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

Submitter’s comments: It has some issues with the buttons, but real problem is how it set up its Search Engine Optimization. When you go to some of the other pages on the site, sometimes the buttons will appear over information, like the company phone number.

Vincent Flanders’ comments: I didn’t know people were still trying these old SEO tricks and I didn’t know they are still working–white text hiding behind a white image. For all I know, it’s not working. Paging Matt Cutts.

Steamed Clean

Submitter’s comments: I know I specialize in over-the-top sites, but this is not one. It is virtually useless, not even brochureware, and has been since 2008. I just love the watermarked ("istockphoto") pictures. I guess the owner does not mind telling the huge number of potential clients beating their way to his web site that he does not care to pay even the very modest fee for their usage.

Vincent Flanders’ comments: Pretty ballsy–or pretty stupid. I’m in a pretty good mood (3-day weekend with the wife) so I’ll just say it’s been a long, long time since I’ve seen anyone use comps and forget that they used them. I’m sure the designer just forgot to spend the pittance to license the images.

Mallard Adhesive

Submitter’s comments: I wanted to buy this product, but I can’t read (about) it.

Vincent Flanders’ comments: This screen capture shows the problems. If #666 is too light for text on a white background, imagine what how hard this site’s #888 and #999 are to read.

This is a big company.

Symantec – PartitionMagic

Here’s the SmugMug version of the video

Here’s the original article at the Seattle Times

Submitter’s comments: This one really sucks…It’s from a small town’s (Engenhahn) local committee of one of Germany’s major parties (Social Democrats, SPD). Doesn’t even feature the party’s logo or colors, though, but that might actually be a rather good idea…

Vincent Flanders’ comments: In this day and age, you often don’t want people to know your party affiliation. The only people who can look at the thumbnail and say, “Verdammt, das ist glatt (Damn, this is smooth)” are the people who authorized the site. Everyone else sees it for the sucker it is. Speaking of “Verdammt, das ist glatt,” I came up with this phrase using Google Translate. Google also came up with “Marius White – a member of parliament to touch.” Somehow, I don’t think this is the correct translation.

I love the repeating background, the home page TITLE tag of “home” and the multi-colored text.

spd-engenhahn

Submitter’s comments: Uh…what gives with the light text?

Vincent Flanders’ comments: If #666 is Satan’s CSS and violates the W3C’s guidelines on contrast, then TechChrunch Disrupt’s destroys it with text that is #888–33% more Satanic. The regular TechCrunch site uses #000, your standard black text. I read TechCrunch at least 3 times a day. I won’t be reading future Disrupts’

TechCrunch Disrupt

Submitter’s comments: I can’t read it very well.

Vincent Flanders’ comments: For those of you who don’t understand the concept of contrast, my Daily Sucker from 9-9-9 explains it quite well.

Even though the line height on FedEx’s home page keeps the text separated, it requires effort to read the page. Visitors shouldn’t have to strain to read your text. FedEx uses #666– Satan’s CSS — throughout their site. I’ve met a few of their web employees and they’re too smart for this.

EedEx