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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.

Dispensa-Matic – An Example of Bad Web Design for May 13, 2014

May 12th, 2014 11:11 pm by Vincent Flanders

The Daily Sucker - an example of bad web design

Submitter’s comments: Useless animation-like scrolls? Sure. But you’ll have readers that may not have been born yet when this design was popular.

Vincent Flanders’ comments: S/he’s right. This design was popular in 1996, as was the Marquee Tag (first used in Internet Exploder 3 on August 13, 1996). Interestingly, Archive.org’s earliest example of Dispensa-Matic’s website is February 2003. I guess they were trying for a retro look.

Not to offend my Japanese readers, but this website should be nuked and redesigned.

Dispensa-Matic

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


Taco Mayo – An Example of Bad Web Design for May 7, 2014

May 6th, 2014 10:10 pm by Vincent Flanders

The Daily Sucker - an example of bad web design

Submitter’s comments: OK, this is a bad, BAD idea. I love their food – but the fact that music plays when you visit their website, not so much.

Vincent Flanders’ comments: Music? What Music? <grin> I have Flash disabled in my browser. When I used another browser I got to hear the music as the page loaded. Don’t autoplay music on your website. Actually, don’t have music on your site unless you’re in the music business.

Taco Mayo makes an even worse mistake. If you go to a page like “Nutrition” and then click the home link, the music starts all over again.

Taco Mayo

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


BJC – An Example of Bad Web Design for May 1, 2014

May 1st, 2014 12:12 am by Vincent Flanders

The Daily Sucker - an example of bad web design

Submitter’s comments: After looking at this site, I don’t feel like I would want to have orthopedic surgery at this facility. Personally I would suggest a clean minimalist design, and not use the animated the-dye thing going on in the header.
And for a tour of an operating room, I can’t open this in Safari, this should work across all browsers.

Vincent Flanders’ comments: Looks to me like the patient is suffering from early 2000-style web design. Hire two designers and call me in the morning. Actually, the home page I checked Last-Modified date for the home page and discovered it was November 12, 2009. The Home Page!!!!

Flash is used for the header and, of course as we all know, Flash doesn’t show up on mobile. The virtual tours are a mess. They work on some systems and not others. Hey guys! There have been a lot of improvements in web design since 2009.

BJC

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


Gathering of Nations – An Example of Bad Web Design for April 30, 2014

April 29th, 2014 10:10 pm by Vincent Flanders

The Daily Sucker - an example of bad web design

Submitter’s comments: Love the organization, but whaaa? Try and find how you buy tickets.

Vincent Flanders’ comments: You would think there would be a prominent spot at the top of the home page telling you how to buy tickets. You would also think they wouldn’t be using what amounts to a splash page as the first page visitors see. Granted, the graphic is very artistic but if I want to see something artistic, I’ll go to a museum. The garishly huge and very yellow “CLICK HERE TO ENTER” may have set a new record for the largest “Click here” link in history. Bigger is not always better.

The side navigation is too far down the left side of what should be the real home page. This page doesn’t fit on my monitor and I have to scroll horizontally to read the text.

Oh, I almost forgot. My favorite part of the home page is where it states:

 Celebrating 31 years on the World Wide Web 

Let’s see. Tim Berners Lee created the first web page in 1990 and it wasn’t really revealed to the world until 1991 so…their math is wrong.

Gathering of Nations

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


Mediatek – An Example of Bad Web Design for April 28, 2014

April 28th, 2014 3:03 am by Vincent Flanders

The Daily Sucker - an example of bad web design

Submitter’s comments: In order to install the USB wireless module that came bundled with the purchase of my home desktop, but not installed by the store, I needed the driver from the manufacturer. After rtfm’ing the motherboard manual and using Google to track down the company name and part number, I found the installer file and downloaded it. That was pretty easy to do. Their download section was reasonable to navigate.

Then I decided to check out their home page. My first thought was, it needed to be submitted to WPTS. After clicking the [Read More] buttons, the-sub pages look more reasonable to use. But scrolling down that home page gave me a less than positive first impression, especially after reading your Daily Suckers. It does look like the company makes good stuff, though. And the wireless works fine.

Vincent Flanders’ comments: I realize parallax scrolling is all the rage today and FU, very much, Nike for making this technique popular. This page provides a good example of how the technique works and how to implement it. I mention it because it’s implementation is much better than Mediatek’s. The problem with parallax scrolling in Mediatek’s case and with many other sites is the lack of contrast between the text and background. Visitors need to read the text. If they can’t, why will they stay?

In the abstract to The Effects Of Parallax Scrolling On User Experience And Preference In Web Design the author states, “…advocates of the technique argue that it also improves the overall user experience.” After conducting tests the author states, “The finding revealed that although parallax scrolling enhanced certain aspects of the user experience, it did not necessarily improve the overall user experience.” Drop the technique.

Mediatek

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


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