What are the indicators of a bad website? People know and talk about layout, navigation, color, font, resolution, movement, etc. that if gone wrong, would invariably make a website a bad example of usability and user experience.
Plenty of sites discuss these elements effectively with examples. However, one of the most effective ones I saw recently – really takes the cake. They actually built a bad, really bad (they call it the world’s worst website!) website to demonstrate visually everything that can possibly go wrong with web design. Hyperlinks that don’t work, pages that don’t load, backgrounds that are flashy, text that’s unreadable, elements that catch unnecessary attention, animations that are ugly, layout that has frames, contact link that’s almost missing!
You imagine anything bad – it’s all demonstrated, the works! I think even the URL loading warning is part of what can go bad for a website – a nice touch, if deliberate.
Presenting The World’s Worst Website – giving practical lessons on what not to do. Let’s learn and apply.
Vishal Mehta is a usability professional who loves to play chess and has a strong eye for details. He’s also the CEO of IDYeah Creations, a UX practice in Pune, India. Vishal is also a guest blogger on UXBooth, Technorati, BlogCritics, and SAP Community Network.
Related posts:
- Bootstrap Website Program
- Free Website Contest on World Usability Day.
- Lorem Ipsum – A Bad Approach to Design
Related posts brought to you by Yet Another Related Posts Plugin.
{ 2 comments… read them below or add one }
IMHO Axis Bank’s net banking portal (http://www.iconnect.co.in) is also a worthy contender for this title. It’s almost as if the Bank doesn’t want anyone to go to their site; they are more comfortable serving them in a face to face setting. This is supposed to be one of the leading banks in India!
Absolutely true! Thanks for sharing the example, Nagendra. It is really surprising and sad to find such examples in leading organizations.