Bad Website Design 101: NCAA Sports

So today was the first day of March Madness down in The States. We catch a bit of the buzz up in our office by running an office pool for fun. We really don't know much about the colleges, so really it's a crap shoot.

Considering that it's an office pool, we like to keep up on the scores throughout the day. One of the more ingenious ways of doing this over the last couple of years has been the MMOD -- March Madness On Demand. The NCAA Sports website has live video feeds to watch the games. "Great," you think.

Let's step back a bit here. The NCAA loves to show these games on TV. The more the merrier. In fact they often have play-in games before the 64 team showdown so that teams that are on the bubble can play their way into the tournament. These games happen a couple days before the tourney and are great for increasing the TV revenue for the NCAA and CBS.

So, back to the topic at hand. We now have this online video feed that we can all watch in our cubicles or from our desks at home so that we can watch games that are out of market. Super! Well, not really. You see, I logged in 10 minutes into the first game ... registered ... and then was directed to the "Lobby".

I had to wait in a "waiting line" to get a video feed... I was number 108,193!!

I understand that you can't just stream an infinite number of video feeds. I understand that it all costs money. What I don't understand is their preparation for this. Last year they had tonnes of people try and watch the feeds. They knew that it would be popular again this year. So why not get the servers in line to take on the onslaught of requests?? Since I didn't wait in line I assume that they are still showing ads on these feeds, so they are a source of revenue as well. I know there are a whole bunch of ads on the actual screen.

To top it all off, as you waited in line half of the screen was devoted to telling you that if you were a VIP you'd be number 1. Ok. I bite. How do I become a VIP?? That seemed impossible. There was no obvious way of becoming a VIP. There were no links and no information on where to go or how much.

I never actually closed the window while I waited in line. It told me that if I closed the window I would lose my place in line. That's understandable, so I kept it open. Eventually, after about 45 minutes or so the "Lobby" window gave me an internal server error. Last time I checked I had made it up to position 98,540. Oh well, I really didn't want to give the NCAA revenue anyway. :(

That my friends is bad website design.