If you are ever looking for a good laugh on the Internet go take a gander at www.webpagesthatsuck.com/. It kind of baffles me that some people created these websites thinking that they were awesome, because most of them really weren't. Some of them looked okay, but were not functional at all. Half of them I had no clue what they were talking about/trying to sell me and a few of them I couldn't look at because they could cause seizures. Why on earth would you make a website that 50 million people can't look at? Some of the websites I couldn't really tell what was wrong with them, but there were a few that I found pretty hilarious.
#1: highcallingcockers.com
Reading the name of this website is horrible misleading. I would assume just seeing the URL link that it would some how be related to porn. Nope. It's a woman's website about her cocker spaniels. She uses the website to promote her cocker spaniels and gives you the opportunity to learn about upcoming litters and to contact them if you are interested. But that's not it. There is also a inspirational video about all the similarities between God and dogs, other than having the same letters. You can also read a lovely poem about what puppies dream about. It also has a page for songs from the heart. Some people may enjoy reading about all of these things and want to see her dogs, but there are a lot of design problems. Each time you click on a tab to the left it takes you to a new page with a different background. It would be very easy for people to click on that tab and then think that they are on a totally new website, due to the lack of consistency between pages. Most of the font blends in with the background, so it's nearly impossible to read the website. There is really obnoxious music in the background that cannot be turned off. There is a lot of disorganization on the pages themselves. There is writing and then pictures of the dogs and they have different backgrounds. It just looks really sloppy. While the dogs were nice to look at this website needs some work.#2: http://www.serene-naturist.com/
This website has a lot going on and if you are under 18 you should not be looking at it. This one also has misguiding title. I assumed that this was going to be being one with nature, but no its about massages. There is annoying music on this website that you can't turn off. There are GIFs everywhere. Flying seagulls, butterflies, other birds, wiggling palm trees, lots of sparkles and words are scrolling all over the place. There is a constant changing of colors, there is some various hues of blue, there is some red, white and purple. Each time you click on a new tab the background changes. Perhaps the most shocking aspect about the website that they don't give any warning to is the amount of nudity. After realizing that the website was about massages I figured that there would be some pictures of people's bare backs being massaged, but I didn't expect to see bare butts and a woman with just her hands over her private parts and a man with just grapes over his private parts. There was no warning at all that you should be over a certain age to look at this site because of the misleading title it would be easy for someone younger to stumble across this web page. These pictures didn't have any rhythm or reason to where they were placed. There was also an interesting requirement for couple's massages. Only the women was allowed to make reservations. Apparently many men had called in to try and experience one of their fantasies, but this establishment doesn't offer those services. There was just too much going on and had I not been doing this research to blog about it I would have taken one look at this website and hit escape.
#3: http://www.burlingtonnews.net/burlington_ufo_center.html
UFOs!!!!!! This website is ALL over it! The overall theme for this website is UFO and Paranormal Research and Education. I'm not going to lie I do believe in the paranormal such as ghosts and spirits, but I find UFOs and aliens a little out there. There are so many things going on that if you were looking for something specific it's going to be a little bit before you find it. There are no tabs or sub tabs to open up as a way to organize the site, so that you can easily search for what you want. Instead it's just a hot mess. There are some dancing aliens, scary animated pictures of aliens and some moving lights. After looking at the website for a little bit to try and figure out what exactly they are trying to show their visitors the main topics were links to some books, movies about aliens and the paranormal, some study that is being done, conferences, a little section on did you know, some pictures of people looking for the paranormal and other facts and eye witness accounts. That is a lot of stuff for one page! They have a lot of color going on as well and some of the ads and words are overlapping as well as some grammatical errors. My notion that aliens don't exist isn't hindering my judgement on this. If I was a skeptic and wanted to know some information I most definitely would not believe anything that was being published on this website 
So, what should we take away from these three websites?
The first website had a very misleading URL, you want to make sure people have some general idea about what your website is about based on just the URL. Also you need to keep a semi-consistent background. You don't want to have viewers get confused and think they somehow switched to a different site. Also, you need to make sure the color of your font doesn't clash with the background color making it impossible to read.
The second website showed us that more is less. Maybe one or two GIFs on the website is okay and may add a little flair, but having them all over the place takes away from the actual content of the page. You also need to make it look a tube of glitter exploded all over your website. Also if you are going to have GIFs they need to be relevant to what the topic is about. Butterflies, birds and wiggling palm trees don't have a lot to do with massages. This website also had a misleading URL. The last two things to take away from this is that if you are going to have nude pictures there needs to be a warning and there also needs to be some rhythm or reason to where you placed the pictures.
The third website showed us the power of having tabs and sub tabs. Having all that information, whether it was factual or not, should not be all on one page. You can't navigate the website. If you were looking for something specific it would take a person a lengthy amount of time to find it, that is if they even bothered to look after seeing the website initially. Grammar is also important on the web page and discredits you some if there are multiple errors, spell check and proof reading are your friend!
All photos courtesy of Creative Commons and will be removed upon request. All other information copywrite of Logan Tallmadge'13
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