Worst Web Sites of 2008 — New Contenders #1-10 From July-September

Web design is an art. Great web design occurs when design and content are seamless and you don't notice its greatness. With great web design, it's easy to find the information you need. The content makes you want to return again and again and, most importantly, great design gives credibility to the company/organization.

Unfortunately, the following sites don't feature great web design. This group features the leading 10 candidates for the Worst Web Site Featured as the Daily Sucker during July through September 2008.

God help us. We've got three more months of potential candidates.

The Original Group of Contenders

The final list of "winners" will be picked from all contenders — and there are lots of crud to wade through.

Don't forget to check out:

Worst Web Sites of 2008: Original Contenders 1-10
Worst Web Sites of 2008: Original Contenders 11-20
Worst Web Sites of 2008: the rest of the contenders

July through September Updates

The 10 newest contenders follow below. Click on the boxes above to see Original contenders #1-10, Original contenders #21-40, or All the rest of the contenders.

 

New from July-September

1. Yvette's

Submitter's comments: After seeing this site, my engagement is off! I now totally, absolutely, 100% vow a life of celibacy.

Vincent Flanders' comments: If you want to see more extremely bad sites, go to Over The Top web sites. I've featured so many over the years that it will be a while before I can get all of them listed. So check back.

View this siteGo to Yvette's

Comments about Yvette's

Vincent Flanders' comments: I remember the priests and nuns at my Catholic grade school telling us that if we thought we were facing immanent death, we should say an Act of Contrition and our sins would be forgiven — or something like that. After viewing this site the only thing that's keeping me alive is the thought of death.

You have to love the keyword stuffing that's going on. Most people try to hide the fact. Because of all the color combinations on the page, they just put the keywords at the bottom.

You must click the ENTER YVETTE'S link and see the home page. OMG. This site is a shoo-in for inclusion Worst Web Sites of 2008.

Other comments #1: OMFG. My retinas have been seriously burned by this site and my gay genes are screaming in complete horror. I didn't think a page like this was still in existence past the late 90s, but apparently it is. AND! It's near Tyndall AFB in Florida. Be afraid!

I particularly like the wine bottle in the middle of one of the pages. I personally think it should be a shotgun and moonshine in homage to "give the child a name!" weddings of the South.

Other comments #2: I've been a WPTS reader for a good 8 years now and this one has my vote for Worst Web Site Ever. Not just for 2008, but EVER. The floating face, every color of the rainbow, the bagpipes, the non sequitur photos. I hope they didn't pay someone to make this. look at the horrifying MS Paint background on this page.

Other comments #3: The keywords are interesting too. "Yvette's, health, fitness, weightloss, weight loss, religion, space aliens". No marriage is complete without space aliens!

View this siteGo to Yvette's

 

Yvette's:

Category — Over the Top

The definition of an "Over the Top" web site is just like the definition of pornography— you know it when you see it. Over the Top sites generally deal with philosophy, religion, politics, etc., but they're generally not mainstream. They're...oh, heck...go look at this site. You'll see what I mean.

Category — WTF

When you see a site like this, your first reaction is "What the heck were they thinking?"

View this siteGo to Yvette's

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New from July-September

2. Martinsburg Police Department

Oh, the power and glory of police web sites. This site should be declared an endangered species because it makes about every mistake in the book starting with the TITLE “Index” and ending with Javascript loading in the status bar. It's a classic police site from 1997. I love it.

View this siteGo to the Martinsburg Police Department

Comments about Martinsburg Police Department

Other comments #1: Could they possibly have fitted any more swirling, twirling, scrolling, or disappearing thingies onto the page? And frames, good heavens, frames! But apparently they did it without FrontPage.

Other comments #2: Martinsburg is in the Eastern Panhandle, which has become an exurb for Washington and Baltimore. You would think a community so close to D.C. would have a site that looks professional.

View this siteGo to the Martinsburg Police Department

 

Martinsburg Police Department:

Category — Have you ever seen another web site? Really? Doesn't look like it.

I usually don't let bad design affect me, but there's one mistake that really gets under my skin. I don't understand how it's possible to create web sites that look like car wrecks on the information highway.

Sites like Accept Jesus, Forever Forgiven puzzle me. Hasn't anyone at this organization seen another web site? Have you been to Amazon.com or the ASPCA or even to Catholic.net (which sucks, but is infinitely better than AJFF).

