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

Submitter’s comments: Is this some sort of strange aversion to having more than one page?

Vincent Flanders’ comments: Maybe. Conveniently, the article Less is More: The Return of The One Page Website just came out. While one-page sites are making a comeback, they don’t look anything like the observatory’s one page. The observatory is trying to cram everything from the kitchen sink to the telescope into the page. The article’s examples are tasteful.

Today’s sucker is certainly a classic example of Mistake #6 from Biggest Mistakes in Web Design 1995-2015 — “Have you ever seen another web site? Really? Doesn’t look like it.“

We have multicolored text that’s centered and flush left. Fortunately, the links seem to be underscored because if they weren’t, we wouldn’t know what’s a link and what’s a heading. While the text seems to be readable because of its size, AccessColor says the page doesn’t have enough contrast:

• Both color difference and color brightness do not meet the recommended standard for 22.62% of the total text.
• Either color difference or color brightness does not meet the recommended standard for 6.56% of the total the text.

I have a new mantra about this type of site: “If Jesus’ website looked like this, Christianity wouldn’t exist today.”

Tamke-Allan Observatory

Submitter’s comments: Here you go.

Vincent Flanders’ comments: Wow. Back on November 11, 1997, ace web designer Michael Willis created a satirical home page for a fake porn site we were going to use in our first book Web Pages That Suck. Today’s sucker bears more than a small resemblance to our fake porn site.

We have green text, small white text. red text, link text that is off-white, blue text and we also have animated GIFs. On one of the subpages we have purplish text and then we have a table with flush-left text along with centered text. All of this is on a black background.

Doctor, heal yourself.

Behavior Doctor

Submitter’s comments: Check out this lovely site for the “Rent is too DAMN High” Political Party in New York City.

Vincent Flanders’ comments: I refuse to watch political shows on TV, but I happened to catch this politician during a video clip on late-night cable show Chelsea Lately. His web site reminds me of Basil Marceaux’s website (he’s running for governor of Tennessee) and his party’s website is a good example of over-the-top web design. His own site, JimmyMcMillan.org, is also pretty amazing. You should check out the source code. The site is mostly composed of images.

Rent Is 2 Damn High
Jimmy McMillan.org

I’m testing out a new layout for the site. Theoretically, it doesn’t break, but we all know what can happen. E-mail me if there are problems with the new design.

Submitter’s comments: I was searching for information about reloading or refreshing the browser cache and I came across this sucky 1990′s-type site and I wondered if this site was sucky enough to make the grade.

Vincent Flanders’ comments: It makes the grade. Unfortunately, that grade is “F.” I doubt if wise women need to be healed as much as this website. It’s a classic example of Mistake #6 from Biggest Mistakes in Web Design 1995-2015 — “Have you ever seen another web site? Really? Doesn’t look like it.“

Just a few of the problems:

• Page goes on forever
• Animations
• Wants me to install a plugin
• Some links bold, others aren’t
• No logo
• Centered text and flush-left text

The URL threw me off. It’s susanweed.com and I read it as being US sun weed—a site about dope (or whatever KidsToday are calling it.).

A wise woman would get some professional help.

Herbal Medicine and Spirit Healing the Wise Woman Way

Vincent Flanders’ comments: I was reading this article about “inspirational Flash sites” (a term which is usually an oxymoron) when I noticed that potential Worst Web Site of 2010, Got Milk?, was featured. To its credit, there were actually some Flash sites that weren’t bad—mostly because they refrained from using Mystery Meat Navigation.

Then I ran across OmniFeedback. I realize that video is the future of the web, but I don’t think a 5Mb infomercial does anyone any good. The 29.89 seconds the site takes to load everything doesn’t make me love it.

Yes, it’s beautiful, but so what?

omniFEEDBACK: Start The Change