#4 Worst Non-Profit Web Site of 2007 — United States Marine Corps

Submitter's comments: It’s my first time contributing to Web Pages that Suck. As a web designer, it is so educational and amusing to see site great sites fail due to a lack of organization and functionality. I have been gaining an interest in looking into branches of our military, and looking at opportunities offered for schooling and career development. One would think that easy navigation and user-friendly content would be the goal of trying to recruit young men and women into the military, and this holds true for the USAF, Navy, and Army…but not for the Marines. Upon going to the official recruitment site for the US Marines, I got this… The Marines

If you check it out…the site is entirely in Flash, every nav button has horrible mystery meat qualities…and the site map might be a glimpse of hope…but it is tiny. One can click on the parent’s guide, but the information is not as rich as the other branches…

Bottom line is, I got frustrated at the lack of functionality, and find it hard to believe that someone either won the bid to create this, or a Marine was allowed to create this. My criticisms span only on the site. Though it is a clean one clearly based on visual appeal, it made me want to die.

Vincent Flanders' comments: "...made me want to die" is probably not the best thing to say about the Marines...

The two most important words in web design are "It depends." This is one of those "It depends" web sites.

Yes, everything the person submitting the site said is true. On the other hand, I imagine the site appeals to its target audience and I think that sums it up quite well.

Other comments #1: Another thing I saw on the sitemap, and Vincent, I'm surprised you didn't mention this -- there's Mystery Meat Navigation on the sitemap, too! I always thought a sitemap was for, among other things, the benefit of those who can't use the site's main navigation if they don't have JavaScript -- and here, this site not only very blatantly does it, but they subject you to Mystery Meat Navigation.

Vincent, I would like to nominate this site for one of the worst web sites of 2007. A site like this, while some may like it, is very unbecoming of a site for a branch of our military forces.

Other comments #2: The dialup version preceded the ultra-Flash version by a year apparently. The dialup HTML version of the sitemap requires a lot of scrolling. A scrolling page is only good for assembling and organizing elements and information that are to be put on finished pages, but a scrolling page should never be published on a web site except as an example of what not to use as a finished page. A scroller is just a big notepad.

The original HTML Parental guide has been upgraded (or downgraded) with the newer overlays. Overlay photos just ruin a page and should never be used. Photos should never be overlayed with script. Large fonts do just the opposite of what the page builder intends, it slows down comprehension and requires a greater number of confusing pages on a web site Perhaps the websmasher gets paid by the page instead of quality or comprehension.

The Flash sitemap navigation absolutely does suck, so do the dark sinister backgrounds. This was probably a fairly decent site before the Flash and over-enlarged photos were introduced. With any luck it can be put back as it was and finished properly.

Other comments #3: Mystery Meat on a shingle.

United States Marine Corps.