Why is Go Daddy so Gosh Darn Ugly?

I Love 'Em But Their Website Makes My Skin Crawl!

After Today, You Can Have a Better Site Than a $250 Million Company

Disclaimer: Go Daddy is VisionPoints’ web hosting company. I think they’re superb. Their customer service is top-notch. That is a big part of Experience Design, especially in the beginning of a relationship with a company whose doors I will never set foot inside. If you’re just a little tech-y, but don’t have a resident tech guru, you’d never want to go anywhere else.

This is about their user interface (the website you and I see and try to use), a huge part of their Experience Design after the relationship is established, and about making sure you will never, ever put up a website like it for your business.

Breaking All the Rules

The site is a classic example of what not to do. It’s crowded, it’s crazy, it’s unfocused, and it’s discouragingly difficult to use, even when you’ve been a customer for quite some time.

“Hello? I'd like to buy the racecar driver on special for $1.99. Thanks.”

When you try to use a feature it gets even uglier, as randomly-sized menus seem to pop up from almost anything you roll over on the homepage. This does not get better on interior pages.

Wildly confusing menus pop up and are difficult to get rid of. They can get in the way of the action you were trying to take (Log Out, for instance, is below a menu you must carefully avoid on some screens). And now I can't even see the nice lady who has nothing to do with web hosting.

On my 17" laptop, an arguably standard size screen to design for, this disheartening mess continues way “below the fold” (below where you have to scroll), where only information I don’t necessarily need should be placed.

See the racecar drivers' faces? Next to them (under the menu) it reads: “New to Go Daddy? Not sure where to begin? Our Product Advisor is your personal guide.” With a big arrow leading from their faces. Is Dale Jr. going to teach me about Go Daddy? No matter. With the dark color, pop-up menus, and thousand other things grabbing your attention on this page, you'll never notice the bar anyway.

On every page, some menu items are repeated in various locations, leaving the viewer always wondering if they are choosing the “right” version of the task they want to accomplish.

What Rules?

Simplify, simplify, simplify. Three rules in three areas. Follow these and you’ll have a site that puts Go Daddy’s to shame:

From a graphic design standpoint: What do your customers need to see?

Visual focus: clear Purpose jumping out at the viewer

No clutter

Aesthetically pleasing (yes, good looks count)

From a usability standpoint: What do we need to function?

Ease of reading

Logical progression through navigation

One location for each action

From a sales (marketing) standpoint: What do we need to read?

A hierarchy from headline to details, leading to the action I take next

Benefits to me (the Ideal Customer)

Straight talk, no jargon or confusion

Oh, boy, a debate!

I think they’d be making sales a lot easier, and post-sale satisfaction a lot higher, if this part of their Customer Experience were a lot better. Heck, I don’t think there’s any way to go but up on this.

Let’s debate this for a minute. Not whether they’re functioning in spite of themselves (they’re making plenty of money, no doubt)—whether there are benefits to what they’re doing.

For instance, are they actually being told that this terrible user Experience is somehow the right thing for them to do? Go Daddy has the money to hire me and any other Experience Designers they choose. So why is their site so horrid?

Is there any reason why they need to be so awful, from a business standpoint? What do you think?

Grow and be well,

Kelly Erickson

If you haven’t read yesterday’s article, no one has found the post where I make a reference to my age yet. There’s a prize involved for you, but there’s only six days left to find it! Why not click here to read the rules, and take a Whack at it?

Comments

[Natasha Vincent]

In complete agreement and breathing a sigh of relief since your discomfort with the GoDaddy interface means that perhaps I've not reverted to tech n00b status.

What they should get lots of kudos for is their cross selling and upselling. Slick without being in your face or obnoxious...err...unlike their actual interfaces.

An ironic juxtaposition, really.

[Friar]

Kelly;

You forgot the a key thing that they did right. The hot babe in the leather jacket.

As much as I hate to admit it, that's the first thing that caught my eye when seeing this add. Reading the content came afterward.

I know it's the lowest common denominator, but sex does sell. (At least it does with knuckle-dragging neanderthals like me).

[Kelly Erickson]

Natasha,

It's them, not you. You're right about their site, and I'd agree about their cross-selling, too. Thanks for your comment!

Friar,

I don't think your knuckles drag as low as you'd have me believe. Neanderthal or not, here's what I want to ask you: Did she sell you web hosting?

Sex sells... what?