Hire a web designer, buy a template, and for the love of Mike, do something!

View this siteGo to the Martinsburg Police Department

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New from July-September

3. Toto | Washlet (NSFW, probably)

Clean is most certainly happy for your behind, but it is not happy for your web site! Apart from the multitude of butts that seem to take forever to load and the navigational (faces?) buttons, I would have to say that this site's biggest crime is not having any words.

View this siteGo to Toto | Washlet (MAY NOT BE SUITABLE FOR WORK)

Comments about Toto | Washlet

Submitter comments: That means if you're looking at this site at work, the sound has to be muted and that means that this site doesn't actually tell me anything unless I go clicking around. By that time I'm too bored to progress further. By the way, this is the line of toilets that Google outfits their offices with.

Vincent Flanders' comments: (Note to self: abstain from any obvious and crude references). Obviously, this site is NSFW.

I find the TITLE tag amusing — Toto | Washlet - Flash Player Installation. Personally, I don't understand the need for Mystery Meat Navigation when regular navigation would work just fine. (Whew! I made it without saying anything crude and rude — mostly because I didn't say much.)

Other comments #1: The mere fact that this product exists leaves me with serious doubts about the future of Western civilization. I hope those actors were paid handsomely for delivering those lines with a straight face. The day a toilet seat makes me more confident is the day I book an extra session with my shrink.

Other comments #2: I don't know why, but the talking heads creeped me out a bit, especially when you mouse over them.

Other comments #3: I know why: These people are enthusing about toilets the way other people do about their kids. It's beyond creepy.

View this siteGo to Toto | Washlet (MAY NOT BE SUITABLE FOR WORK)

 

Toto | Washlet:

Category — Nice Butts

This might be one of the few sites where nice, naked butts aren't obscene, but kind of freaky.

Category — MMN (Mystery Meat Navigation)

A now-defunct article had a great definition of MMN:

Mystery meat navigation (also abbreviated MMN) is a term coined and popularized by author, web designer, and usability analyst Vincent Flanders to describe user interfaces (especially in web sites) in which it is inordinately difficult for users to discern the destinations of navigational hyperlinks—or, in severe cases, even to determine where the hyperlinks are. The typical form of MMN is represented by menus composed of unrevealing icons that are replaced with explicative text only when the mouse cursor hovers over them.

mystery meat navigation is understood by high school studentsFlanders adopted the epithet mystery meat because, like the unidentifiable processed meat products historically served in many American public school cafeterias, MMN is unfathomable to the casual observer. Before conceiving the term mystery meat navigation, Flanders temporarily described the phenomenon as Saturnic navigation, a phrase named for the Saturn Corporation, whose web site formerly served as a high-profile example of this web usability problem.

View this siteGo to Toto | Washlet (MAY NOT BE SUITABLE FOR WORK)

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New from July-September

4. Douglas County Sheriff's Department

Submitter comments: I have looked at some of the sites listed on your web site in the past I couldn't help but take a peek at one you mentioned — the Seekonk Police Department. That web site is bad but I may have one for you that is even worse. Check out the Sheriff's Department from Douglas County Missouri. P. S. Try to right click on some text.

View this siteGo to Douglas County Sheriff's web site

Comments about Douglas County Sheriff's Department

Vincent Flanders' comments: Interestingly, my daughter and I were watching the latest Reno 911 DVD tonight (background on the show) and it occurred to me that this site is just the type of site that this mock police department would have up and running.

Today's sucker uses every cop cliché I've ever seen (including the theme from Bad Boys). The animated bullets being “fired” on the home page are not the kind of message you want to see on your local police department's web site. This tacky technique reminded me of one of the bonus features on the DVD — Cop Psychology Inside the Minds of Reno's Deputies.

The different officers were interviewed by a psychologist/psychiatrist and the question that was asked of everyone was “Under what circumstances do you feel deadly force is justified?” The answers are hilarious. I've provided a link to one of them and it's TOTALLY NOT SUITABLE FOR WORK (or for those folks who have a sophisticated sense of humor or are easily offended).

Just as you wouldn't want your local cops to spout the same nonsense as Lt. Dangle about deadly force, you don't want your local police web site to use animated bullets.

Today's sucker is how cop sites used to look like in the old days. The problem is “these are the new days” and this site proves that police brutality doesn't always involve a billy club.

