pixel8d

Look around and you’ll find plenty around - I’m talking about bad web sites. And there are plenty of other web sites dedicated to pointing out these bad sites so I’m not gonna do that. But I do want to talk about some of the bad habits that these sites sometimes employ that have become pet peeves of mine.

1. Stop the Animations
   A Designer should never include more than one or two elements that move constantly. Moving images have an overpowering effect on vision and distract the viewer from observing any other elements. These misused moving elements include animated graphics, blinking text, and scrolling marquees. I don’t wear glasses yet and I’m sure staring at a monitor all day will eventually change that - but I don’t need anyone speeding up the process!
2. Under Construction Signs
   All good web pages are always under construction, but some web designers still insist on placing a under construction icon on their site. I espeially hate the ones that look like a yellow and black construction barrier! This graphic comes from the designers feelings of insecurity. They know their page is incomplete or not functioning, so they put up a little sign that is supposed to excuse them from any problems their site may have. You can’t hide behind those images. Good web designers should not put up a site until they feel comfortable enough to display it without the under construction warning.
3. Complex Backgrounds
   A complex background may make a beautiful art piece, but it does a lousy job as a backing for text. It confuses the eye. I already said my eyes are getting worse and this just sets me up with a headache to boot. Designers need to remember to use contrasting colors for the background and the text. If a light text color is used on a light background, it will be hard to read, as dark text on a dark background will be hard to read as well. Seems like common sense but what can I say - the sites are out there.
4. Scrapper Sites
   I just get tired of seeing these sites. They’re not contributing anything to the web and are more likely hoarding up domain names from people who might otherwise have something to share with the rest of the world. They use screen scraping techniques where automated tools are used to download a web page and extract (scrape) some of the information on that page in order to place it on another web page. Slap a few ads on the page and there you go.
5. MySpace Hovels
   I just get tired of seeing all the gothic hack ups that little MySpace. They often seem to go out of the way to find every iritating web design “trick” and apend it to their pages. Music, animations, jacked up backgourns, crazy color schemes, the list goes on and on. In fact I could just do a Pet Peeves article just on MySpace sites.

So there you go - some of my favorite hack jobs on the web. Feel free to add any of your favorite don’ts to the list. I’m sure we could keep this list rolling for some time.

This entry was posted on Tuesday, March 27th, 2007 at 3:55 pm and is filed under Web Design. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.