I'm not saying she can't do a "made you look" kind of a thing to you (which may work even better if you're a racing fan), but how is she selling the benefits of Go Daddy to anyone?

"As much as I hate to admit it, that's the first thing that caught my eye when seeing this ad." I totally agree. Which means that no matter how many times I visit, I always feel like I'm in the wrong place.

Jay Leno did a monologue a long time ago which I never forgot. To paraphrase badly, he said that there were dozens of ads on t.v. for cars, showing their handling capabilities in some of the most remote, wild, and lovely places on Earth.

"Is it selling the cars? No, but sales of trees and rocks are up 300%."

It seems like a lot of wasted real estate to me. Yes?

Regards,

Kelly

[Friar]

You're right, Kelly. The hot chick made me look.

But I found the rest of the ad too busy to read, so I scanned over it.

If they fixed the fonts and the layout, mabye I'd have stuck around longer.

[Kelly Erickson]

Friar,

Exactly.

[Friar]

I used to see way too much of this in R&D. You'd attend these technical conferences that people pay thousands of $$$ to attend, but the speakers had no clue on how to present.

The'd give miserable presentations that no one could follow. Imagine having to sit through not one, but 20-30 slides like the example you've shown above.

(That's when I phase out and start my "Dream-writing").

(ARGHH).

[Matt Tuley, Laptop for Hire]

GoDaddy's web pages are loud and brash because it reflects the personality and tastes of its founder, Bob Parsons, much the way the clean and elegant design of apple.com reflects Steve Jobs' tastes. That's my guess.

[Janice C Cartier]

Hi,
Nothing brilliant to say, except I would rather date Steve Jobs than Bob Parsons. In fact, Bob's not even getting me to answer the phone... I would only barely speak to Bob if say, someone I really trusted said...I know Bob comes off really brash and loser like, but he really can deliver. But they'd really have to convince me...with Steve,well, no contest.

[Kelly Erickson]

Matt,

No doubt, no doubt. It occurred to me that it's a little like asking why Hustler is so... Hustler. Bob Parsons certainly like to be a big part of his brand. Except Larry Flynt is selling sex, so loud and brash probably works there.

Don't you think that—even if a lovely race-car driver remained a central figure (she's certainly not overtly sexy to me, just off-topic)—an easier-to-use interface could sell more, so Bob Parsons could get louder and brasher as he deems necessary?

Janice,

My feelings for Steve are well-known. I am oh, so in love with his brain.

And Bob's company delivers, for sure. As for Bob...

Regards,

Kelly

[Ellen Wilson]

Totally ugly design and I know nothing about them. Maybe Janice does? I have not heard of Steve Jobs or Bob Parsons, either. And if you follow Friar around for awhile you will notice he has sex on the brain. That and maypoles.
Anyway, I don't like this site and I wouldn't do business with them. I prefer smaller and organic. Like we were talking about.

[Kelly]

Ellen,

Thank you for reminding me how much the good Friar and I have in common.

Because we can both see the flaws in Go Daddy's site, of course. ;)

Steve Jobs=APPLE. This cannot be forgotten, mostly because I will remind you.

Yeah, this site is icky to look at. But they are seriously helpful people on the inside. I can't understand why they shoot their sales in the foot with this "design," and believe me I've been thinking about it for quite some time.

Friar,

Arghh indeed. I go through several screens of this every time I want to dig into my stats or my database, and I want to run screaming from the building on every screen.

At presentations or on websites, nobody should have to jump through hoops to figure out what you are talking about.

Until later,

Kelly

[Karen Swim]

Kelly, I couldn't click on your title fast enough! I use GoDaddy to register domains and I went in recently to try and actually do something and was lost. Why is it so god awful ugly and unfriendly! I have learned more about usability and experience from bad sites like this than I cared to know. I now have a long list of pet peeves about site design. Thanks for the lesson and for validating it wasn't just me!

[Kelly Erickson]

Karen,

You cracked me up because I debated about the title for quite a while. I see I did the right thing.

I hate to write too many "don't do this" posts, but you know, sometimes the target is so hard to miss...

It is obviously not just us. Still, as someone who does the research and helps guide companies to better Customer Experience for a living, I can't believe they're doing this unconsciously. So like most everybody today, I am still wondering—Why?

Thanks for rushing over and adding to the conversation!

Regards,

Kelly

[Janice C Cartier]

Hi,
Are they trying to keep you in the store? It reminds me of several big boxes that I shy away from, ugh.. I want in and out....

