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10 web design tragedies

Summary: Todd Fluhr found ten websites to represent some of the worst design tragedies on the Internet -- from sites of the well-known (J.K. Rowling and George E.R. Martin) to the obscure.

Todd Fluhr

By Todd Fluhr |

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Ignore for a moment the horrible design, the hodgepodge assortment of content, ads, and general insanity. Give this site a casual scroll. Go ahead. Scroll down. I dare you. Scroll like your life depended on it. Faster, I say, faster! Quite the journey, wasn't it?  At the bottom we finally reach Mr. Ling's personal assurance that, "The rest can be a little confusing although in a few (business) cases can be appropriate." Trying to understand this in context has actually hurt my brain.

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Topics: Apps, Browser, Software Development

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  • template pack

    I wonder if I can get these in a wordpress template pack.
    trevor@...
    Reply Vote

    • RE: 10 web design tragedies

      @trevor@... LOL. LOL Hard.
      Dcarm
      Reply Vote

    • At least ZOMBO.COM is clean ....

      @trevor@...
      ....compared to zdnet.com!
      I tolerate this site because of the information,
      but dang! It is hard to navigate!
      kd5auq
      Reply Vote

  • RE: 10 web design tragedies

    http://www.lingscars.com, number 9, sells a lot of cars - and she turned down the Dragons offers on investments on the BBC Dragons Den series.

    First rule of websites design - test / test / test. This one works!
    telephone300
    Reply Vote

    • LOL at Ling Cars

      @telephone300 - I saw that episode (Dragon's Den UK) and a follow up. She is now a multi-millionaire!

      Her style was/is, er... outrageous, but it works. It is refreshing to see such an individual make a success. But the web site is bad! LOL
      markflax
      Reply Vote

  • RE: 10 web design tragedies

    Here is one
    #11 http://www.buffalowildwings.com/
    tpacheco
    Reply Vote

    • RE: 10 web design tragedies

      @tpacheco Wow. I never saw a website that looks like that one before.
      datrappert
      Reply Vote

    • RE: 10 web design tragedies

      @tpacheco

      Another website designed by people who want to show off the cool things they can do.
      AudeKhatru
      Reply Vote

    • They do make good wings though

      @tpacheco
      William Farrell
      Reply Vote

  • RE: 10 web design tragedies

    Maybe because zdnet is primarily anglocentric, but it's a shame no mention is made of any other examples of truly dreadful web design. Try taking a look at renfe.com. This is the national railways operator and, unless you know how to get from A to B, what kinds of station (cercanias - local rail, Delta, AVE or whatever) it is impossible to find train times. Not only that, but unless it's a direct train, you'll be out of luck. And it gets no better, they keep on playing with the design, but every time they do, there's no improvement and you just have to relearn everything. Truly, a national disgrace.
    U-WUS
    Reply Vote

  • RE: 10 web design tragedies

    Actually, I think you hit it on the head about being designed in the 1990s. I know that's true for the J.K. Rowling site, which I remember visiting in the 1990s, or early oughts. And it sure looks like the GRRM site is the same time frame. Way too busy and built by someone more interested in showing off what they can do than in building a good website.

    One additional problem on the web is the simple fact that things don't die. I had a website on my last dial-up provider that was still up more than a year after they went out of business. I couldn't take the damn thing down. J.K. Rowling now has Pottermore, and I wonder if someone has just forgotten to take down the old site? Seems like it should have been gone long ago, but if someone doesn't actually shutdown the site, it may stay up for a very long time...abandoned....neglected....poor website....well, okey maybe not, but you get the idea.
    AudeKhatru
    Reply Vote

  • . . . and ZDNet

    . . . and ZDNet. Half my screen is black right now, when often it's blue. And it's clickable. Why, nobody knows. Probably a sleazy advertiser trying to get accidental clicks.

    Web galleries that reload the entire page, with thumbnails that are barely visible.

    A "Talkback" section that itself seems to be designed in the '90s, barely usable. Threaded conversations with strange limits, and anti-spam technology that catches more false positives than spam. Makes me wonder if the webmaster for ZDNet ever looked at Facebook or Google+, or is keeping up to date with the latest anti-spam technology, which has improved greatly since the '90s.
    CobraA1
    Reply Vote

  • RE: 10 web design tragedies

    As long as we're doing bad web design, how about bad blogger's grammar: "...does that excuse it's horrible design?" Among many others.
    Vesicant
    Reply Vote

  • RE: 10 web design tragedies

    Kind of ironic that you would use ZDNet Photo Galleries to display the "10 web design tragedies". I would add ZDNet Photo Galleries to the list. (Perhaps toward the top of the list.)
    John238
    Reply Vote

  • Enterprisemission.com?

    [i]As a successful author he should be capable of having a decent website constructed. As someone concerned with public image and technology, you'd think he'd want his website to be easy to navigate and well-designed.[/i]

    Come on, look who the people he caters to are - to them this [b]is[/b] a beautifully done website. ;)
    William Farrell
    Reply Vote
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