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

William Glenn & Son – Example of Bad Web Design for December 12, 2011

Submitter’s comments: This is Scottish, yet crap.

I came across this turkey when seeking out a Scottish gift shop in San Francisco that I remembered visiting previously, before my fiancée and I head out there tomorrow. I found the site for the store – unfortunately, first on my iPhone, which wouldn’t render this Flash-only monstrosity. (And, if not too obscure, my Subject reference is to the “All Things Scottish” series of “Saturday Night Live” skits Mike Meyers starred in in the late 1980’s / early 1990’s.)

Vincent Flanders’ comments: I love the tiles-on-amphetamine look the page has. Uh…aren’t liquor sites supposed to verify your age before you can see the content? Not that it works. It’s a joke, but at least they pay lip service.

William Glenn & Son

Submitter’s comments: It has some issues with the buttons, but real problem is how it set up its Search Engine Optimization. When you go to some of the other pages on the site, sometimes the buttons will appear over information, like the company phone number.

Vincent Flanders’ comments: I didn’t know people were still trying these old SEO tricks and I didn’t know they are still working–white text hiding behind a white image. For all I know, it’s not working. Paging Matt Cutts.

Steamed Clean

Submitter’s comments: I know I specialize in over-the-top sites, but this is not one. It is virtually useless, not even brochureware, and has been since 2008. I just love the watermarked ("istockphoto") pictures. I guess the owner does not mind telling the huge number of potential clients beating their way to his web site that he does not care to pay even the very modest fee for their usage.

Vincent Flanders’ comments: Pretty ballsy–or pretty stupid. I’m in a pretty good mood (3-day weekend with the wife) so I’ll just say it’s been a long, long time since I’ve seen anyone use comps and forget that they used them. I’m sure the designer just forgot to spend the pittance to license the images.

Mallard Adhesive

Submitter’s comments: I wanted to buy this product, but I can’t read (about) it.

Vincent Flanders’ comments: This screen capture shows the problems. If #666 is too light for text on a white background, imagine what how hard this site’s #888 and #999 are to read.

This is a big company.

Symantec – PartitionMagic

httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tDxCnVORYcg

Here’s the SmugMug version of the video

Here’s the original article at the Seattle Times