March 23rd, 2011 5:05 am by Vincent Flanders
Submitter’s comments: I’m on the other side of the Atlantic Ocean from you and I can hear you
ranting about this website even at this distance.
Vincent Flanders’ comments: That’s why I love my readers. They’re smart, clever, funny and right about 99% of the time.
Concerning P&M — WTF? The whole site is Flash, which is so 2001. Complete Flash websites are dead, dead, dead. FlashSplash pages are even more dead. WTF (Who The Heck) signed off on this monstrosity? What do the symbols mean? Why hasn’t this site been laughed out of existence?
P&M Computers
Posted in Bad Business Practices, Daily Sucker, Usability, Web Design, Worst Web Sites |
March 21st, 2011 4:04 am by Vincent Flanders
Submitter’s comments: I was using Google to search for “solar powered computer” to see what would come up. Unfortunately, this did:
Vincent Flanders’ comments: I was just interviewed for a business magazine dealing with small business websites. I said the most important duty your website can perform is to make your business look credible and professional. OK, folks. For 25 points does Parts On Sale look credible and professional? If you’ve never had contact with them before, would you want to do business with them?
Parts On Sale
Posted in Daily Sucker, Usability, Web Design, Worst Web Sites |
March 21st, 2011 4:04 am by Vincent Flanders
Vincent Flanders’ comments: There was another silly article about “stylish menu designs” that I knew would inspire people to do the wrong thing. Here are some examples of bad web design techniques from the article.
HTML5/CSS3 Drop Down Menu
Drop Down Menu
Navigation Menu
Presentation Tool Re-Skin
Navigation
Dropdowns WTF?
Posted in Daily Sucker, Usability, Web Design, Worst Web Sites |
March 16th, 2011 3:03 am by Vincent Flanders
Submitter’s comments: Their use of hidden text is so confusing. Plus, what’s up with the background? We go to their events and, thank God, their service is better than their website.
Vincent Flanders’ comments: The most important SEO element—as far as anyone can determine—is the text appearing in the home page’s TITLE tag. Unfortunately, this site’s TITLE tag is “index.” Not very helpful.
The problem with using dates on your pages is that people forget to update their site and everyone starts thinking, “These folks are lazy.” Not the impression you want to make. Speaking of dates, Mr. Bottles, the #2 Worst Business Web Site of 2009 proudly states “Last Updated 1/22/10” on their home page.
The mouseover events are just plain scary. You have to see them for yourself.
You can tell the pros from the amateurs by their use of color. TNT’s use of color is atrocious. On the other hand, CSS-Tricks uses a similar color scheme, but it looks fine.
TNT Events
Posted in Daily Sucker, Usability, Web Design, Worst Web Sites |
March 14th, 2011 3:03 am by Vincent Flanders
Submitter’s comments: I love this site because the designer chose to randomly scatter the navigation across the home page. They even worked the links to Facebook and Twitter into the confusing and ultra-busy artwork.
Vincent Flanders’ comments: I like the fact the site doesn’t insult your intelligence by making you fill in your birthday before you can enter. We all know that today’s six-year-old is smart enough to make himself look like he’s 21.
I also like the artistic choice of colors, but I hate everything else. Nobody should be forced to scroll horizontally. It took awhile for me to figure it out since I’m not used to trying to figure out where the navigation is located.
If you click on “Find Us,” it’s impossible to get back to the home page. Even hitting the [back] button doesn’t help. The problem with offering News is that you need to update your news. The last news item was from September 22, 2009.
Bear Flag Wine
Posted in Daily Sucker, Usability, Web Design, Worst Web Sites |