View this siteGo to Douglas County Sheriff's web site

 

Douglas County Sheriff's Department:

Category — Have you ever seen another web site? Really? Doesn't look like it.

I usually don't let bad design affect me, but there's one mistake that really gets under my skin. I don't understand how it's possible to create web sites that look like car wrecks on the information highway.

Sites like Accept Jesus, Forever Forgiven puzzle me. Hasn't anyone at this organization seen another web site? Have you been to Amazon.com or the ASPCA or even to Catholic.net (which sucks, but is infinitely better than AJFF).

Hire a web designer, buy a template, and for the love of Mike, do something!

View this siteGo to Douglas County Sheriff's web site

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New from July-September

5. Toy Joy

Submitter's comments: Toy Joy's a really weird store in Austin that sells all kinds of toys and other goofy novelties. It's a bit of a disjointed place but, hey, if you want tons of fake fish, dashboard hula girls, or giant fake bats, it's the place to go.

To some extent I can understand having an equally crazy layout, but it's not as crazy as it is just plain terrible. It's a garish green background with white Mystery Meat Navigation. Ow. No contrast at all. I think all the numbers just lead to Quicktime VR tours, which is interesting considering that while there are generally some themed areas that rarely move, I'm pretty sure the store layout has shifted since the site was put up four years ago. That, of course, isn't really taking into account the obvious fact that it requires you to have the proper plug-in to view everything.

So…what's the point? Actually, I wouldn't be surprised if they just wanted to break my brain.

View this siteGo to Toy Joy

Comments about Toy Joy

Vincent Flanders' comments: I love stores like this and I'm going to make sure I visit Toy Joy the next time I'm in Austin. On the other hand, the site sucks like the black hole of death. Yeah, yeah, I know it's supposed to be a Roky Erickson-13th Floor Elevators kind of site, but those days are over.

Other comments #1: Seems to me you kind of have to know already what kind of place this is to grasp what's in the 360 degree photos. If you hadn't been in a place like that, how would you have a clue what you're looking at? Too clever for its own good.

Other comments #2: I can't look at their site because I don't want Quicktime on my PC.
And the font on their info page is dreadful. However, there's one thing I found clever: they're using Javascript obfuscation to display their email address.

View this siteGo to Toy Joy

 

Toy Joy:

Category — WTF

When you see a site like this, your first reaction is "What the heck were they thinking?"

Category — MMN (Mystery Meat Navigation)

Toy Joy

A now-defunct article had a great definition of MMN:

Mystery meat navigation (also abbreviated MMN) is a term coined and popularized by author, web designer, and usability analyst Vincent Flanders to describe user interfaces (especially in web sites) in which it is inordinately difficult for users to discern the destinations of navigational hyperlinks—or, in severe cases, even to determine where the hyperlinks are. The typical form of MMN is represented by menus composed of unrevealing icons that are replaced with explicative text only when the mouse cursor hovers over them.

mystery meat navigation is understood by high school studentsFlanders adopted the epithet mystery meat because, like the unidentifiable processed meat products historically served in many American public school cafeterias, MMN is unfathomable to the casual observer. Before conceiving the term mystery meat navigation, Flanders temporarily described the phenomenon as Saturnic navigation, a phrase named for the Saturn Corporation, whose web site formerly served as a high-profile example of this web usability problem.

View this siteGo to Toy Joy

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New from July-September

6. Poor David's Pub

A lot of pubs still have this 1997 look and I don't understand why. My favorite section in today's site is Upcoming Shows, which features a set of animated, rainbow divider bars so out there that even gay bars won't use them on their web sites. The same goes for the multicolored text.

I personally hate calendars that aren't up-to-date and this site's is certainly not current. I've noticed a lot of rock bands actually keep their calendars up-to-date (the Gin Blossoms come to mind).

View this siteGo to Poor David's Pub

Comments about Poor David's Pub

Submitter comments: Vincent, I come to you today feeling incredibly guilty.  I've been a fan and patron of Poor David's Pub, an exemplary live music venue in Dallas, Texas, for years.  Poor David's has been a great place to catch local and touring bands for as long as I can remember and I hate myself for speaking ill of the place.  However, I hadn't had any reason to visit the pub's web site, and as you can tell, it's straight out of 1997.  Animated musical notes, black background, and a page that scrolls on forever, and those are the least of its problems.

