#14. Worst Non-Profit Web Site of 2007 — El Paso Water Utilities

Submitter's comments: None. I somehow ran across this site.

Vincent Flanders' comments: There's a lot wrong with a site that, upon first glance, might not look like it qualifies for one of the worst sites of 2007.

1. The logo is incredibly small.
2. A lot of space is wasted at the top of the page. The "We support our troops" button isn't necessary. Of course, we support our troops. Duh.
3. The top navigation is incredibly small, hard to read, and I suspect the contrast may not be sufficient. The good news is that, while the navigation uses Javascript, you can still click on the main link and it will take you to a page with the other links.
4. I don't like the order of the navigational elements. The "Who We Are" link should not be first. People don't care who you are. They care about getting their problems solved.
5. The "On-line Bill payment" graphic link is obscured by another graphic that's the same color.
6. The worst mistake is there is no link/button to sign up for online payment.
7. The second-worst mistake is they don't have a link to payment locations on the home page.
8. The "Northeast Master Plan" graphic is an image map and it's difficult to read the "RFQ" button. This button loads a PDF and they get credit for mentioning this fact (and they mention the size of the PDF). Unfortunately, it's difficult to read. I clicked it without realizing it was a PDF.
9. They lose points for not marking their PDFs on the Customer Service Page.
10. They lose more points for needing specific fonts for their PDF. As Hillbilly Jim points out in the comments, "On the Customer Service page, when you click the Application for Industrial Wastewater Discharge Permit, a note came up on my machine saying they couldn't find a required font (WP-TypographicSymbols).
11. The "Watering Schedule" graphic is an image map, which is also hard to read.
12. There's no "Contact Us" link on the main navigation. Yes, there's one on the top-right navigation, but it's hard to see.
13. Their choice of link color is poor -- not enough contrast (it's 2:80 when it should be at least 5:1).
14. Several of their "Customer Service" links should really be on the home page -- especially "Start/Stop Service."
    

I think this list is a good start. I'm sure the comments will find lots of other errors.

Update: A reader brought up a very interesting point in an email:

Vincent, you missed the #1 problem.

El Paso is 76.62% Hispanic. Many residents of El Paso are recent immigrants. Many residents of El Paso are temporary residents on worker visas. Yet this site has not one button or link (that I could see) for translating the site into Spanish. I really hate to see the politics of English as an "official" language get in the way of customer service like this.

El Paso Water Utilities