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

 

Worst Websites of the Year

Worst Websites of the Year: 2012-2005

bad websites are like sinking shipsWorst Websites
of 2012

Worst Websites of 2011

Worst Websites of 2010

Worst Websites of 2009

Worst Websites of 2008

Worst Websites of 2007

Worst Websites of 2006

Worst Websites of 2005


Daily Dose of Bad Design (Daily Sucker)

Current Examples of Bad Web Design Presented Daily (direct link)

Bad Web Design

Overview (direct link)


Good Web Design


Web Design Checklists


Subscriptions

opens in new window
My Google + Page

subscribe to my rss feed
Subscribe to RSS feed

Follow me on Twitter
Follow me on Twitter

Articles


Everything Else

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.

Reperkusiones – Bad Web Design Example #3 for the week of August 1-5, 2011

August 4th, 2011 3:03 am by Vincent Flanders

Submitter’s comments: I found this site today and it took me five minutes to realize that to get a menu you have to… (deleted by Vincent Flanders).The designer left the “Untitled Page” default title.

Vincent Flanders’ comments: I deleted the explanation of how to find the menu because I want you to enjoy the process of finding it. What’s the process? Luck—or, perhaps, agony.

This site proves my theory that there’s a finite amount of good web design and an infinite amount of bad web design. This site is a definite contender for Worst Web Site of 2011.

Reperkusiones

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


Low Price Skates – Bad Web Design Example #2 for for the week of August 1-5, 2011

August 4th, 2011 3:03 am by Vincent Flanders

Low Price Skates – Bad Web Design Example #2 for for the week of August 1-5, 2011

Submitter’s comments: Here’s an ugly website.

Vincent Flanders’ comments: Wow! Not so much for the site, but for distant memories. Once upon a time, I was a 6-foot tall 140-lb teenager. I went roller skating every Friday night from 7:00 p.m. to midnight; every Saturday from 1:00 p.m. to midnight; and every Sunday from 1-6 p.m. That’s probably why I weighed 140 lbs.

It was very strange to see they still make the same style of boots that I wore back in 19XX.

Speaking of strange, I know the site sucks but I’m amazed at its consistency (yes, it consistently sucks). The navigation seems to be logical and consistent and, unlike 95% of the sites that animated GIFs, their use makes sense.

It’s quite “colorful,” but you can actually read the text. Hmm.

Low Price Skates

Posted in Daily Sucker, Usability, Web Design |


The Dee Buchanan Studio of Dance – Bad Web Design Example #1 for the week of August 1-5, 2011

August 4th, 2011 3:03 am by Vincent Flanders

Submitter’s comments: I was looking at some local businesses sites earlier, and this one made me boggle.

It’s like they went, “Oh, that top line of photos look great!” and just started throwing them around everywhere on top of each other like a vomit of dance photos and photos of low-contrast text. And then I checked the source code, and boggled more.

I know it’s just a small-town dance school, but damn, even the town corn maze has a better page than that.

Vincent Flanders’ comments: There are a lot of interesting problems.

  1. The home page TITLE tag is “Home.”
  2. My monitor is 1200 pixels wide and you have to horizontally scroll to see everything because the page is cut off.
  3. The logo might be professionally made, but it’s white. I can’t really see it that well.
  4. They’re not a non-profit so they shouldn’t have a mission statement on the home page. The good news is the mission statement is at the bottom and it’s hard to read because the text is white.
  5. They didn’t look to see what the home page looks like in the Chrome browser. The page is broken, with some sections overlapping others. It’s also broken in Firefox 5.
  6. Images have non-SEO-friendly names like image3461.jpg.
  7. They used some Microsoft Office program to generate the HTML.

The Dee Buchanan Studio of Dance

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


14 Websites We Don’t Even… Plus 6 That Are New To Web Pages That Suck on July 26, 2011

July 26th, 2011 1:01 am by Vincent Flanders

Vincent Flanders’ comments: The Huffington post recently ran the article 14 Websites We Don’t Even… Thanks to author Craig Malamut for referencing and linking to Web Pages That Suck. Eight of the 14 sites were originally featured on WPTS and Malamut knows how to pick the worst of my worst. In fact, he has a very good eye for very bad web design and his commentary has just the right amount of snarkiness. Kudos. The other six sites he selected are pretty freaking awful. I’m going to skip one site that seems like a personal site and honor him with submitting the other five as excellent candidates for Worst Website of 2011.

6. I Kiss You

I kiss you is a horriblly designed website

His English is better than my whatever-is-his-native-language (“I try to be good person” should be “I try to be a good person”). By far, it’s the least offensive of the sites. Just a little cheesy (you’ll understand my reference to “cheesy” a bit later).

I Kiss You

10. Historian of the Future

Historian of the Future is a horriblly designed website

The Historian of the Future has a website of the past. As I’ve said many times, there’s no need for a mission statement (unless you’re a nonprofit) because every mission statement can be summarized as “All babies must eat.” Except for this site. It’s mission statement is seven paragraphs long and I’m not sure what it says.

The great news is s/he actually tried to categorize the material and created a navigation system instead of one long page. The bad news is the site is 1996.

Historian of the Future

11. Raft.org

Raft.org is a horriblly designed website

Holy Mother of God. This site was a definite contender for the #1 Worst Website of 2011 (ironically, I have about four sure winners), but the site has “disappeared.” It’s probably gone because of all the traffic The Huffington Post sent. Fear not. I made a quickie video (no sound) that will give you a good idea of how horrible the site was/is.

12. Aiseikai

This site is a horriblly designed website

It looks like it’s for a hospital. The sheer horror of it makes me wonder, “If you check in, will you be able to check out?”

We have everything that’s bad in American websites, with the added problem of Japanese text. These folks also don’t understand DNS. If you leave off the “www” as in http://aiseikai.or.jp/, the website won’t work. Then again, that’s not a bad thing. At the very least, it qualifies, as do most of the others, to join the Over-the-top Websites.

Aiseikai

13. Mama Cheesie’s

Mama Cheesie's is a horriblly designed website

It’s an Italian restaurant, right? Nope. They sell handmade clothing and accessories. Not the least of the site’s problems is the name “Cheesy.” As the Free Dictionary defines the word, “Informal banal or trite; in poor taste.” Not what I’d want. I’m always stunned when I look at sites like this. Doesn’t anybody see that you can’t easily read the text. AccessColor says it fails W3C standards on 43.38% of the total text. It’s a total disaster.

Mama Cheesie’s

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


Gojee – Bad Web Design Example #1 for July 21, 2011

July 21st, 2011 3:03 am by Vincent Flanders

My wife: You know that link you sent me? They want me to register.”

Vincent Flanders’ comments: That isn’t helpful. “That link you sent me” tells me nothing. Fortunately, I went and asked her, “What link?” Turns out the link was for a new food site called Gojee.

Basically, you have to register before you can use the website. Yes, I know there are links, but they’re not terribly informative. The “About Us” link tells you it’s a food site that has a lot of writers, pretty pictures and if you tell them what food and food-related items you have in your cupboard, they’ll come up with a recipe suggestion.

I thought the “register before you can get content” concept was dead. I even thought about removing it from Does Your Web Site Suck? Checklist #1. Good thing I didn’t.

BTW, they’ve got some talented back-end people who are performing all sorts of web-page loading magic to keep this site so snappy. Gojee is also using Kissmetrics to help “Identify, understand, and improve the metrics that drive your online business.” Good idea.

In case you they change the site (and with Kissmetrics they might do that if their tests tell them to change), so here’s a screenshot of the Gojee home page. It’s very tasty.

Gojee

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


« Previous Entries Next Entries »