The World's Worst Website Ever - Site Mistakes
Note: In April 2012, we added a few more quirks to the homepage that
aren't mentioned in the original list below. Soon we'll launch a new TWWWE
for your enjoyment.
(It's 2018 now and we haven't launched a new site yet, so I suppose that's
another MISTAKE! However, we did make the site SSL encrypted.
Probably shouldn't have, because, well, that's the right way to do a website.)
< Return to the
homepage
- Header graphic is pixelated and over-optimized.
- Transparency in header graphic is overdone.
- Multiple font colors used in "ever"
- Animated stars (all animated gifs are generally a bad idea)
- Under construction graphics should never be used
- The notice "Under Construction" should almost never be used, especially
on the homepage
- "<--" and other text-based markers/graphics are a faux pas in design
- This page, filenamed "new_page_1.htm" indicates poor file naming and
organization
- "Main Menu" shouldn't exist; if people don't know what a main menu is,
they shouldn't be on the web
- Teenie-bopper spellings such as "kewl" should never be used on any
professional website
- I personally despise *smile* - please try to avoid it for my own
sanity's sake
- Email icons are also really annoying, especially in they are animated
(unless you are using real icons along with others such as print, etc.)
- Repeating backgrounds are almost always a bad idea
- Backgrounds that have color almost never work
- Beveled images, such as in the background image, are almost always
unprofessional-looking
- In the yellow table near the top, the cell width is different from the
table width, creating blank space on the right side
- Table borders can work if done properly. All borders represented
on this site are examples of what NOT to do
- Javascript cursors are a joke! Just because the technology is
there to do something, it shouldn't always be done. Ask the Britons
about the
Cobalt Bomb, for example
- Mouseovers for links can be done professionally and add a nice touch to
a website, but text should never be resized or bolded when the cursor moves
over it
- Inconsistency in the main menu is running rampant. If you're going
to have icons, have them all the links
- The border around the icons is way too thick. I see this a lot
- The main menu option "GOOGLE MAPS" is not fully hyperlinked
- The link "WEATHER" doesn't work
- Flashing "New" or "Updated" icons are generally considered cheese-ball.
Avoid them!
- Multiple fonts are used throughout the website, including some that are
not web-safe
- There are numerous misspelled words in the "What's New" section
- Again, "1" for "one" and "u" for "you" are terrible for professional
websites. Your customers will not take you seriously if they see stuff
like this
- Scrolling marquees can be effective if used non-obtrusively and rarely.
But most are used wrongly so...
- "About TWWWE" has no hyperlink
- There are several examples of Microsoft Word Art on this site. It
is almost always a bad idea to use it
- Separator bars that are animated can be very disorienting, let alone
tacky
- Blue on red is a bad idea
- Red on blue is a bad idea
- Blue or red on black is a bad idea
- There are several other "bad idea" examples in the "Fantastic Colours"
section
- I absolutely, unequivocally, hate the font "brush script", which is used
in "Fantastic Colours" as well as "The" and "Ever" in the header. It
is the most overused script font ever
- If you use American English, avoid "Colours" and other misspelled words
- There is a page counter at the bottom. 99% of the time it is a bad
idea to have a public counter on your page
- The link "Shocking Pictures" goes to the "Shocking Photos" section.
Most of the time the link and the page/section title should be the same
- There are varying table widths on this site. Consistency is key!
- There is a table that is too long for the screen, creating a horizontal
scrollbar. Horizontal scrollbars are bad, bad, bad!
- In addition to numerous misspelled words, there is several examples of
bad grammar, including "These photos are SHOCKINGLY formatted HORRIFICLY"
- The first photo on the left is formatted wrong. It is actually a
large photo resized using HTML. This is bad because photo quality is
lost, but most importantly the size of the file is huge, which takes a long
time to download.
- The second photo from the left is also formatted wrong. It is
beveled (which is really personal taste, not necessarily wrong) and
over-optimized. Notice the bleeding colors
- The third image might be hard to tell at first. If you look
closely, the sunset colors are grainy. This is because the image was
saved as a gif instead of a jpg. When working with images of brilliant
colors, save them as jpgs and not gifs. This is because gifs are
limited to 256 colors while jpgs are virtually limitless
- The fourth image is what happens when you take a small photo and
increase it's size. Despite what CSI: Miami does, you cannot blow up
images and make them look good
- A funny bit, at least humorous to me, is the word "Trifecta" used on the
fourth photo
- When laying out photos left to right, if possible, make sure they are
the same size
- The domain name
www.theworldsworstwebsiteever.com is too long (that's why we also use
www.twwwe.com)
- I really think the four racing scrolling marquees are quite hilarious,
but again, the overuse of marquees are never a good idea
- There are broken images everywhere on this site. Watch out for
these!
- The text box that says "Could we possibly do any more, said the cat" is
a triple-whammy. First, it doesn't make sense. Secondly, it has
nothing to do with the site's content. And thirdly, it is a graphic
when it should be plain HTML text.
- Last updated scripts are mostly a bad idea. The only exceptions is
if you update your site very often (almost daily) and probably should be
used for blogs, news sites or the like
- "Sight" being used instead of "site". I actually see this occur
too often
- MIDIs (the music playing in the background) are officially my biggest
pet-peeve. They should never be used under any circumstance.
Almost all embedded sounds, not just midis, are very annoying
- The embedded midi cannot be turned off and loops forever. If you
must have sound on your website, give people the QUICK option to turn it off
- Back in the late 90s it was considered normal for webmasters to put
viewing requirements/suggestions in the footer of their site (i.e. "Best
viewed with Internet Explorer"). I almost never see this on
professional websites with the exception of some Flash-based sites
- Page transitions were neat in 1996, but not today
- Justified text, as seen in the "What's New" box, is usually not a good
idea. It looks good on newspapers, but for some reason doesn't work
for the web
- Another pet-peeve is text and images that butt-up against the table's
border. To fix this, add cell or table padding
- I'm sure there other mistakes on this site or ones made not represented
here, but for now, that's all
© 2008-Whenever. Explorations Media
Group, LLC. All Rights Reserved - but we don't think it matters.