In 1995, you never heard the term barriers to entry. The web was a free-for-all populated mainly by geeks, and darn it all, we wanted everything accessible. Wasn't that the point?

All good things must come to an end. The commercial web was born. Non-geeks began flooding the airspace. And suddenly, barriers to entry began to seem like a good thing. It helped to weed out white noise in communities. Which can be a good thing. But it also forced users past page after page of ads before they could get their hands on something that cost a lot to make but was "free" to them.

Bollocks, I say.

There's still enough die-hard geek in me to think the web should still be free, and if you put something on the web you should actually let people get at it.

Which brings me to my latest online nightmare. Courtesy of Star Wars Online.

All I wanted to do was see the latest trailer for the upcoming movie. Try to keep this in mind as I weave through my tale.

Step 1. Visit the home page and click the "see the trailer" link.

Step 2. Choose the trailer you came here to see. Simple enough.

Step 3. Choose the trailer size. Now, this is getting a bit tedious (couldn't they have put it on the same page? Not like they're serving ads on every page....). But still. I'm along for the ride. I choose "large". I'm at work on a T1. What the heck.

Step 4. Oops! You must be a member to view this video. Fine. I'll sign up. Just as long as I get to see the trailer.

Step 5. Oh, for Pete's sake. Fine. Yes, yes, I'm over 13!

Step 6. Fill in the form. Basic stuff, though why they ask my age AGAIN is beyond me. But the form is huge. Do you want this newsletter? How about this one? HTML or text? How about these product notices? Or these ones? Or how about hundreds more from our sponsors? Guys, I just want to see the trailer!

Step 7. You must have Quicktime to view the trailer, sorry, only one format to choose from, you must go and download it! (Those of you who have gone through the fun process of downloading Quicktime and installing it can fill in the fun on your own at this point. I was getting too tired to take more screen shots.)

Step 8. Finally after five minutes of going through Apple's site and downloading the thing and installing it, I figure I'm finally ready, finally ready to see the trailer. So I refresh the Star Wars window.

Step 9. BEEP! No, sorry, you need Quicktime Pro (a steal at a mere $29.95!) to view this trailer at anything greater than bouncing postage stamp size.

And it's only at this point, staring openmouthed at the screen, wondering exactly why I spent over half my lunch hour trying to view one lousy trailer, that I see it. The fine print that has been at the very bottom of the last three screens.

Now why, I ask you, did Star Wars Online bother to post their trailers at all?

If you design sites, please, please keep this in mind when designing the flow for your users! If ever there was a big, popular site badly in need of a full-time IA, I can't think of one. Big bonk! on the head to Star Wars Online.

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