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

Submitter’s comments: Here’s one for you.

Vincent Flanders’ comments: Government web sites are always problematic. There’s so much information, it’s often difficult to organize and there are various departments who feel they deserve prominent placement on the home page — and if everyone got the space they wanted, the home page would be eight miles long.

The strangest part of the home page is they’ve installed code so you can’t right click. The ancient Greeks, who coined the word “hubris” and knew hubris when they saw it, would be shocked at Camden’s overweening pride in thinking that these images are so valuable that anyone in their right mind would want to steal them. Heck, even crazy people know better. Hell, anybody who really wants them knows about 14 ways to get them (disabling Javascript is the easiest).

It really bothers me that if you click a link like “County Events,” you can’t click the logo at the top left and return to the home page. Yes, you can click the Camden County logo in the middle, but that’s not where people expect to see logos. BTW, two of my favorite singers (Joan Osborne and Rosanne Cash) are playing there this month.

If I’m not mistaken, there are contrast issues on the site map page and I wouldn’t be surprised to find them elsewhere.

The biggest problem with the page is “Where’s the focal point?” This would be a good page to use in an eye-tracking study. Jakob, are you listening? I tried to find “Departments” or “Services,” but I couldn’t find them. I settled on “Government” and was greeted with a letter from the Freeholder Director, which was not what I was looking for. Over on the left was a menu and the SIXTH item was “Offices and Departments.” That really sucks.

Camden County