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

Submitter’s comments: So I’m doing some research that, for some reason or another, induced me to look up the effects of organophosphates  on corrosion rates of metals. Pretty dry stuff, and typically pretty dry web pages.  No problem, that.  Until I came across this page.

Their main page isn’t any better, and the company’s home page is just about a tacky as can be, with the benefit (!?) of cheesy foreground music (It’s too annoying to be background music).

Presented for your amusement.

Vincent Flanders’ comments: The least problematic aspect of the site is its use of Flash. Flash for building websites is dead, dead, dead. Flash is for games and high end video. It will never come back to life, so don’t get your hopes up for Zombie-Flash.

Among the major flaws we have Mystery Meat Navigation, sound files that automatically play when you enter a page, and serious contrast issues. The site is a major contender for Worst Website of 2012 and I only a major redesign will keep it from the list. Just for grins, I searched "water services" on Google and came up with CleanWater Services. Even with the cartoon, it’s infinitely better than today’s sucker, which will end up on Over-the-top Websites.

I love the fact that turning the music off on one web page doesn’t turn it off on others.

I’ve spent the last 1o months taking care of my grandson for 8 hours a day for 4 days a week. I haven’t been able to devote as much time as I would have liked to the site—no new Daily Suckers for a month—and coming back to this monstrosity of a website is much worse than dealing with a 16-month old toddler. You should see what’s in store for tomorrow.

Water Services, Ltd.
The organophosphorus page

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

Submitter’s comments: Here’s a nomination for a web page that sucks that’s a combination of awesome and awful.

1) I start out on the English language version, but when I go to the Book Now page, they are in French, not English. Is there an English version of this page?

2) On the Dates and Prices page, the text is much too small to read.

3) There are various places where it talks about Special Offers or Discounts but when I go to the page it seems to be asking for a Promotional Code.

When I go to the Dates and Prices page, the information is presented via Adobe Flash so there’s no way to zoom in.

By the way, if you go to the main page and want it in a language other than French, you have to look very, very carefully for the tiny little flags at the right of the line at the very bottom of the page

Vincent Flanders’ comments: In this mobile world, Flash websites are rapidly becoming obsolete. The submitter’s comments are spot on,so I don’t really have anything to add.

Puy du Fou