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

Submitter’s comments: This site is based on the work and experience of Mike Rowe and his Dirty Jobs program. Great idea to help America work for America, but the designers of the site are clearly stuck in 1995 and are fans of MS Bob.

This site’s “navigation” is so counter-intuitive that I couldn’t spend more than 10 seconds mousing over crap objects to figure out what did what.

Vincent Flanders’ comments: Time Magazine called Microsoft Bob one of the 50 Worst Inventions of All Time. Well, at least one person found success with Microsoft Bob.

Yeah, what’s with this layout? I’m thinking it’s more 1997 than 1995. I’ve featured a few of these Bobs in the past: Billy Connolly, Brill Publications and the old BVS Performance Center for Banks come to mind—probably because they burned a hole in my brain. No, wait. That was the subdural hematoma. If my memory serves me well—and it doesn’t always—this type of format seems to be popular with TV, movies and other artistic endeavors. It needs to stop being popular.

Mike Rowe Works

Submitter’s comments: A link on their home page points to a parked domain, so I filled out a contact form to let them know. Their form is a nightmare, by the way–there’s no line wrapping or right margins. Then I click send…

The form becomes a photo of a deer in a gun’s crosshairs! This is next to a list of aaca’s animal cruelty officers!

Vincent Flanders’ comments: Actually, the form has problems that are much worse. I didn’t enter anything into the form. I just hit the SUBMIT button and it sent the form off. Whether they receive it or not is something I don’t know.

I can’t get to the Alabama Humane Federation. I get a message saying the referrer is blocked. Why this is happening I can’t say. At least one link is to an unmarked PDF and there are a couple of links marked with two most frightening words that I know—Click Here. It’s not enough to just say “Click here” (NSFW, perhaps)

I couldn’t find the link to the parked domain.

Alabama Animal Control Association (form)

Submitter’s comments: Despite having seen a lot of bad websites being an active reader of your website, I was shocked when I took a look at this website.

It is definitely a website with potential: Good domain name (-> SEO) and (to translate the German term “Freizeitpark Herne” to “amusement park herne”) well structured.

The flaws primarily concentrate on the site’s content, which is a perfect example for nearly all terms of bad web design you defined since 1996.
Moreover, redirects are not well set and there is duplicate content on familienparkherne.de.
To put it short: It sucks, because it is 100% Flash, 100% over-the-top, too saturated and “filled” (even if a child developed this site), the navigation is spread all over the site (MMN?), epileptics are endangered (check out the sub-sites) and despite being filled with a lot of content, it is hard to find any information about the park itself (You don’t even have to speak germ an to figure that out).

Vincent Flanders’ comments: It’s a very strange-looking site. Since I’m y0ur average American guy, I only speak English so I’m not sure what the site is about. In order to get a pass, it would have to be a website for kids. Young kids. Very young kids. Why are you letting your toddlers surf the Internet?

I clicked about half of the links and didn’t find any seizure material, so why press my luck?

freizeitpark

Submitter’s comments: Long first page with a jumble of sections and paragraphs meaning God-knows-what? No discernible navigation scheme? No discern able layout? Various fonts and colors used at whim? Many content pages different from each other? Lack of focus? Animations? Yes to all that and more! One glance and an attempt to figure it out makes me want to point to Gang Stalking World and say “See? Not sharing the consensus reality is no reason to avoid at least trying to make your web site less annoying.”

Vincent Flanders’ comments: In a battle between Sosbee and the FBI, I’m putting my money on the FBI. Some people call this type of website a loon website. I would classify it as an Over-the-Top Website.

The definition of an “Over the Top” industry is just like the definition of pornography — you know it when you see it. Over the Top sites generally deal with philosophy, religion, politics, end times, etc., but they’re generally not mainstream.

Actually, the scarier website is Gang Stalking World because it doesn’t look like a loon website—assuming it is one. A superficial look-see really can’t tell you much other than the site looks credible.

My favorite part of the home page is the graphic that says, “The fbi and cia regularly hack this site, deleting material or intentionally misspelling and changing words…” Damn. I wish I’d thought of that excuse when I screw up.

Even if Sosbee is 100% correct, no one is going to believe him because his site looks like it was created by someone with ADHD. And I know a thing or two about that.

Geral W. Sosbee vs FBI

Submitter’s comments: A complete disaster in every sense of the word. What do you do when a potential client sends this to you as a reference? Puff puff pass until it looks good? (Didn’t work by the way.) Swallow my pride to put food on the table? Hell no! Cost me less to pass up the job than to be in therapy for the next 3 years. I may still have nightmares of floating objects whirling by my face.

Vincent Flanders’ comments: Only the fact that it’s a site for a clothing line keeps me from pulling out whatever hair my grandson hasn’t already pulled out of my head (it’s cute when a 5-month old is doing the pulling). It’s cute when fashion boys and girls create these type of “sites” (events? whatever). It’s not cute if anyone out there has a real business—one that knows the difference between appearance and reality—and pulls this crap.

Interesting choice of a name for a business. I thought I was going to be sent to some religious cult.

Obedient Sons & Daughters