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

Submitter’s comments: This one’s a doozy and it comes from the British Film Institute (BFI), of all people:

In an extraordinary take on Mystery Meat Navigation (MMN), the BFI has managed to create a unique variant that I have given the provisional taxonomy of “Everlasting Mystery Meat Navigation.” Not only must the user mouse over the images to find out what’s underneath (touchscreen devices need not apply), but the page scrolls forever redrawing the same set of images over and over again and frequently in different places on the screen.

The effect is both mesmerising and infuriating, in a ratio of approximately 30-70%. Whilst probably not the most egregious example of the oeuvre extant, I put it to you that the sui generis nature of this specimen is worthy of mention on the august pages of your site, lest other people are inspired by this to create their own version. The prospect of the proliferation of similar sites is too horrible to contemplate.

Vincent Flanders’ comments: Pinterest + Mystery Meat Navigation = Supremely Bad Web Design. The Pinterest website made #6 on my Worst Websites of 2012: They Should Know Better list. I know Pinterest is popular, but popularity doesn’t excuse bad web design. The article Why Pinterest-style infinite-scroll layouts are worthless for everyone except Pinterest explains the problems quite well. The bottom line? “The layout works for Pinterest purely because no one goes there looking for something particular, and because it’s not crucial to Pinterest’s success that the user see any one photo. ”

Unfortunately, visitors to this page are looking for information. While they want to explore film, they need a semblance of navigation to aim them in the right direction. There’s no logic to the order and no way to know where they’ll end up unless they mouse over a picture.

British Film Industry’s (BFI) Explore Film Page

Submitter’s comments: Please take a look at this site for an example of how not to market a restaurant. You have to go through two pages before you get to Enter the website proper, but on the way you see that it was voted Nightclub of the Year, then go to the Welcome page before getting to the Home page. The gallery of food pictures isn’t boosting Tito’s gastronomic reputation either.

Vincent Flanders’ comments: The fact the website has two different Splash pages before you get to the real home page is bad design. Obviously, they want to get you to vote for their restaurant in the Latin UK awards. This is a great example of Mistake #1 from Biggest Mistakes in Web Design 1995-2015 — “Believing people care about you and your website.“ Your website is about meeting your visitors’ needs. Your visitors don’t give a left-handed flying farkle that you want to win awards. Your visitors are looking for food. You’re keeping food from them.

I found it difficult to figure out how to get to the next page. The itty-bitty “Home” link is not intuitive. The next Splash page at least has the hours of operation, but that’s it. Clicking the “Enter” button actually takes you to the “Info” page, which is the real home page. We have navigation at the top. Clicking the links takes you to the appropriate pages.

Tito’s mobile version of this site is much easier to use, to wit (I’ve always wanted to use that phrase):

• A screen shot of the mobile home page.
• A screen shot of the mobile menu page.
• A screen shot of the web version’s menu page.

It’s all about your visitors. It’s not about you.

Tito’s Peruvian Restaurant

Submitter’s comments: This site sucks.

Vincent Flanders’ comments: Well, it sucks in Google Chrome, but looks “fine” (OK, the text is legible) in IE 10 and Firefox. If you look at the source code, it’s some very squirrelly JavaScript. They also don’t understand the concept of DNS. If you leave off the “www”, the page won’t load. Dumb. Dumber. Dumbest.

Calderwood Books

Submitter’s comments: A pretty bad site.

Vincent Flanders’ comments: Yes, it’s true, but I have a lot of sympathy for newspaper-type sites. Too much information, too many ads (that’s a good thing) and, in this case, too little of the stories. The site seems like it’s just gathering pieces of content and then sending you to other sites. That’s not helpful.

Billerica.org

Submitter’s comments: The only thing that helps(?) in figuring this one out is the header: “Free Energy. Gravity Control. Alternative Science.” The “about” page is only 20 screens, as opposed the home page’s nearly 100. I think I’ll follow the advice about three screens down  – “…No Like? Just skip what you aren’t interested in…” – and skip the whole website.

Vincent Flanders’ comments: It’s another in a long line of Over the top Websites (OTT). Over the Top sites generally deal with philosophy, religion, politics, end times, etc., but they’re generally not mainstream. Most often, they’re the creations of liberal loons or raving right-wingers.

What drives me crazy is there are plenty of over-the-top types who have nice looking websites. MemoryHole, by Sandy Hook Conspiracy Theorist Professor James Tracy‘s website looks infinitely better than the run-of-the-mill OTT site featured on WebPagesThatSuck. An even better example of a good-looking OTT website is InfoWars, which is run by Alex Jones.

C’mon guys, you’ve got Internet connections in your bunkers. Use some of your comrades’ design techniques and de-suck your websites.

KeelyNet