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

Submitter’s comments: Here is a good one.

Vincent Flanders’ comments: I’ll give it credit for being readable. No artsy-fartsy #777 text. Nope. You have lots of text in lots of different colors and it’s all readable. I must be getting old (my daughter would say, “No, dad. You’re already very, very old) but it doesn’t really annoy me like so many other over-the-top websites. Probably because nothing is animated.

Yes, music does automatically play and the choice of music is surprising. It’s the theme from the movie “The Sting,” which I don’t think it’s the kind of message you want to send. A more logical musical choice would be Prince’s “1999.” Yeah. We’re gonna party like it’s 1999. In this case, we’re going to build a website like it’s 1999.

Parties by Debi

Submitter’s comments: Here is a good one. Surprisingly, it’s GMC. Everyone here who has to use the site is constantly complaining about how bad the font is. It has rendered parts of the site completely unreadable.

Vincent Flanders’ comments: Interestingly, screenshots of the home page make the menu text at the top look better than it looks on a monitor. While text is readable on a monitor, the text isn’t crisp and looks amateurish. The text navigation below the trucks is practically illegible and it lacks sufficient contrast. If you look at the very bottom of the page, there’s some legalese that’s totally impossible to read unless you highlight it and stick your face six inches from the screen. Since it’s legalese, it’s perfectly OK to make is unreadable.

If you mouse over Trucks, Crossovers/SUVs, or Vans, you get even more text that’s difficult to read and “choppy.” (Sorry about “Choppy” but it’s almost 4:00 a.m. here.)

Disclaimer: I have relatives who currently work for Ford. I also had lots of relatives who worked for GM subsidiaries or may still work for them (haven’t seen them in 20 years).

GMC

MAY BE NSFW

Submitter’s comments: This website is for Laren Stover’s book, “The Bombshell Manual of Style,” and what a bomb it is. There is no navigation to speak of, you only progress forward through an incredibly annoying Flash with low-res graphics, and god help you if you need to return to a previous section because you’re going to need to drag all those panties off the screen and “walk” the little dog again.

Vincent Flanders’ comments: I took the site’s Bombshell Test and answered 9 questions correctly, which makes me a bombshell with va-va voom to spare.

The above graphic demonstrates the major flaw of this site. It’s created in Flash. Flash is as dead as Steve Jobs. The graphics are poorly constructed and the site does nothing to make me want to explore further. If the site were created using HTML5 Canvas, we’d have designers wetting themselves over its brilliance. In Flash it sucks. Timing is everything.

The Bombshell Manual of Style

It’s that time again. Actually, it’s way past time.

The year 2012 is shaping up to be one of the worst years for web design since…well, since last year. Maybe we should blame it on the Mayans. According to their calendar the world is supposed to end this December so maybe bad web design will end with it <grin>. I doubt it.

Worst Websites of 2012: January to March Contenders

I fixed the link below. Stupid freaking mistake. Worst Websites of 2012: April to August Contenders

Submitter’s comments: Suggested sucky website.

Vincent Flanders’ comments: I’ve never seen anything like the home page. Actually, it’s the strangest Splash Page I’ve ever seen. Scroll over the word “Techniche” and tell me you’ve seen this technique before today. The strangest part of this technique is that nothing is clickable. You have to click “Skip to the Main Website” to go to the content.

On the left side there’s a Mystery Meat Navigation menu and none of the symbols has, as far as I can tell, any relation to the topic. Oh. There’s more Mystery Meat at the top of the page.

The site is totally fouled up. By “totally fouled up” I mean…you know what I mean.

Techniche