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

Site: Monkey Bars

Submitter’s comments: I would like to humbly submit this site that I just had the misfortune to actively visit.

Sucky things that I noticed right off the bat:

1 – The site is merely a frame – the actual content comes from an entirely different domain – have they not heard of SEO optimization, accessibility, etc.? When you finally get to the original source code it’s a horrible jumble of inline styles and deprecated html.

2 – It’s Flash – WHY? as a result each page takes several seconds to load – and has a nauseating loading effect in the bargain.

3 – The menu is so slick the designers haven’t even noticed that two of the menu items have cut-off text.

4 – The conveniently underlined email address in the top banner isn’t actually clickable.

5 – Under “Centre Info” there is some detail about to get there – how about a map?

6 – Going to http://monkeybars.com.au just fails to load anything at all – redirects aren’t that hard, especially when you might be losing half your potential business.

Vincent Flanders’ comments: I’d like to comment using the references above.

1. The site is using the free Flash web site builder called Wix. The code is “spooky,” but I just recently looked at Google’s home page and their code is even spookier. I’m going to be discussing this topic next month.

2. I agree. Why?

3. I find it difficult to believe anyone can make this mistake. In addition, the page marker is even more horrible.

4. This might actually be OK — assuming they’re using this technique to hide their email address from spammers.

5. I agree. Perhaps they could have a link to a map.

6. Sigh. So many big organizations make this mistake. Harvard University made it until I pointed it out.

Monkey Bars