Online systems for serious services...

[1MileCrash]

Has anyone ever noticed that the online portals for things like schools, colleges, and banks are flat out awful, while sites like newgrounds feature state of the art online portals?

[NeoDevin]

That's because sites like newgrounds make their money off of their online portal.

"Serious services" make their websites to provide information. The least they can get away with spending to achieve that goal is the best.

[jtbell]

What are some things that (to you) distinguish "flat out awful" from "state of the art?"

To me, it's very possible for a site to be both "state of the art" in the sense of using a lot of new gee-whiz technology, and "flat out awful" in terms of not being logically structured or not able to find information quickly.

[1MileCrash]

Working half the time, frequent errors, excessive maintenence outages, etc.