Web Pages That Suck - learn good web design by looking at bad web design

Submitter’s comments: Vikki Carr, who is somewhat famous and internationally known, must have the worst web site for a celebrity of her status.

Vincent Flanders’ CURRENT comments (02-17-08): I went back to look at the site and discovered it has been massively overhauled — and for the better. They also got the site moved to a .com from a .net — which makes the site more easily discovered. The site has improved by about 350%. Congrats.

For those of you who are wondering what the site looked like when I made my original comments, here’s the first 2,180 pixels (out of 16,720) of the home page.

Vincent Flanders’ ORIGINAL comments: Normally, I don’t discuss music sites because their fans will put up with just about anything (Coldplay’s Rush of Blood to the Head web site comes to mind). These sites tend to extravagant use of Flash and/or Mystery Meat Navigation.

Today’s sucker demonstrates the extravagant use of bad 1996 design. However, even 1996 web design isn’t stupid enough to put the navigation scheme halfway down the page. Oh, and the home page weighs in at 3.34Mb.

There are a lot of photos of Vikki with other people. Hint: Put these on a separate page like one of my favorite bands, the Gin Blossoms, did. They have a page called “Gallery” that deals with — guess what? — photos. Yes, yes, yes. I hate the Flash navigation on the Gin Blossoms’ site and the outdated information.

An addendum: Comparing the Gin Blossoms’ with Vikki Carr may be comparing apples with oranges. An apple-to-apple comparison would be Vikki Carr and Patti Page. Patti’s web site needs more contrast between the text and the background, but I think this overall look and feel should be something to aim for in Vikki’s web site.

Vikki Carr