Web Pages That Suck Presents The 20 Worst Websites of 2014
This year there's less emphasis on using Over-The-Top websites—mostly because I've separated them into their own document The 12 Worst Over-The-Top Websites of 2014—and started discussing mobile mistakes along with more serious design flaws. This shouldn't be a surprise as the world is seeing a quantifiable move from the desktop to mobile.
The 12 Worst Over-The-Top Websites of 2014
Here are 2014's websites that make you ask questions like, "WTF is going on here?" Many of these sites cause me to exclaim, "You've got to be kidding me!" Well, those aren't my exact words <grin>.
The 25 Worst Websites of 2013
We're in hell.
The Worst Websites of 2013: The Contenders from July through December
A lot of these sites are going to end up on the Worst Websites of 2013, which should be out Monday, January 13.
Worst Websites of 2013: The Contenders from July through December
Worst Websites of 2013 Contenders: January through June
These sites run the gamut from just a few tragic mistakes to the worst kind of Over-The-Top websites you see featured here in The Daily Sucker.
My personal favorites are the WTF?—What The Heck?—sites that make you shake your head and ask the question, "Did anybody look at this site before it went live?" The answer to that question is usually, "Doesn't look like it."
Worst Websites of 2013: The Contenders from January through June
The Worst Websites of 2012
Glug. Glug.
The Final List of Worst Websites
Worst Websites of 2012 These sites signify a new low in web design. The #1 selection is the obligatory WTF (What The Heck) #1, but choice #2 is very educational and you'll learn a lot by looking at what's wrong¯and not making the same mistakes.
Worst Websites of 2012: They Should Know Better These websites are not your usual mom-and-pop operations. Some of the big ones: iTunes Preview, Rice University School of Architecture and Pinterest.
Worst Websites of 2012: Beyond The Pale If Jesus saw these websites, he wouldn't weep. You have to have eyes that aren't burned out of your skull to be able to weep.
Weren't Quite Bad Enough to Make the Final List
Worst Websites of 2012: January to March Contenders
The Daily Sucker - Current Examples of Bad Web Design
You don't have to wait until the end of the year for our "Worst Websites of the Year" to feel good about your web design skills.
The Daily Sucker provides current examples of sucky web design techniques.
Ferti*lome - An Example of Bad Web Design for May 11, 2015
Vincent Flanders' comments: I hope to God Google slaps the Ferti*lome people in the face. Yes, their site fails to be mobile-friendly and it fails Google's PageSpeed Insights test, but what's worse is the navigation doesn't work on an iPad. The iPad is bigger than any phone and many websites' navigation looks fine on it, but Ferti*lome's doesn't.
The Worst Websites of 2011-2005
It's amazing how much garbage passes for web design. I started "awarding" the uncoveted "Worst Website of the Year" back in 2005. There have been way too many winners.
Worst Websites of 2011
Worst Websites of 2010
Worst Websites of 2009
Worst Websites of 2008
Worst Websites of 2007
Worst Websites of 2006
Worst Websites of 2005
The Biggest Mistakes in Web Design 1995-2015
I've gathered what I think are the biggest web design mistakes committed during the period 1995 to 2015. Yes, it is a little facetious to say these mistakes will be made in the year 2015, but it's human nature to repeat your mistakes over and over. But it's human nature to repeat your mistakes over and over.
If you could take away one thought from the article, I would like it to be "Visitors to your web site don't care about your problems. They want you to solve their problems now.
Web Design Checklists
Smashing Magazine put these lists under the category "Ultimate Web Design Checklists" and said:
This checklist from Web Pages That Suck is one of the most complete checklists out there.
My two web design checklists will help your website not suck.
You don't have to spend thousands of dollars on seminars or spend hundreds of dollars on books to find out what's wrong with your web site.
I'm giving you the tools to do the job yourself. Just compare your site against two easy-to-use checklists and find out what you need to fix.
Web Design Checklist 1 — 178 ways you're killing your site.
Web Design Checklist 2 — 83 ways you're maiming your site.
What do I do now? — Hopefully, fix what's wrong.
What we clicked on in Checklist 1 — See mistakes others have made.
Top 30 Web Design Mistakes — See the most "popular" mistakes.
The Concept Behind Web Pages That Suck
In describing my first book, Amazon.com said, "Unless you're abnormally gifted, the best way to learn a craft thoroughly is to learn not only its central tenets but also its pitfalls."
Looking at bad web site design is valuable because it gives us the opportunity to learn from other people's mistakes without having to make them ourselves.
Winston Churchill once said, "All men make mistakes, but only wise men learn from their mistakes." If you go through this site and learn from all the mistakes you see, you will be a very, very wise web designer and be able to take a bad web site and change it into a good web site.
Of all the comments about WebPagesThatSuck, the one by "rocknbil" on one of the WebMasterWorld forums best describes the site's value:
If there is one thing I wish someone had banged into my head from the start, it is everything mentioned on this site (Web Pages That Suck). Read it, study it, beat your ego down into the box where he/she belongs and apply it to your own work. You will become stronger and better for it.
But alas, I probably wouldn't have listened. I have a BFA in Art and came from the print industry, so a large part of my directive was all about the design, all about "how it looks" and to heck with everything else. I'm just thankful I learned how wrong I was early on.
Great web design is an art and occurs when design and content are seamless and you don't notice its greatness. With great web design, it's easy to find the information you need. The content makes you want to return again and again and, most importantly, great design gives credibility to the company/organization.
