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

Submitter’s comments: Can someone say seizure???

Vincent Flanders’ comments: Seriously. The images make cause seizures.

Mr. Cranky says it best, “This is so godawful that it ruptures the very fabric of space and time with the sheer overpowering force of its mediocrity.” The physical structure of this home page is unbelievable. If I’m not mistaken, the page is composed strictly of images.

InStyler

Submitter’s comments: Mystery Meat Navigation (MMN) alert.

Vincent Flanders’ comments: A very nice example of why MMN shouldn’t be used. We also have some text contrast problems on subpages. Why?

Marketpro

Submitter’s comments: The swirling cloud of links…

Vincent Flanders’ comments: Gosh. If I remember correctly, the government—especially the military—doesn’t support Flash. Of course, our swirling cloud of links are a swirling Flash cloud of links. This page also demonstrates why a liquid layout may not be best type of layout to use.

I will refrain from making any jokes about the word “intelligence” in the organization’s name.

National Geospacial Intelligence Agency

Submitter’s comments: I’m on the other side of the Atlantic Ocean from you and I can hear you
ranting about this website even at this distance.

Vincent Flanders’ comments: That’s why I love my readers. They’re smart, clever, funny and right about 99% of the time.

Concerning P&M — WTF? The whole site is Flash, which is so 2001. Complete Flash websites are dead, dead, dead. FlashSplash pages are even more dead. WTF (Who The Heck) signed off on this monstrosity? What do the symbols mean? Why hasn’t this site been laughed out of existence?

P&M Computers

Vincent Flanders’ comments: I like this example because all they have to do to make the page acceptable is remove the background image — and it’s not that obtrusive. Well, they should limit the number of visible posts to 10 rather than show all 799 (it may be less, but I didn’t count).

What’s really wonderful about the site is that I can’t tell if it’s a “loon” site. Most loon sites feature Over-the-top web design and are easily identifiable. This site’s content looks like it was written by someone rational and sane, so I’m inclined to look favorably on what s/he has to say.

Brave New Climate – Fukushima

Submitter’s Comments: Sure its OK in the native German, but in English…

Vincent Flanders’ comments: Translation software has a long way to go to be really useful. So’s not like going back now and still a paradise vacation!” We all need one.

Google Translation of Waldesruh

Submitter’s comments: I was using Google to search for “solar powered computer” to see what would come up. Unfortunately, this did:

Vincent Flanders’ comments: I was just interviewed for a business magazine dealing with small business websites. I said the most important duty your website can perform is to make your business look credible and professional. OK, folks. For 25 points does Parts On Sale look credible and professional? If you’ve never had contact with them before, would you want to do business with them?

Parts On Sale

Vincent Flanders’ comments: There was another silly article about “stylish menu designs” that I knew would inspire people to do the wrong thing. Here are some examples of bad web design techniques from the article.

HTML5/CSS3 Drop Down Menu

Drop Down Menu

Navigation Menu

Presentation Tool Re-Skin

Navigation

Dropdowns WTF?

Submitter’s comments: Their use of hidden text is so confusing. Plus, what’s up with the background? We go to their events and, thank God, their service is better than their website.

Vincent Flanders’ comments: The most important SEO element—as far as anyone can determine—is the text appearing in the home page’s TITLE tag. Unfortunately, this site’s TITLE tag is “index.” Not very helpful.

The problem with using dates on your pages is that people forget to update their site and everyone starts thinking, “These folks are lazy.” Not the impression you want to make. Speaking of dates, Mr. Bottles, the #2 Worst Business Web Site of 2009 proudly states “Last Updated 1/22/10″ on their home page.

The mouseover events are just plain scary. You have to see them for yourself.

You can tell the pros from the amateurs by their use of color. TNT’s use of color is atrocious. On the other hand, CSS-Tricks uses a similar color scheme, but it looks fine.

TNT Events

Submitter’s comments: I like what they have and am still going to go in and check them out for a snack, but their website needs help.

First, the Mystery Meat Navigation is a problem.  I HATE having to click through a site to “see where I’m going to end up” because no one thought to label any of the links.

Their Contact page has everything BUT any way to contact them electronically/via email (which only makes an business with a web presence look Mickey Mouse and unprofessional).

Did you note that their Catering Menu is from 2009 – which either means that they don’t update things often, haven’t changed it in two years or are careless and changed the menu but not the title of it/link to it.  Either way, questionable.

Vincent Flanders’ comments: The “navigation” on the subpages consists of clicking on the “Back” link or on the logo. Not every effective. Also, if you have your monitor set in portrait mode, the lunch menu is down toward the bottom of the page. The menu is an unmarked PDF file.

Sabletine Fine Pastries

Submitter’s comments: I love this site because the designer chose to randomly scatter the navigation across the home page. They even worked the links to Facebook and Twitter into the confusing and ultra-busy artwork.

Vincent Flanders’ comments: I like the fact the site doesn’t insult your intelligence by making you fill in your birthday before you can enter. We all know that today’s six-year-old is smart enough to make himself look like he’s 21.

I also like the artistic choice of colors, but I hate everything else. Nobody should be forced to scroll horizontally. It took awhile for me to figure it out since I’m not used to trying to figure out where the navigation is located.

If you click on “Find Us,” it’s impossible to get back to the home page. Even hitting the [back] button doesn’t help. The problem with offering News is that you need to update your news. The last news item was from September 22, 2009.

Bear Flag Wine