Submitter’s comments: This is the website of a town ambulance service—the people who are supposed to save your ass if you have a medical emergency—in Uniontown, Pennsylvania. Not only is the design bad, but the content would make me move out of the area in fear of my life.

“Shortage of body bags”? WTF?

Vincent Flanders’ comments: We all make grammar mistakes, but this is a little much:

Both Apparatus and patient care equipments is need. shortage on body bags also

We also have what appears to be loon ravings at the top of the page. WTF?

George’s Township Civil Defense EMS & Fayette_County_Ambulance_Service Fayette-EMS 306

Submitter’s comments: I couldn’t resist submitting this site, which as far as I can tell provides no information whatsoever about the company that made it, and drives the user insane with its moving pictures and completely obscure navigation:

Vincent Flanders’ comments: This may be the best example of head-up-your-ass web design I’ve ever seen. WTF?

joneschijoff

Website similarities seems to be a popular topic this week. First, we had Jakob Nielsen weigh in with Should You Copy a Famous Site’s Design? and then I discovered Copycat Design.

Here are three examples I’ve been using for a long time.

1. A big screenshot of some sites with a similar look.
2. A video I made on the topic.
3. A screen capture of similar legal statements. Yes, these examples are old but, if I remember correctly, these legal statements were used until fairly recently.

Submitter’s comments: This appears to be the site of a five-star hotel in Florida. The first thing I notice about the unnecessary splash page is that it’s bathed in bright scarlet. Assuming you haven’t clicked the tiny “Enter” link or headed for the hills, you’ll be redirected to the site’s first index page. There are these horrible marquee things and flashy gifs and, if you mouse over the third image on the sidebar from the top, the page contracts and expands sickeningly. Navigating through the site is confusing and painful — even the photo gallery is convoluted.

The site is keen to show how friendly hotel staff is, and it’s true that hotel staff do play a part in the experience of a guest. However, I’ve always thought that the biggest draw to a five-star hotel were the facilities. You don’t need to take a class in advertising to know that the site is a marketing nightmare.

Vincent Flanders’ comments: I didn’t realize Ann-Margret was still working, but there she is on the Splash page we don’t need.

This site is tacky, tacky, tacky. On the other hand, maybe this site is perfect. If this is what their audience expects, then there’s nothing wrong with it. Who am I kidding? Nobody could be this aesthetically challenged.

Red Rose Inn and Suites

Submitter’s comments: Here’s one for your slush pile…

Vincent Flanders’ comments: Certainly one of the worst looking political websites I’ve seen. If it weren’t for the fact that he claims to have 13 3/4 years worth of education, I would write off the typos as just a symptom of an Over-the-top Web Site. The following screen shot not only shows the problem, but could also be used as the visual representation of irony:

The candidate’s support of “School violents” reminded me of Emily Litella.

I don’t know what the title of this page should be so I grabbed some text:

U.S. Senate of Zack wamp in 2010

Turns out, according to my commenters, that the person involved in this site is really Basil Marceaux Sr., instead of Zack Wamp.

I’ve heard of interesting campaign promises, but this one may be the best:

VOTE FOR ME AND IF I WIN I WILL IMMUNE YOU FROM ALL STATE CRIMES FOR THE REST OF YOU LIFE! (Except violating a citizen rights this would be a special punishment )

Basil Marceaux Sr.

Submitter’s comments: This is one of those “Have you ever seen another web site? Really? Doesn’t look like it” sites.

Vincent Flanders’ comments: This is the type of web design I’d expect to see from one of those creationist types of sites like Creation Museum, Taxidermy Hall of Fame of NC and Antique Tool Museum. It’s nice to know that evolutionists can be just as wacko in their web design.

Evolution and the Nature of Science Institutes

Submitter’s comments: Check out this sucky site!

Vincent Flanders’ comments: Definitely a contender for worst web site of 2010. My first reaction was “Where’s the white space?”

Shop in Paradise

Submitter’s comments: It’s been a while since I’ve seen Mystery Meat Navigation used on a website, so I thought I’d send you this site. Honestly, I don’t see this much any more — see if you can find the navigation on this page (hint: it is next to the little graphic that says “Navigate” and has an arrow pointing to it. Even then, it takes a moment to realize what the heck is going on).

I was floored that I couldn’t just click what appeared to be the “Lunch” or “Dinner” graphics at the top. The music which plays when the page loads is also one of my biggest pet peeves.

Vincent Flanders’ comments: Whenever someone says to you,”There’s nothing wrong with using Mystery Meat Navigation,” send them to this site. I hereby revoke my Mystery Meat exemption to band, art, personal, music, et al. sites until such a time as site owners and designers become responsible citizens. If people see something stupid, they want it. This has got to stop.

Zinc Bistro

Submitter’s comments: On a guitar newsgroup the topic of worst websites came up. Most of the examples were sites you’ve featured years ago (Yvette’s, Forever Forgiven, etc.) that people think “they’ve discovered.” One site that was new to me — and shouldn’t have been — is Ed Roman Guitars. It’s definitely Web Pages That Suck material.

Vincent Flanders’ comments: There’s nothing like a Las Vegas-style website belonging to a Las Vegas-based company. It certainly qualifies for my list of Over-The-Top Web Sites except this site isn’t about “philosophy, religion, politics, end times, etc.”

Yes, it’s a music site (which are normally exempt), but it’s a store that sells products. This site is a classic example of Mistake #6 from Biggest Mistakes in Web Design 1995-2015 — “Have you ever seen another web site? Really? Doesn’t look like it.“ I call this type of design the “I haven’t taken my antipsychotics in a while school of web design.”

Seriously, have the people at this company surfed the web?

Ed Roman Guitar