I love Jimmy Johns, and HATE thier website

I am a huge fan of Jimmy Johns. So is my wife, my co-workers, and many family members. After I discovered JJ's it has been very hard for me to go to Subway - their subs are so much better than anything you will find at Jared's old joint.

And even better, they deliver.

I learned this awhile back when I was complaining to my wife on the phone that I had forgotten my bank card at home and couldn't get lunch. I was going to have to steal someones leftover casserole from the company refrigerator...or die of starvation. My wife informs me that they indeed deliver - so she gives me her credit card info and I proceed online.

So I jump on their website to find the location nearest to me so I can get their contact information and have them deliver the "Big John", Gods greatest gift to man.

I am treated with what is probably the most horrible website I have seen in awhile. This is God punishment to man.

See here for yourself.

Graphically it is beautiful. It is full of animation and smooth transitions. But it is all trapped in flash (I will save the rant on flash for another post) and I am forced to sit through endless animations and loading sequences to get to the information I seek. Not only that, but none of the navigation is intuitive...I am forced to decipher all of the meaning from the array of confusing buttons to find my local JJ.

But even more creepy is that they have this creepy dude "Jimmy" (Im not exactly sure if this is the real Jimmy or not) but he is EVERYWHERE. He talks to me, folllows me around, looks at what Im pointing my cursor to, and is just overall annoying as hell. Not to mention that EVERYTHING has a sound effect. New menus pop up...WHOOSH! Jimmy bounces around...BOING BOING! Meaningless animation appears...PLOP!

I eventually found what I was looking for - but not after going through hell to get there. It makes me wonder how many people they loose just because they care more about thier personal image than the ease of use for their visitors?