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The Daily Sucker - Current examples of bad web design

The Daily Sucker

Sites featured in articles like Worst Websites of 2010 often are redesigned, which explains why some sites mentioned in my articles don't match their current look. The Daily Sucker features current examples of bad web design which haven't been fixed (yet).

If you see a site that you think sucks, email the URL to me. No personal pages (personal pages are supposed to reflect the individual's personality and artistic freedom) or web site designers (it would look like a conflict of interest), or others of their ilk.

If I think there's some merit to your selection, I may post it along with some commentary. If you know of a site that qualifies, let me know.

Mednat.org – An Example of Bad Web Design for January 28, 2016

January 27th, 2016 11:11 pm by Vincent Flanders

The Daily Sucker - an example of bad web design

Submitters’ comments: Visit the web design past with this Italian “medical” site, which also uses FrontPage. I strongly suspect some (pejorative term deleted), if not OTT (over-the-top). On site pages are often very long (20 or more screens’ worth). The top menu seems to take you to either more pages on the site or other sites, but not in any uniform way. Have at it.

Vincent Flanders’ comments: It’s in Italian, but since I use Google Chrome as my browser I had Google Translate’s function translate into English because like most Americans, I only know one language. It’s definitely an Over-The-Top website and not just because it’s talks about alternative medicine. It’s a classic example of Mistake #6 from Biggest Mistakes in Web Design 1995-2015Have you ever seen another web site? Really? Doesn’t look like it. I call this type of design the “I haven’t taken my antipsychotics in a while school of web design.” Maybe it’s just a terminally fatal case of Dunning-Kruger syndrome.

Oh, before you go to the site, check out the screen below:

The Daily Sucker - an example of bad web design

The Web of Trust plugin does NOT like the site at all. It told me that it has an unsatisfactory score for Trustworthiness (2/5 score) and Child Safety (2/5 score). Caveat emptor. I think we can consider it a design flaw <grin>.

As expected with this type of site we have text problems—but fewer than is “normal” for an OTT website. We have both flush-left and centered text on the page and some links are in bold and others aren’t. He uses TABLEs with borders.

Google’s PageSpeed Insights, whose goal is to “Make your web pages fast on all devices,” doesn’t think much about their home page. Google’s Mobile-Friendly Test thinks even less with the page because it flunks their test.

If you are the purveyor of an alternative medicine site and want to look like you know what you’re doing, go to The Food Babe’s site. For those of you who are unaware of her, she’s the object of ridicule in the scientific, medical and nutritional communities who practice conventional medicine. No comments about whether she is or is not practicing woo. Of course, going to her site brings up a Web of Trust popup window. She’s viewed slightly more positive than Mednet.org, scoring 3/5 on both Trustworthiness and Child Safety. I view her more positively because her site gives the appearance of competence.

Mednat.org

Posted in Daily Sucker, Usability, Web Design, Worst Web Sites |


Mojo Yogurt – An Example of Bad Web Design for January 27, 2016

January 26th, 2016 11:11 pm by Vincent Flanders

The Daily Sucker - an example of bad web design

Submitters’ comments: I was trying to look at the menu for a frozen yogurt shop on my phone and was disappointed to find this.

this is what you see

Vincent Flanders’ comments: Flash has sucked forever. Now, even Adobe wants nothing to do with Flash—at least its name. The article shows that Adobe is even confused about what’s happening. They change the name to Adobe Animate like that’s going to make everything better. Well, maybe it will work. They’re still keeping Flash for the desktop, but everyone knows the desktop is not where it’s at in 2016 (and earlier). I thought everybody knew the web is all about mobile and as you see above, Flash doesn’t run on a mobile device. I don’t know about you, but I wouldn’t boot up my desktop and wait until everything loaded to try to find a yogurt shop. I’d use my phone. I suspect most people look for a yogurt shop when they’re out and about, so the phone is the tool to use.

The Flash-based home page has some issues. The two menu tabs (“Newsfeed” and “Latest Blogs”) are basically unreadable because of the lack of contrast. The “Latest Blogs” page is not Flash-based, but it uses centered text erratically, text comes in various sizes and colors and the page is too long. The worst part is that when you leave the “Latest Blogs page and go back to the home page, the music and sound start up again—even when you’ve turned them off on the home page. Tacky.

Mojo Yogurt

Posted in Daily Sucker, Usability, Web Design, Worst Web Sites |


Paradise With a View – An Example of Bad Web Design for January 26, 2016

January 25th, 2016 11:11 pm by Vincent Flanders

The Daily Sucker - an example of bad web design

Submitters’ comments: Checking out some places in Hawaii to stay and found this site worthy of submission for a 2016 start. The varied sized photos, the progressively smaller font changes as you scroll down some pages. I love it.

Vincent Flanders’ comments: The multi-colored text is pretty annoying as it’s different sizes. It took a while to figure out the navigation scheme—and “scheme” is a good word for it. You’re making me think about navigation and website visitors don’t want to think and nobody puts their navigation in the middle of the page. I suspect it’s a great spot to vacation, but why would anyone who’s been to their website want to book a stay? Of course, it’s January here in the US and everyone is in or wishes they were in Hawaii so this place is booked solid in January. Maybe if you’re selling the crack cocaine version of a vacation spot like they are, your website can suck.

Let us not forget the trailing cursor with its blatant advertising. I love advertising, but it should be tasteful.

Paradise With a View

Posted in Daily Sucker, Usability, Web Design, Worst Web Sites |


Best Electronics – An Example of Bad Web Design for January 25, 2016

January 25th, 2016 3:03 am by Vincent Flanders

The Daily Sucker - an example of bad web design

Submitters’ comments: This is an actual company. I couldn’t believe it either. They actually have great service though the Atari 2600 Purists website.

Vincent Flanders’ comments: Well, the good news is you can easily read both sites—lack of contrast and small text are pet peeves of all talented web designers and myself—but you won’t find those problems here. What you find is centered text, which is harder to read than flush-left text (search Google for [is centered text bad] or something similar). There are different colors used for links, underlined text is used on regular text instead of solely for links, text is different size, etc. The home page for Best Electronics is also too long.

The Atari 2600 Purists website has a few problems of its own. It requires Java, which any sane person has removed from their system. When you click “Forums” you’ll discover there’s no normal way to close the window except by clicking another link.

Best Electronics and Atari 2600 Purists website

Posted in Bad Business Practices, Daily Sucker, Usability, Web Design, Worst Web Sites |