAQs (4th from the right) – what is that supposed to be?
I came to the site looking for information about how to register to vote from abroad. With a general election less than a month away, why is there no reference to it on the home page?
On another note, this site is fairly broken in Firefox. The navigation turns into a monster list, with the intriguing “Dummy” option at the bottom.
A Plea on Behalf of Britain
US friends – please do not use this web site to gauge the quality of things British; it is not an accurate representation, I promise!