Examples of Bad Websites

Deciding which submitted sites are true boogersites is a tough job.  We get many that are simply ugly.  We get submissions for small one-person businesses, and that's just not fair.  Primarily, we get a lot that are basically just outdated.  This is one such website. One cardinal rule has been broken here, though.  Contact information should be on each page.

While the website functions as what we presume it's meant to - displaying products, viewing the catalog, finding a distributor - the renderings, drawings and photos are all so low-res it becomes difficult to tell what we're looking at.  That is a big no-no.  If your website is meant to promote a product - your site visitors had better be able to SEE what you're offering.

This website claims that "Beautiful Things Happen".  Well, we're still waiting...unless they meant in the STORE.  There is nothing 'beautiful' about this website - at all.

Maybe it's a game?  Count how many different font styles there are.  No one here can remember when that was trendy - but we all agree it was never a good idea.  The site visitor counter, which really dates a website, jumped from 5188 to 5193 while we were reviewing the site.  At an average since 2001 of only 1.42 visitors per day, that's a huge increase in traffic.

You can click on a magazine cover for Home Theater Interiors, to see the Nov/Dec 2001 issue's cover in better detail. You can watch some words scroll across the screen, a few product categories that can't be clicked on, until you get to Upholstery and Drapery repeated 19 times.  Yes, we counted.  There is also a blue and white scrolling invitation to "Let us design the look you have been looking for!"  We can only hope this company's interior design skills are far superior to their website design capabilities.

The person who submitted this site described it as having: "mystery navigation, skewed photography, roll-overs-to-negative, general badness".

"General Badness", which sounds like an awesome character in a not-yet-written movie, does indeed describe this site. This restaurant is presumed to be a great place to eat if you believe the rave reviews (from 2005!) on the site - if you can find them, that is. By the way, these reviews, as well as any site content in pdf form, should open in a new window. Needing to click the browser's back button to return to your website is no way to treat a visitor.

You might have the greatest product, service, or restaurant EVER - but if you are still depending on word-of-mouth or Facebook to attract new customers (instead of a great and well-made website), you aren't taking advantage of the most cost-effective advertising available today.

Along with the wAcKY name, we have a WaCKy weBsItE.  (see how annoying that is?)  First of all, if you are going to claim "Website Design" as something you offer...perhaps you should actually have made one for yourself that shows talent in that area.   Fail #1.

Secondly, if a company is "vastly experienced in all avenues of graphc design", you many want to get someone even slightly experienced at proofreading copy.  Psst...don't forget the "magzine advertisement lay-outs".  Fail #2

Thirdly, to show off examples of work, websites often offer a Portfolio area, as this site does.  A helpful tip - free of charge - is to actually have something to show.  Clicking on any of the categories including the intriguing MiSCALLENOUs should actually produce some examples to look at.  You guessed it - Fail #3.

When this boogersite was submitted, we thought it sounded like a drainage company.  Not so!  This website is for an electronic system that replaces the good ol' "Next, please!" human interface.

To illustrate this, there is animation on the landing page of identical lime green figures that move in supposed efficiency to the head of the line, and then get served.  Watch more closely. When the greenie at the head of the line moves forward toward an illuminated light, the rest of the greenies in line disappear.  Now, we don't know about you - but what we'd like to see is a system that makes everyone in FRONT of us in line disappear.

What can we say about the design?  It's old.  The subpages don't retain the nav, the colors/style is not consistent, and there is no way to order the product online. 

If this company is still in business, it seems to be time to invest in a new website and some new product photos.