incrediBILL - 3:33 am on Jan 3, 2013 (gmt 0)

My pet hates online are when the cat swats at my cursor, sits on top of the monitor with his paws dangling over the screen making it hard to read, or worst of all walks across the keyboard.

Now that I've got that silliness out of me...

* Any website that doesn't use responsive web design (RWD) methods. I may be using it on a mobile device or in a less than full screen window on my desktop. I don't care about your design requirements but I do care if I can't use it because then it's useless. Web sites designed by rigid minded little web designers that still think using HTML 2 with 800x600 tables and no javascript is the best web experience need to get off the internet and find a new career.

* Sites that have itty bitty fonts trying to jam too much stuff on the page and then don't scale properly when resized or enlarged and often clip text or it overflows the viewport without scrolling. Case in point, Yahoo Mail will literally shut down with a javascript message that you have an insufficient viewing area if you enlarge the page once or twice to make it easier to read on a big screen.

* Sites that immediately pop up a window asking a question and covering up what I came to read, which if not easily cleared, will result in tab closed

* Inconsistent ways to close those JS windows that pop out in front of everything. They may have a method to close either on top or bottom and it might be either an [X], a link "Close" or "Exit", or even a button "CLOSE" or "OK". Desktop UIs are consistent in this area, websites are infuriatingly not.

* Web articles with no date which is trendy now thanks to SEOs.

* The stupid onslaught of web posts of lists of stuff like "Top ten pet hates online".

* The fact that ecommerce is still so easily defrauded all these years later because the simple solutions to fraud, like typing in a PIN or verifying purchases via SMS on the CC holders phone, still aren't being done and we all suffer with increasing prices thanks to complacent CC companies afraid to make a dent in their cash flow by possibly inconveniencing shoppers and it's all at the merchant's and consumers expense.

* My biggest pet hate are low contrast between fonts and background. White on yellow or grey on black, anything that bad and my old eyes find it hard to read. I have to highlight the text in order to read it as the select mode with white letters on a dark blue background are much easier to read. Those "cool" designs are more often than not hard for anyone with any visual issues, regardless of age, to read and you could be eliminating customers.