Web Pages That Suck

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Web Pages That Suck

• Byung Lee
• ENGL 393
• Technical Writing
• (Picture from Son of Web Pages That Suck by
  Vincent Flanders with Dean Peters)

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Where you learn good Web design by looking at
bad Web design.



http//www.webpagesthatsuck.com/home.html

• Importance of Web Design
• Used to be OK to slap any old thing up there and
  be done with it. 
• Now, people look at a poorly designed site and
  ask, "Do we want to do business with them?
• Upside magazine phrased it best when it
  discussed the importance of marketing "Word of
  mouth, frequency of press appearances, Web site
  quality and the frequency and quality of
  advertisements all serve to create the image of a
  'real company. "

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Where you learn good Web design by looking at
bad Web design.



http//www.webpagesthatsuck.com/home.html

• Learn By Bad Examples
• If people are exposed to bad web page design they
  will be less likely to use these techniques in
  the pages they create.  
• People often commit the same mistakes over and
  over ... By pointing out these mistakes, and
  being told that they are mistakes, people can
  avoid them when people design the web pages.

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Where you learn good Web design by looking at
bad Web design.



http//www.webpagesthatsuck.com/home.html

• Bad Example 1 Rainbow-Colored Divider
• This used to be cool back in the summer of 1996,
  but it quickly became overused, pretentious, and
  cliché when everyone starts to use it.
• http//www.webpagesthatsuck.com/badtext.htm
• Black backgrounds are a very, very popular
  cliché. It is recommended that black is not the
  way to go unless you are a pro.
• Multiple animated GIF images, Blinking text,
  multiple font sizes, multiple colored text,
  JavaScript status bar messages, rainbow-colored
  divider bars, and etc are all big mistakes.

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Where you learn good Web design by looking at
bad Web design.



http//www.webpagesthatsuck.com/home.html

• Bad Example 2 Any Java Program Ever Written
• Takes too long for an applet to load. 
• May compromise the systems security.
• Not much of an entertainment.
• For people who disable Java in their web
  browsers, and for people with visual impairments
  who use text to speech converters that cannot
  parse Java output, the home page is usually a
  dead-end for any information going nowhere.

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Where you learn good Web design by looking at
bad Web design.



http//www.webpagesthatsuck.com/home.html

• Example 3 Needless JavaScript
• The image changes when you roll the mouse over an
  image.
• http//webpagesthatsuck.com/vincentflandersdotcom
  /
• Need to Have
• Does adding the OnMouseOver JavaScript enhance my
  page?
• Usually doesnt.
• Needless waste of bandwidth

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Where you learn good Web design by looking at
bad Web design.



http//www.webpagesthatsuck.com/home.html

• Example 4 Sliding Menu (DHTML)
• Just because you can create a menu bar like the
  Sliding Menu, doesnt mean you should create
  one. 
• http//www.webpagesthatsuck.com/slidingmenu.html
  
• Same Question What does it add to the page?
• Confusion
• Needed the sign of arrow to figure out
• Too much trouble for the technique to be any good

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Where you learn good Web design by looking at
bad Web design.



http//www.webpagesthatsuck.com/home.html

• Example 5 Too Many Things Wrong
• Crammed many lousy techniques into one page. 
• http//www.webpagesthatsuck.com/wpts1/index_slide
  .html
• - Sliding Curtain Effect - Popup windows
• - Sound files - Animated GIFs
• - Blinking text - Click here button
• - Different colored buttons
• - Black borders on a white background

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Where you learn good Web design by looking at
bad Web design.



http//www.webpagesthatsuck.com/home.html

• Example 6 Too Much Text
• Common mistake for beginners to cram every piece
  of information on one page. 
• http//www.webpagesthatsuck.com/bozo.htm
• A single web page can go on and on forever.
• Tempting to make long pages because HTML lets you
  create internal anchors using the symbol.
• Better to break the document up of try to
  condense it using categories instead of making a
  long page.

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Where you learn good Web design by looking at
bad Web design.



http//www.webpagesthatsuck.com/home.html

• So What Is a Good-Looking and Effective Web Site?

• Web design isn't about matters of taste, it's
  about communicating and making money.

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Where you learn good Web design by looking at
bad Web design.



http//www.webpagesthatsuck.com/home.html

• GOOD-LOOKING AND EFFECTIVE WEB SITE (Continued)

• Web Design Isnt Sex
• No foreplay such as splash pages, Flash pages, or
  whatever silliness to put them in the mood.
• To put it bluntly, the Web is Wham. Bam. Thank
  you MaamGet right to the point Give me your
  information NOW. Sell me your product NOW.

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Where you learn good Web design by looking at
bad Web design.



http//www.webpagesthatsuck.com/home.html

• GOOD-LOOKING AND EFFECTIVE WEB SITE (Continued)

The Most Dreadful Complaints You Want To
Get.

• Its too easy to find what Im
• looking for on your site.
• Your site loads too quickly.
• Your site is too easy to navigate.
• Your site is too informative.

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Where you learn good Web design by looking at
bad Web design.



http//www.webpagesthatsuck.com/home.html

• GOOD-LOOKING AND EFFECTIVE WEB SITE (Continued)

Follow The Leader.

• More your site uses the traits found on
  successful sites, the more likely you are to be
  successful.
• The design should "resemble" the designs find on
  successful commercial sites.
• Do not steal or copy the design but look for
  elements in common.
• Most successful business sites don't use
  background images, don't have black backgrounds,
  excessive animations, moving cursors, sound
  files, and other silly techniques.

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Where you learn good Web design by looking at
bad Web design.



http//www.webpagesthatsuck.com/home.html

• PEACE OUT, DUDE.

• Reference
• Web Pages That Suck by Vincent Flanders.
  http//www.webpagesthatsuck.com/home.html
• Son of Web Pages That Suck by Vincent Flanders
  with Dean Peters.