Worst Web Sites 2008:
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Worst Web Sites 2007
Worst Web Sites 2006
More Bad Web Design
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Daily Examples of Bad Web Design
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Checklist 1
149 Ways to Kill Your Web Site
Checklist 2
82 Ways to Ruin Your Web Site
Miscellaneous
The Worst Web Page In The World
This page is similar to The Daily Sucker except it features web designs that can best be classified as "car wrecks on the Information Superhighway." Usually, these sites can be fixed only by a complete redesign.
The Worst Web Page In The World for October 23, 2007
Submitter's comments: I'm not sure if you've already featured this site as a Daily Sucker, but I was just flabbergasted when I came across it today: Bow-WowBooks.
First, a splash page, which I know you hate. Then, you enter a series of web pages that have no words on them at all -- just boxes with cartoons that you're supposed to click on to progress to the relevant section. The problem is, the only way I can see to tell which box takes you to what type of content is either to just click and see where you end up (which is often just another page with more confusing, unlabeled boxes), or to hover your mouse over the image and check the browser's status bar to see what the page is named (for example, after you go through the splash page, if you hover over the two boxes and look down, you'll see the left is for "kids" and the right for "adults").
The comics themselves aren't even obviously giving you clues as to the pages they'll take you to -- for example, if you click on the "adults" box on the second page, you'll see three new comic boxes: the left has a dog with books in its mouth, which I can see is for a page about "books," the right has a dog using a cash register, so "store" -- okay, maybe I can give them those.
But the middle features a dog looking angrily at a. . . telephone pole? Or. . . ? And that's what you are supposed to click on for "info" (which, incidentally, just takes me to three more comic boxes that are completely meaningless except in retrospect -- once I KNOW the dog howling at the moon is for "contacts," I can sort of see it, but why not just write CONTACTS on it?)?
I'm just astonished at the bad navigational design of this site!
Wow. Not bow-wow, just. . . WOW.
Vincent's comments: This is just terrible. There is cute and then there is "too cute for your own good." The version for children is beyond terrible because nothing is there. With the adult section, which you can't really identify as such, there's at least a couple of pages of explanatory text. Of course, the most important page is the one I chose last. Their dog should bite them on the ankle.
The Worst Web Page In The World for October 17, 2007
Submitter's comments: Can you take this page from NASA for more than three seconds?
I offer you this loathsome beauty, which should bear a big banner which reads, "WARNING: NOT SAFE FOR SUFFERERS OF EPILEPSY, MIGRAINE, OR MOTION SICKNESS".
I've now seen, thanks to a friend of mine who's a (competent) Web designer, some pages which benefit greatly from their heavy use of Flash. This ain' t one of 'em.
Make the hurting stop, please.
Vincent's comments:Why in the name of God do they want an STS-108 Interactive version?
NASA's STS-108 Interactive page
The Worst Web Page In The World for October 16, 2007
Submitter's comments: OMG!! The meatiest Mystery Meat Navigation EVER!!!!
Click the # in the lower right
Then click the words on the left.
Vincent's comments: OMG!! You may be right! Thank you for explaining the navigation to me. Of course, if someone has to explain the navigation, then it sucks.
It's possible that I'd have to give this site a "pass" because it may be an art site. On the other hand, there's no way to figure out what kind of site it is because there's not much text anywhere on the site.
God, I hope it's an art site or we may have found the worst site on the web.
The Worst Web Page In The World for September 6, 2007
Submitter's comments: Another contender.
Vincent's comments: Whenever I received an email with just a couple of words and a URL, odds are the web site is a car wreck on the Information Highway.
Someone responded to a comment about my silly belief that WPTS will disappear because people will learn about web design. S/he said, " I don’t think you really have to much too worry about because, as I'm sure you are aware, people seem to check their user experience at the door once they start building a web site." That would explain the look of this site.
Everything is wrong. I really dislike the TITLE tag — "untitled document", the background, the animations, and the navigation buttons where the right side is cut off.
The Worst Web Page In The World for May 29, 2007
Submitter's comments: Someone suggested that I forward this to your attention. NICE buttons!!
Turn OFF the music!!!
AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAGH!!!!!!
Vincent's comments: Take a look at the source to see what monstrosity of a web page editor created this site. BTW, using sound files is illegal unless you pay royalties. I wish the RIAA would go after web site owners instead of people backing up their own music.
You can see how bad the buttons look (without seeing them in their full animated glory -- the mouseovers are pricelessly bad) at my favorite online application, BrowserCam. These should be full-page captures, which I took for your amusement.
The Worst Web Page In The World for May 24, 2007
Submitter's comments: A front page that requires you to take a quiz before you can enter the site, distracting Flash animation, hidden navigation tools, pretentious text. This site has it all.
Vincent's comments: As I've often said, "If architects built buildings the way they build their web sites, then the first woodpecker to come along would destroy civilization." Many/Most/All architecture firms' web sites truly exist on the lower levels of web design hell. Maybe architects spend so much time in tall buildings their brains become oxygen deprived. While architects understand that buildings must work or fall down, they don't understand that web sites are the same way.
I'm not sure about the quiz. I didn't see one in IE, Firefox, or Opera.
What is it with architectural firms like M E D I U M, ushida findlay, Illinois Institute of Technology College of Architecture, Torchia, and a bazillion other firms?
To say the jones, partners web site is a piece of crap is an insult to crap and, dammit, capitalize.
The Worst Web Page In The World for May 23, 2007
Submitter's comments: After creating and uploading my own website that I hoped didn’t suck, I went to Google to check on where my company showed up and to see what my ranking was. After seeing this site pop up in the search results, I said, "You gotta love Yahoo Site Builder."
Vincent's comments: If I had Zack Starkey's drum kit, I would still suck as a drummer. Maybe it's the web design tool, but it's more often not.
The Worst Web Page In The World for March 7, 2007
Submitter's comments: Can you make any sense of this site?
Vincent's comments: None at all. It looks like the old jodi.org on steroids — or meth. I went over to Digg.com and someone posted the site and it had 5,621 Diggs.
I can't tell what the site is about, but it's probably experimental and so it doesn't technically qualify as a Daily Sucker; however, you just know some marketing type at a real company is going to see these techniques and want to use it on their web site.
