Web Pages That Suck - learn good web design by looking at bad web design

Submitter’s comments: Not only do they use a Flash header for navigation, the flash plays a different loud song on each page! Exactly HOW does that content relate to getting my car fixed?

Vincent Flanders’ comments: I suspect the music was part of a template —the music has that Flash template sound. Red, white and blue colors don’t inspire me, especially when they cause contrast problems like you see in the tag line. Flash is dead except in high-end games and video and this site is not one of those kinds of sites.

The music is annoying because there’s no way to turn it off and it repeats itself if you revisit a page. On the plus side, the site works on an iPhone—thanks to the text links at the bottom.

Shorewood Lube & Service

Submitter’s comments: I came across this site while searching for a bad website to write a paper on for a school project.

Vincent Flanders’ comments: Well you certainly found one to write about. Great timing. On Saturday I took my grandson to the Puyallup (WA) Dog Show, which was his first dog show. Show dogs love children and the Bull Mastiffs seemed to love him the most. They’re a little bigger than your average cocker.

This site is a little worse than the American Spaniel Club website. OK, it’s a helluva lot worse. Just because your site features American Cocker Spaniels, doesn’t give you the right to stuff the American flag all over your website any more than a company with the word “Global” in its title has the right to use a globe on its logo. For God’s sake, even the U.S. Marines have enough respect not to plaster flags on their site like cheap handbills.

We have the usual problems, with the exception that there aren’t any animated GIFs and the photography is top notch. I’m sure the dogs are top notch, but it’s difficult to want to click any of the links to find out. I believe every page has a different “design.” A new page does not get a new look.

High Calling Cockers

Submitter’s comments: Marvis is an Italian toothpaste company. My wife found the brand and bought me a tube of the licorice flavored paste just for fun. It’s good paste, but the site is (quoting my wife) “Neat, slow, pointless.” There’s Mystery Meat Navigation too! After what felt like a waste of 30 minutes of my life spending time on the site, I left feeling a little like I just played the 90’s game Myst, but I didn’t accomplish anything at all.

Vincent Flanders’ comments: There’s an option for a low- and high-bandwidth version of the site. They both seem high-bandwidth to me.

It’s a typically overwrought Flash site. The time you spend clicking around is not rewarded by useful information.

Marvis Contemporary Toothpaste