(.unless I am looking for lavender and sand lingerie..your suit will be gorgeous. thanks for those great comments, Very appreciated. )

[Kelly Erickson]

Janice,

The combination of sand and lilac/lavender has got me so jazzed I nearly wish it was Monday already. Hehehe.

Yes, I hear you. Does confusing me into staying longer seem like a good idea? It isn't...

Regards,

Kelly

[Tom McKay]

Kelly, it's a good thing GoDaddy has a crack telephone support team, because I needed them all the time. You're absolutely right. Their website is hideously unintuitive. Almost like they're actively trying to hide the right command so you flee, muttering under your breath.

I used to host everything at GoDaddy. But a month or so ago I moved all my sites to another hosting company. Two reasons: 1- The awful UI. I got sick of never being able to find the damn menu or command I was looking for. (Like Natasha said, it makes you feel like a clueless noobie.)

The other reason: censorship. Bob Parsons recently yanked down a site (can't remember which one right now) because he disagreed with their politics. Whew. There are too many other hosting options to do business with a guy like that.

[GirlPie]

You hit the nail on the head -- I have sites at GoDaddy and I hate-hate-hate Bob, Danica, the constant upsell, and the ever-changing TERRIBLE site that forces me to call customer service just to do the thing I did last week but it's been buried and moved and ARRRG!

Every single time I call them I rant and rave (funny/nice, I know the kid on the call didn't design it) about what hurts them and I think Bob uses the confusing design and constant hide-the-tab changes to force us to call so they can upsell personally! THANKS for saying so well what I can only rant and rave about like a lunatic for this past decade with them -- ARRRG!

Because they're a known-enemy and they're cheap, that's why...

[Tony Lawrence]

Why on earth do people think they should entrust their businesses to the bottom feeder of the industry?

If you are just fooling around and not making any money, fine: go with the low price leader.

If your site is important to you, if it makes money for you, why on earth would you??

[Kelly Erickson]

Tom,

That's exactly why I began with a disclaimer, which I a funny way to start a post. The interactions I've had with Go Daddy have been outstanding in every way, and coming from me that is high praise. I don't know if I could use that word on five other companies.

As to the censorship, I haven't heard a thing about that. I don't know about this case, but sometimes on the Internet things get... skewed... toward whatever view suits the offended party.

Their UI I have learned to negotiate. That doesn't mean I'm not irritated each and every time, but other than an Experience Designer's curiosity, I've sort of called a truce.

Thanks for your comment!

GirlPie,

We certainly agree on some points. It sounds as though you've had a bit different experience with their people than I have re: upselling. Glad to have you rant and rave here. I've done a few rants on the blog myself. :)

Tony,

I entrust my business to them for the human interactions, pure and simple. Their customer service is so quality that if a friend were asking me, and I knew the friend was intelligent and patient enough to put up with the maze, I would recommend Go Daddy to them. The human factor gets big stars next to it in Experience Design.

It's not Maximum Customer Experience by a long shot, hence this fabulous discussion we have going here. The funny thing is, it's the one element so many other companies just can't get right, and they have got it.

My site's very important to me. They have nothing to do with the site itself, so why on Earth wouldn't I?

Always good to have you come by and rock the boat!

Regards,

Kelly

[James Chartrand - Men with Pens]

No fan of Go Daddy here either. We get too many people coming to us with horror stories.

As to the mini-review, if GoDaddy was someone coming to us for help, we'd probably rip the site to shreds and start over from scratch. It's so garish, tacky and user-unfriendly that it isn't funny.

Even with the nice-looking mascot.

But to answer the question why they do this? Because they did it, they're making a lot of money, they don't care, and it's still working.

Also, their sensory overload probably increases their sales - people get overwhelmed and just start looking for where to contact them or sign up. They target the newcomer to the web, so these people are hyperconfused and it's a smart way to get them sucked in.

At least, that's what I think...

[Kelly Erickson]

James,

Yes, if they happened to give me a call I'd have to recommend starting over. The architecture is fundamentally flawed at this point.

Unless they're something to it. I like your sensory overload idea; I kind of hope it's not the case but it is the first possible rationale anyone's suggested. If it's making them money, then maybe it's like long sales letters (ick!). The proof is in the paycheck.

As much as I want to think it's accidental, that doesn't make a lot of sense of a huge company. Nothing's accidental.

Thanks for the food for thought!

Regards,

Kelly