Submitter’s comments: This is the website of a town ambulance service—the people who are supposed to save your ass if you have a medical emergency—in Uniontown, Pennsylvania. Not only is the design bad, but the content would make me move out of the area in fear of my life.

“Shortage of body bags”? WTF?

Vincent Flanders’ comments: We all make grammar mistakes, but this is a little much:

Both Apparatus and patient care equipments is need. shortage on body bags also

We also have what appears to be loon ravings at the top of the page. WTF?

George’s Township Civil Defense EMS & Fayette_County_Ambulance_Service Fayette-EMS 306

Submitter’s comments: I couldn’t resist submitting this site, which as far as I can tell provides no information whatsoever about the company that made it, and drives the user insane with its moving pictures and completely obscure navigation:

Vincent Flanders’ comments: This may be the best example of head-up-your-ass web design I’ve ever seen. WTF?

joneschijoff

Website similarities seems to be a popular topic this week. First, we had Jakob Nielsen weigh in with Should You Copy a Famous Site’s Design? and then I discovered Copycat Design.

Here are three examples I’ve been using for a long time.

1. A big screenshot of some sites with a similar look.
2. A video I made on the topic.
3. A screen capture of similar legal statements. Yes, these examples are old but, if I remember correctly, these legal statements were used until fairly recently.

Submitter’s comments: “Surprised to see that Mystery Meat Navigation is still alive and kicking on an otherwise very nicely designed site.” (Originally posted on Smiley Cat Web Design blog.)

Vincent Flanders’ comments: There’s always a lot of MMN floating around. We also have a problem with contrast. While AccessColor doesn’t have any problems with the site, the Colour Contrast Analyser utility does. Remember this simple rule: If they can’t read it, they will leave it.

Hull Digital Live 10

Submitter’s comments: This appears to be the site of a five-star hotel in Florida. The first thing I notice about the unnecessary splash page is that it’s bathed in bright scarlet. Assuming you haven’t clicked the tiny “Enter” link or headed for the hills, you’ll be redirected to the site’s first index page. There are these horrible marquee things and flashy gifs and, if you mouse over the third image on the sidebar from the top, the page contracts and expands sickeningly. Navigating through the site is confusing and painful — even the photo gallery is convoluted.

The site is keen to show how friendly hotel staff is, and it’s true that hotel staff do play a part in the experience of a guest. However, I’ve always thought that the biggest draw to a five-star hotel were the facilities. You don’t need to take a class in advertising to know that the site is a marketing nightmare.

Vincent Flanders’ comments: I didn’t realize Ann-Margret was still working, but there she is on the Splash page we don’t need.

This site is tacky, tacky, tacky. On the other hand, maybe this site is perfect. If this is what their audience expects, then there’s nothing wrong with it. Who am I kidding? Nobody could be this aesthetically challenged.

Red Rose Inn and Suites

Submitter’s comments: Here’s one for your slush pile…

Vincent Flanders’ comments: Certainly one of the worst looking political websites I’ve seen. If it weren’t for the fact that he claims to have 13 3/4 years worth of education, I would write off the typos as just a symptom of an Over-the-top Web Site. The following screen shot not only shows the problem, but could also be used as the visual representation of irony:

The candidate’s support of “School violents” reminded me of Emily Litella.

I don’t know what the title of this page should be so I grabbed some text:

U.S. Senate of Zack wamp in 2010

Turns out, according to my commenters, that the person involved in this site is really Basil Marceaux Sr., instead of Zack Wamp.

I’ve heard of interesting campaign promises, but this one may be the best:

VOTE FOR ME AND IF I WIN I WILL IMMUNE YOU FROM ALL STATE CRIMES FOR THE REST OF YOU LIFE! (Except violating a citizen rights this would be a special punishment )

Basil Marceaux Sr.

Submitter’s comments: This is one of those “Have you ever seen another web site? Really? Doesn’t look like it” sites.

Vincent Flanders’ comments: This is the type of web design I’d expect to see from one of those creationist types of sites like Creation Museum, Taxidermy Hall of Fame of NC and Antique Tool Museum. It’s nice to know that evolutionists can be just as wacko in their web design.

Evolution and the Nature of Science Institutes

Submitter’s comments: I was wondering if you might consider listing M&M Upholstery on your Daily Sucker page.

Vincent Flanders’ comments: Absolutely. It commits the most grievous of web design sins — lack of contrast between the text and the background color. The small text size adds to the problem.

I ran the home page through AccessColor and they reported the following:

Either color difference or color brightness does not meet the recommended standard for 88% of the total the text.

I wrote about this problem in Biggest Mistakes in Web Design 1995-2015 under the topic “Contrast, dammit.”

According to Wikipedia: “Contrast is the difference in visual properties that makes an object (or its representation in an image) distinguishable from other objects and the background.” According to Vincent Flanders: “Without proper contrast, visitors to your site can’t read the text and if they can’t read it, they will leave it.” Here’s a web site that gives a really great explanation of the need for contrast — and it’s visual.

M & M Upholstery

Submitter’s comments: This site is a cracker – it’s pretty much all images. All the text is an image, all the nav is made of images. Surely it’s HARDER to make images than just write, y’know, text?!

Disable the images and the site magically disappears!

Vincent Flanders’ comments: Most of the site disappears. If you still have Flash enabled, you’ll see rotating images, but that’s about it.

I’m willing to bet these folks provide an excellent service, but their web site makes you think otherwise. If I had a dollar for every quality operation who had a website that sucked…

Baccaro Construction