'Sites For Sore Eyes: The World's Worst Websites

Check out some of the world’s worst websites, they’ll teach you a thing or two about what your own ‘site shouldn’t look like.
You’ll often hear many people claim that they’ve just stumbled across the worst website in the world, and debate has raged for years about which site truly deserves that title. The enterprising souls at one American media firm have set the bar particularly high by deliberately creating what they proudly describe as the world’s worst website. Incorporating almost every design no-no and copywriting fail imaginable, it’s an ironic masterpiece that encompasses an eight-bit rendition of OutKast’s Hey Ya and some truly eye-watering colour juxtapositions.

While TWWWE is clearly satirical, the same defence can’t be levelled against other dreadful websites. These are some of the worst atrocities ever committed to HTML, whose innumerable failings do at least provide lessons we can all learn for our own websites…

• Garish design.

The world-famous atrocity that is Ling’s Cars features every shade Pantone have ever registered, and a few they haven’t. Amid an ocean of animated chickens and flashing exclamations are some decent contract hire and leasing deals, though they’re hard to find.
Although this conscious self-parody has become a perversely successful marketing tool, its innumerable design flaws still deliver a concise how-not-to for budding web designers. Key lessons include avoiding brash colours and moving animations, sticking to one primary font, and ensuring navigation links aren’t smothered by clashing graphics.

• Unprofessionalism.

If you’re advertising services in a particular industry, it’s imperative that your website infers professionalism and competence. It seems remarkable, therefore, that a website designer would advertise their services on a largely monochrome text-based site with a badly-pixellated screen grab of what looks like Word 95.
Loading the site and then shrinking the web browser by 50 per cent makes things look even worse, which underlines the necessity of incorporating scalability for today’s multi-platform audiences. A Clipart-decorated site featuring 7.5 point Arial and cyan buttons reminiscent of the Sinclair Spectrum would embarrass any business, let alone a website design company. Don’t bother advertising professional services that an amateur could improve on because customers will simply migrate to competitor websites.

• No selling points.

Unless you’re an amateur blogger, your website is probably a sales or marketing vehicle whose primary role should be to sell or promote something. Launching a single-page website featuring your name, a generic image of an empty road and a contact form – and absolutely nothing else – is unlikely to generate much traffic. It’s also pretty useless for SEO purposes.
Always remain focused on the intended purpose of any new website. When web designers start suggesting transition-based homepage designs, think about whether it will contribute towards the aims of attracting enquiries, promoting products and services, etc. Be sure to get the most out of your hosting solution, and keep any sales/marketing messages front and centre.

• Information overload.

There is a lot of interesting and topical content on The Register’s website, although you’d be hard-pressed to notice. The homepage alone contains almost 35,000 words, which would occupy 31 pages of A4 paper if printed out. The use of 10-point Times New Roman hardly helps readability, either.
It’s doubtful that a single person has ever read this extraordinarily bloated homepage in full. Modern attention spans are extremely short, especially when reading content online, so grabbing the visitor’s attention with concise paragraphs is absolutely critical. Freelance copywriters can often find ways to explain complex topics in a minimal number of words, thereby encouraging people to remain on the site and continue paying attention.

• Navigation problems.

An effective website should succinctly convey key messages and be clear about its content. It should retain the attention of visitors, encouraging them to visit sub-pages while remaining on the main site. It should be instantly obvious how to navigate from one section to the next. In other words, it should look absolutely nothing like Jamilin.com.
This entire website resembles a hyperlink, redirecting people to locations as diverse as a Feng Shui interior design website, Facebook, a New Age not-for-profit organisation and various affiliate sites. With errors like the same video clip displaying twice on the same page (and opening at ridiculously small resolutions), it’s a shrine to poor navigation and design. New websites could do worse than simply avoiding every element of this particular site.

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