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

Submitter’s comments: A pretty bad site.

Vincent Flanders’ comments: Yes, it’s true, but I have a lot of sympathy for newspaper-type sites. Too much information, too many ads (that’s a good thing) and, in this case, too little of the stories. The site seems like it’s just gathering pieces of content and then sending you to other sites. That’s not helpful.

Billerica.org

Submitter’s comments: The only thing that helps(?) in figuring this one out is the header: “Free Energy. Gravity Control. Alternative Science.” The “about” page is only 20 screens, as opposed the home page’s nearly 100. I think I’ll follow the advice about three screens down  – “…No Like? Just skip what you aren’t interested in…” – and skip the whole website.

Vincent Flanders’ comments: It’s another in a long line of Over the top Websites (OTT). Over the Top sites generally deal with philosophy, religion, politics, end times, etc., but they’re generally not mainstream. Most often, they’re the creations of liberal loons or raving right-wingers.

What drives me crazy is there are plenty of over-the-top types who have nice looking websites. MemoryHole, by Sandy Hook Conspiracy Theorist Professor James Tracy‘s website looks infinitely better than the run-of-the-mill OTT site featured on WebPagesThatSuck. An even better example of a good-looking OTT website is InfoWars, which is run by Alex Jones.

C’mon guys, you’ve got Internet connections in your bunkers. Use some of your comrades’ design techniques and de-suck your websites.

KeelyNet

Submitter’s comments: This is a regional store that has been in business for at least 30 years. Every incarnation of their web page is the absolute worst. Their stores are great and their service is good too, but you can’t find anything on their web pages.

I’ve tried different browsers and written to them – nothing seems to work. You used to be able to see some of what is in their stores with pictures and prices to match, but now I can’t figure out anything. I’ve used other national vitamin sites and they work just fine; granted they have more money to spend, but this company just keeps expanding its stores and says it wants you to buy from its online store, but how can you? Is it just me or does it really suck?

Vincent Flanders’ comments: It really sucks. I spent 10 minutes looking for something organic. No luck. Finally, I found a link called “Online Store.” Online Store my fat, white ass. Access Denied? What?

Natural Grocers

Submitter’s comments: School children all over America get sent to this terrible, terrible website. Just wait for the awful cursor tracker…

Vincent Flanders’ comments: I have to ask myself, “Is this the kind of site school children expect to see?” Heck no. It’s an insult to the intelligence of children everywhere. It’s just another Over-the-top Website. To make matters worse, they have unmarked Microsoft Word Documents. Click a link and you start to download a document.

Massengale’s Biology Junction

Submitter’s comments: Not a web page that sucks, but a Twitter promotion thingy from American Express.

Just listen to these ‘simple’ instructions to tweet-and-spend your way to AMEX rewards. And they show the guy hand-typing in long hash tags.

Watched this and thought how much you’d hate it.

Vincent Flanders’ comments: You’re right. I hate it a lot, but not as much as I hate typing on an iPhone. This video glosses over how much trouble it is to type these hashtags. Take a look at the screenshot above. This screenshot makes three hashtags look easy to type. They’re not.

Amex Sync on Twitter