The Daily Sucker: Current Live Examples of Bad Web Design Techniques

Please read the FAQ -- especially the section, "Why does your site suck?"

Tuesday, April 26, 2005

Their e-mail: I spent an hour trying to find epoxy for my deck......

Here's what I don't like:

- Page Background
- Multiple text colors
- How do I find what I'm looking for?
- Dead end pages with no navigation
- Click on Industrial/Commercial catalog. What happened to the established horrible color scheme?
- When I did find the store, it looks like a third party app run out of somebody's basement.

Even if I did figure out how to purchase, I wouldn't because I have absolutely no idea if this site is even secure.

Really, just don't go by the first impression. Just click around a little, it gets better.

"Progressive Epoxy Polymers, Inc. has become perhaps the largest source of multi-vendor / multi-formulator epoxies and related products on the net."

My comments: The person submitting the site has a nice list of web design mistakes. My first impression is I'm not on the home page. It almost looks like the web version of in medias res. I'd like to mention the use of "Click here" because you don't want to surprise visitors to your web site. Your link names should explain where the visitor will go when they click. The best example of the problem with "Click here" is one of my sucky versions of the home page. Click "Click here."

Epoxy products


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Another Source for Free Stock Photos

morgueFile claims that it "contains free high resolution digital stock photography for either corporate or public use." Good quality.


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The Daily Sucker Backgrounder

The Daily Sucker contains material that should be considered updates to the book, "Web Pages That Suck." and Son of Web Pages That Suck. I can't see the future -- if I could, I'd be picking lottery numbers and stocks. The Daily Sucker features new sucky design techniques not in existence when the book was written. Since Web designers are stubborn, I also include old sucky techniques featured in the book. Maybe if they see a bad technique featured enough they'll stop using it.

The suckers are based on user input. You see a site that you think sucks and then e-mail the URL to me. No personal pages (personal pages are supposed to reflect the individual's personality, artistic freedom, and lack of taste -- a commercial site is about making money) or Web site designers (it would look like a conflict of interest). If I think there's some merit to your selection, I post it along with some commentary -- and quality commentary helps determine whether I use the suggestion.

The sucky example will usually be available for only 24 hours (or thereabouts -- weekends and egregious examples are exceptions) -- never to be seen again. Well, probably. Somebody could always suggest them again -- and they do.

E-mail Vincent