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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.

State of Utah’s New Website – An example of bad web design for June 13, 2011

June 12th, 2011 11:11 pm by Vincent Flanders

Vincent Flanders’ comments: The State of Utah’s new HackTML5-based web site is interesting. It’s a marginal Daily Sucker, but it provides an opportunity for us to learn from websites that cost lots of money and are cutting edge. I call it HackTML5 instead of HTML5 because you have to use all sorts of hacks to make HTML5 work. Then again, almost any HTML is hacked to some extent (thank you, Microsoft Internet Exploder).

If I scroll down the home page In Google Chrome, I can’t get the bottom menu to stay in place like I can with Firefox 4.

There are a lot of behind-the-scenes issues. Yslow gives it an F (40) while Page Speed gives it a 74. (Page Speed always grades on the curve. Earlier versions were tougher than Yslow, but now they’re pussycats. BTW, 40 is the lowest score I’ve ever seen. Even the ridiculously crazed format of TechCrunch gets a 48.) The site isn’t using the asynchronous version of Google Analytics, tsk tsk. There are 15 separate Javascript files and 4 external stylesheets. Here’s a screenshot of the Yslow report.

The material on the “Highlights” page scrolls too quickly. I read at a reasonable speed (I yam a kollege gradiate), but I can’t keep up.

Clicking on “Highlights” or “in Utah” or “News” brings up a scrolling DIV. It’s a nice concept, but it doesn’t work that well on my iPad. Why does that matter, because they have a file called ipad.js that’s supposed to make the site work on an iPad. It doesn’t quite get it right. Here’s what they say their site looks like on an iPad and here’s what I get on my iPad. Notice the cut-off text at the bottom. It gets worse. When I clicked “in Utah,” this is my screen.

THE REAL PROBLEM WITH THE iPAD VERSION is the iPad must be in landscape mode. Putting the iPad in portrait mode causes major problems because the site prevents scrolling (user-scalable=0). Here’s what you get for the home page when in portrait mode.

When you click on “in Utah”or “News” and you have a large portrait monitor, you get a repeating background. That sucks. It sucks because when you click “Search” or “Highlights” you don’t have the problem.

They’ll fix this—probably by the time you read this—but the Education page blows up in Chrome and Firefox, but not IE9. Hmm.

On the plus side, what they’ve done with content is pretty amazing.

State of Utah

Posted in Daily Sucker, Usability, Web Design |


Netflix – Another Example of Bad Web Design for June 10, 2011

June 9th, 2011 9:09 pm by Vincent Flanders

Submitter’s comments: Netflix released a new design of their site. You need to be a subscriber to see the monstrosity that they have unleashed but I think you might have a candidate for next year’s awards. The overall usability has fallen off the charts.

But don’t take my word for it – read some of the 1400+ comments on the blog that have been posted since yesterday morning about this thing.

Vincent Flanders’ comments: Wow. I was thinking about joining. My son-in-law has it so I’ll have to check it out.

Netflix explains their new navigation. When you have to explain your navigation, your navigation sucks. I’ve never seen an example to disprove this theory. Sounds like they’ve added Mystery Meat Navigation.

Here’s the Netflix blog discussing the redesign along with 1,500+ comments

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


Premier Fishing – An Example of Bad Web Design for June 10, 2011

June 9th, 2011 6:06 pm by Vincent Flanders

Submitter’s comments: This site sucks, because it only works in IE….except it doesn’t even work in IE9 – it just hangs.

Vincent Flanders’ comments: Wow. You don’t often see a website where it demands you have a certain browser. It didn’t work in Google Chrome, but it also didn’t work in IE8. Hmm. I guess it basically doesn’t work.

Premier Fishing

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


RushBiddies – An Example of Bad Web Design for June 9, 2011

June 8th, 2011 8:08 pm by Vincent Flanders

Submitter’s comments: I thought you might be interested in this site I have recently come across. I don’t necessarily know how it ranks compared to all the rest of the internet, but I have a feeling it’s pretty bad on just about any scale. Just be prepared for the visual assault before clicking on the link.

Vincent Flanders’ comments: When I saw the URL – rushbiddies.com- I thought it had something to do with Rush Limbaugh, a bunch of annoying old ladies (biddies), a bunch of annoying old ladies being annoyed by Rush, or a bunch of old ladies annoying Rush. Nope. It’s about recruiting high school girls to go Greek. Hmm. That has an unpleasant sound to it. I should change it to “Girls Gone Greek.”

Lots of text problems—contrast, size, centered and flush-left on same page, plus the use of frames.

RushBiddies

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


Xerox Real Business – Worst Website in the World for 2011 – June 8, 2011

June 7th, 2011 8:08 pm by Vincent Flanders

Submitter’s comments: Probably going to win all sorts of awards for innovative, clever, and other pointless words, but as a useful helpful and informative site it is a bit of a disaster. I have no idea what all those people are doing and what I’m supposed to do except listen to all those annoying sounds. And I bet they spent millions on the site as well.

Vincent Flanders’ comments: I think it’s going to win at least one award—WebPagesThatSuck’s Worst Website of 2011. On the other hand, it’s mathematically possible for some other site to be worse. Nah. Vegas is putting it as a 2-100 favorite. The site is not a “bit of disaster”, as the submitter suggests. It’s the black hole of f**king death of disasters.

The good news is that you can use Xerox’s site as an acid test. Ask your favorite designer what he thinks of the site. If he likes it, you know he has his head so far up his ass he can kiss his tonsils. If he hates it, the odds are good that s/he’s a designer who understands that websites are about providing information and solving needs.

I swear the bald guy on the Finance and Accounting Floor is the brother of the talking bald guy at Mr. Bottles. I like Mr. Bottles’ talking guy better. The Xerox tool sounds like just another pompous assh*le.

Just as a piece of trivia, the Xerox site looks even worse on a portrait monitor.

If you’re “lucky,” you’ll get a chance to fill out a survey about the website. Please do. My readers are smart and hate stupid websites.

Xerox Real Business

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


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