Now, I agree with you that most artistic sites should be exempt from winning a Daily Sucker.  However, when it's a site for a business that promotes or displays artistry, wouldn't it be better if the business was making sure that it wasn't blinding its patrons with bad Web design?

Other comments #1: Neon gas was first isolated in 1898 in London and the first neon lamp was displayed in 1910, Paris. The first neon sign was bought by a parisian barber in 1912 and two signs valued at $24,000.00 were sold to a Packard car dealer in Los Angeles 1923. http://www.squidoo.com/neon_signs#module8457101 My great grandparents made their fortune raising berries for the Detroit market, subdivided the farm and built a very large stone chapel on the homestead complete with pipe organ. Over the door was a blue neon light spelling Ave Maria. A similar sign arched over the front gate of their winter home in West Palm Beach, Florida.

This web site dates back to the Art Deco Style of the 1920s with the neon colors on a black night background. I found the soft glow of neon somehow comforting and alluring as a child but that was a long time ago. The site could be repaired by using just a few well-filled pages with left flush font. They should retain the colors but resize the pages to display at 1024x768 on a 17" monitor. The web site calendar must have been updated since the site was posted as it seems up to date.

View this siteGo to Poor David's Pub

 

Poor David's Pub:

Category — Have you ever seen another web site? Really? Doesn't look like it.

I usually don't let bad design affect me, but there's one mistake that really gets under my skin. I don't understand how it's possible to create web sites that look like car wrecks on the information highway.

Sites like Accept Jesus, Forever Forgiven puzzle me. Hasn't anyone at this organization seen another web site? Have you been to Amazon.com or the ASPCA or even to Catholic.net (which sucks, but is infinitely better than AJFF).

Hire a web designer, buy a template, and for the love of Mike, do something!

View this siteGo to Poor David's Pub

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New from July-September

7. Business Objects Support Page

An interesting web design issue. The good news is the link is clearly marked that you'll be downloading a 2Mb PDF file. The bad news is someone is laughing up their sleeve whenever he realizes customers have to read a 42-page document about navigating through their support black hole of death. Obviously, Business Objects wasn't a contender for Best Application UIs of 2008 and it looks to me that SAP views customers as saps (see definition 4).

View this siteGo to Business Objects Support Page (look for the link How to Navigate Inside the SAP Support World: Detailed information for Customers & Partners - PDF [2MB])

Comments about Business Objects Support Page

Submitter comments: I've just started using Crystal Reports 10 and had an issue pop up — a manager emailed me a report and asked for a change. When I ran the report to see what it did, CR popped up a message that a function couldn't be used (UTCtoLocal) since the dll it needs isn't installed. No big deal — go get the dll and install it, right? Wrong!

Apparently SAP bought Business Objects which owns CR. And the SAP support page now supports — sort of — Business Objects. They have a 2 MB PDF file on how to navigate their support web site. Hint: if you need a 2 MB PDF file to explain how to navigate your web site, something is wrong. Seriously wrong. And I've spent 45 minutes trying to find out where the dll is on their web site with no success so far.

Other comments #1: Now I understand why some companies suffer a sudden death. They are attempting to run the business by consensus, consequently no one makes a decision in time. Picture Henry Ford running the company by consensus.

View this siteGo to Business Objects Support Page (look for the link How to Navigate Inside the SAP Support World: Detailed information for Customers & Partners - PDF [2MB])

Business Objects Support Page:

Category — Navigation Nightmare

Creating an easy-to-use and easy-to-understand navigation is a skill few possess.

I just know some IT semi-professional is laughing up his/her sleeve whenever s/he realizes customers have to read a 42-page document about navigating through their support black hole of death. Obviously, Business Objects wasn't a contender for Best Application UIs of 2008 and the fact SAP's customers haven't revolted leads me to believe SAP views customers as saps (see definition 4).

View this siteGo to Business Objects Support Page (look for the link How to Navigate Inside the SAP Support World: Detailed information for Customers & Partners - PDF [2MB])

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New from July-September

8. Burlington Ufo and Paranormal Research and Education Center

I think there are two possible reactions to this site. As the great movie reviewer Mr. Cranky has said:

  1. “This is so godawful that it ruptures the very fabric of space and time with the sheer overpowering force of its mediocrity.”
  2. “Proof that Jesus died in vain.”

