Web Pages That Suck:
The Ugliest / Worst Web Sites of 2009

Overall, 2009 was a much worse year for web design here at WebPagesThatSuck.com than I ever expected. On the other hand, there are a lot more web sites today than back in 1996 when I started WPTS. On a percentage basis, we might be improving.

A lot of non-profit organizations need to fix their web sites. There's more at stake with a non-profit web site and they have more responsibility to "get it right."

Ugliest / Worst Business Web Sites of 2009 You Can Learn Something From

The Ugliest / Worst Web Pages of the Decade

I've been writing about bad web design since July 1996 — and nobody knows more about what sucks up a site.

I've gone through my hell-hole of bad web sites and picked out the 30 that I think typify the worst in web design over the last decade plus. There are not a lot of subtleties here.

Ugliest / Worst Web Pages of the Decade

    George Hutchins for Congress

      

ABBC Breeders

Accept Jesus, Forever Forgiven

Association of International Glaucoma Societies

Scene Clean

Web Redesign Checklists

Smashing Magazine put these lists under the category "Ultimate Web Design Checklists" and said:

This checklist from Web Pages That Suck is one of the most complete checklists out there.

My two web design checklists make web site redesigns simpler

You don't have to spend thousands of dollars on seminars or spend hundreds of dollars on books to find out what's wrong with your web site.

I'm giving you the tools to do the job yourself. Just compare your site against two easy-to-use checklists and find out what you need to fix.

Web Redesign Checklist 1 — 148 ways you're killing your site.
Web Redesign Checklist 2 — 82 ways you're maiming your site.

What do I do now? — Hopefully, fix what's wrong.
What we clicked on in Checklist 1 — See mistakes others have made.
Top 30 Web Design Mistakes — See the most "popular" mistakes.

The Worst Web Sites Of 2008

Like every year since 1996, I hoped that the current year would be the year when we'd only have 10-15 sites that were truly awful. Dream on. I suspect I had 130+ candidates for the top ten. I haven't seen so much crap since the guys at Evergreen Plumbing opened my septic tank and let me look inside.

Here are the categories:

1. Worst Web Sites of 2008
2. Worst Web Sites of 2008: Navigation
3. Worst Web Sites of 2008: Old School Design
4. Worst Web Sites of 2008: Cops and Chiropractors

Bad Web Design Is Over-The-Top

The most horrible looking web sites use what I call "Over-The-Top" web design techniques. Web sites that use Over-The-Top design discuss topics like philosophy, religion, politics, end times, etc. — but they're generally not mainstream. The Catholic Church won't use Over-The-Top design, but "Accept Jesus, Forever Forgiven!" will.

These sites are all guilty of Mistake #5 from my article Biggest Mistakes in Web Design 1995-2015 — "Have you ever seen another web site? Really? Doesn't look like it." You can't tweak these sites to make them better. You have to send in a flight of F-4's armed with napalm and start over.

Many of these sites have been included in "The Worst Web Site of 2005-2008" or are contenders for Worst Web Site of 2009.

Over-the-top Web Sites

The Daily Sucker

Fortunately, web sites featured on this site often fix their mistakes, which explains why some sites mentioned here don't match their description. The Daily Sucker features current examples of bad web design which haven't been fixed.

If you see a site that you think sucks, e-mail the URL to me. No personal pages (personal pages are supposed to reflect the individual's personality and artistic freedom) or web site designers (it would look like a conflict of interest), or others of their ilk.

If I think there's some merit to your selection, I may post it along with some commentary. If you know of a site that qualifies, let me know.

The Daily Sucker

Gorgeous Web Sites From The Late 90's To Inspire You — If You Have No Taste

Recently there was an article about how popular web sites looked in the late 1990's. While it's interesting to see what Adobe or Apple looked liked back then, there isn't much you can learn from these sites. I'm also not sure how much inspiration you can get from looking at any kind of good examples.

On the other hand, you can really learn from and be inspired by web sites that are featured on Web Pages That Suck — especially those from the late 90's. At the very least, you can learn to take the other direction. More importantly, you'll feel good about your design skills because nobody ever looked at the examples on Web Pages That Suck and said, "I'm a horrible designer because I can't create these kinds of web sites." When you leave this site, you'll feel good about your design skills.

Gorgeous Websites From The Late 90's To Inspire You — If You Have No Taste

The Biggest Mistakes in Web Design 1995-2015

I've gathered what I think are the biggest web design mistakes committed during the period 1995 to 2015. Yes, it is a little facetious to say these mistakes will be made in the year 2015, but it's human nature to repeat your mistakes over and over. But it's human nature to repeat your mistakes over and over.

If you could take away one thought from the article, I would like it to be "Visitors to your web site don't care about your problems. They want you to solve their problems now.

The Biggest Mistakes in Web Design 1995-2015

About Web Pages That Suck

Of all the comments about WebPagesThatSuck, the one by "rocknbil" on one of the WebMasterWorld forums best describes the site's value:

If there is one thing I wish someone had banged into my head from the start, it is everything mentioned on this site (WebPagesThatSuck). Read it, study it, beat your ego down into the box where he/she belongs and apply it to your own work. You will become stronger and better for it.

But alas, I probably wouldn't have listened. I have a BFA in Art and came from the print industry, so a large part of my directive was all about the design, all about "how it looks" and to heck with everything else. I'm just thankful I learned how wrong I was early on…