View this site Burlington Ufo and Paranormal Research and Education Center

Comments about Burlington Ufo and Paranormal Research and Education Center

Submitter comments: In order to fully appreciate this site, you have to scroll down. . . . way down. . . you won't believe how much crap is crammed on one page.  I didn't think it was possible — and in rainbow colors.  I strongly advise against clicking any of the links as it takes you to equally horrendous pages and sites. 

I now have a headache.

Other comments #1: Scroll down almost to the bottom and check out the shot of Bubba in the sauna with E.T. Priceless, absolutely priceless. I wonder if he knows those half-wits from Georgia with the Sasquatch suit.

Other comments #2: They seem to be fairly shameless in using .gif's for visual effects. Examples are near Multimegabyte .gif files for stuff that could be done in javascript such as slideshows and transitions between images. On the other end of the filesize for gif, bordered boxes. Spidering the site, I do not see a single external stylesheet or javascript file. Inconsistent multimedia formats, WMA, RM, QT, MPEG, AVI, WAV, MP3. Sadly, the site map follows the same design scheme as the rest of the site. Designed in Yahoo Page/Sitebuilder.

View this site Burlington Ufo and Paranormal Research and Education Center

 

Burlington Ufo and Paranormal Research and Education Center:

Category — Over the Top

The definition of an "Over the Top" web site is just like the definition of pornography— you know it when you see it. Over the Top sites generally deal with philosophy, religion, politics, etc., but they're generally not mainstream. They're...oh, heck...go look at this site. You'll see what I mean.

View this site Burlington Ufo and Paranormal Research and Education Center

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New from July-September

9. Sail New York City

Ouch, it's too gaudy and way too long. Can we put any more on a web page? I especially love the subpages like What to Bring with its gaudy, unmoving background image. It's a car wreck.

View this site Sail New York City

Comments about Sail New York City

Other comments #1: Within 30 seconds I started to feel a little queasy. Then I noticed 6 or 7 different font colors and styles on the first screenful, what a great way to slow down comprehension of a page. Next I noticed that the page needed side scrolling, probably built on a 20" display. What's with the damned ping pong screensaver, did they steal that off a commodore 64? Oh yeah, don't be stealing any images off this site. Everything is centered so nicely on that huge canvas of whitespace, makes you wanna scroll forever. Wow, an AOL email address and Google Ads. What a mess!

Other comments #2: Just love all the things that scroll by and move back and forth. So soothing. NOT. Scrolling marquees went out in 1999. Please join us in the 21st century.

View this siteSail New York City

Sail New York City:

Category — Have you ever seen another web site? Really? Doesn't look like it.

I usually don't let bad design affect me, but there's one mistake that really gets under my skin. I don't understand how it's possible to create web sites that look like car wrecks on the information highway.

Sites like Accept Jesus, Forever Forgiven puzzle me. Hasn't anyone at this organization seen another web site? Have you been to Amazon.com or the ASPCA or even to Catholic.net (which sucks, but is infinitely better than AJFF).

Hire a web designer, buy a template, and for the love of Mike, do something!

View this siteSail New York City

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New from July-September

10. Georgia Perimeter College (Honorary)

I was searching for a continuing education class to take and found this scary site of of Georgia Perimeter College. As a person who has been designing web sites for a while now, the yellow links for the course listings were not only hard to read but also made me wince. I think a small piece of my creativity died inside.

View this siteThe screenshot proving their guilt
What the Georgia Perimeter College site looks like now (what a difference contrast makes)

Comments about Georgia Perimeter College

Vincent Flanders' comments: If I had a dollar for every time I've said MORE CONTRAST on this site, I'd be a rich man. Doesn't anybody in charge of the web site ever look at the end result? Of course, you just know they'll fix it after finding out they made WPTS and they have, but I've got proof of why it made the Daily Sucker list — I have a screenshot.

View this siteThe screenshot proving their guilt
What the Georgia Perimeter College site looks like now

Georgia Perimeter College:

Category — Contrast

A lot of web sites look like thisNot every site that's a contender for The Worst Web Site of 2008 is a “Car Wreck on the Information Highway.” This site qualifies because they don't understand the concept of contrast. For the clueless web designers out there, please read Wikipedia's definition of contrast. Here's a web site that gives a really great explanation of contrast — and it's visual.

Category — Honorary

If a site's been fixed, it can't really be the "Worst Web Site of 2008," but it can win in the Honorary Category.

View this site

The screenshot proving their guilt
What the Georgia Perimeter College site looks like now

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