Annoying designs

[oregano]

RAmen.

 

That, 1) websites that still use tables for design purposes, and 2) websites using frames.

 

I have seen a rare few pleasant layouts in my time. but a very rare few

[beastbot]

Award winners: I hate hate the ugly and juvenile page templates ebay gives you to select from as a seller - they are awful.

 

Same goes for the new themed personalized pages on Google. I hate Yahoo's smily fac e.

Same goes for most cellphone themes.

 

Overdesigned, childlike, ugly, unsophisticated...

 

Granted minimalism starts looking lame quick whenever it goes mass, but what surprises me is how much sloppy web design there is still- and on the most high profile accounts.

 

Comes down to the intangibles of artistry and taste. Actually glad the computer hasn't yet found a way to emulate these qualities.

[Cheeze]

well i hate websites with loads of stupid javascript where silly things follow the cursor, and stupid custom cursors, especially the crosshair one and i've alos begun to hate websites that have copied windows vista's Aero theme.

[pacops]

Flash sites done poorly, take forever to load and have a slow framerate = ugly flash. Unfortunately, lots of even professional sites do this. I love it when they're quick and smooth.

[matt_olsen]

I don't know if anyone have made the big mistake to open a piczo site, like this one. That's a user's nightmare: all those flashing stuff, that lame music... Take this one for example Horrible site

[Priority One]

Mine:

-Web desgners that don't know what * means;

-Web designers that haven't heard of Macs;

-Text transparencies. (text isn't meant to be transparent, people!!);

-Music of any kind;

-Forums with poor moderators.

 

edit: yes, I am new here. G'day.

[csturner]

Why is the www blue and white? Every site is the same colors. They all look like myspace. I know it is hard to get a color scheme that isnt blue and white, but I am tired of blue and white.

[Azurael]

Music that plays without the viewer taking action to make it happen

Flash ads with "do X to win the prize" and often accompanying irritating sound effects

Dodgy, M$ proprietary HTML

Sites which exist entirely within a single SWF, thus destroying any hope of using the navigation buttons in one's browser or scrollwheels

Sites which break scrollwheel functionality

Sites with masses of embedded content

Server-side scripted sites which aren't hosted on servers fast enough to generate the full page within a reasonable time

Sites on dodgy IIS servers which sometimes forget to actually interpret the script server-side application properly and which then spew out {censored} to the users' browser which promptly decides the only thing it can do is save the file to disk (eBay!)

Come to think of it: IIS...

Sites with no text which believe it's clever to implement an entire site by means of text rendered to images.. THe worst thing is they often don't even put the text in the ALT tag. MORONS.

 

Yes, I am a web designer.

[MisterCow]

My website D:

[Threepwood]

http://www.lycklig.se

[FUKKU]

Anyone who tries to imitate 2advanced's work. Actually, I'm tired of 2advanced work, too.

I got tired of their work in 2002 when I realized they basically do the same thing with every site.

 

It pays like crazy for them and their clients like the work so I don't fault them for doing it, but it's not very creative once you break their sites down.

[yoda75]

I hate; tables, frames, too many images, javascript, flash

 

I like: xhtml, css

 

I'll be starting college for web design this spring and I've been meaning to ask something. I keep hearing all this bashing of flash and basically anything that's not HTML or CSS. Could you or anybody else, please show me some creative and interesting examples of sites coded without any of the things mentioned above? I'm asking out of genuine curiosity because lay people like me (ie. people that visit web sites) tend to like flash sites. The only people I've ever heard complaining about them are the web designers.

 

It seems to me that flash based sites and html based sites are two very different approaches to delivering internet content. I think an accurate real world analogy might be like HTML being newspapers and Flash being Television. Both forms of media will deliver the news however they have distinct differences. The newspaper (much like HTML) is easily accessible, easy to read, mainly text, has only a bare minimum of pictures etc. Television OTOH is far more engaging to the senses and relies much less on the human imagination. The downside to this of course is that both Flash and TV both require addons like a browser plugin/television set. Funny that in the real world I don't see anybody bitching and complaining that they need to buy a TV set, where in the virtual world some are supposedly up in arms over having to install a free plugin.

 

The web is a very interesting place indeed. I'm not more for one than the other. I just find it interesting that (at least on online forums) there is a distinct polarization of flash versus html. I found this out when I started making my website and people (web designers) freaked out and gave me all kinds of grief when they saw that it was all flash. I found this extremely irritating because it took a hell of a lot of effort to figure out how to do this stuff on my own only to get harassed over the platform. It's as ridiculous as sketch artsts ganging up on the amateur oil painter. I chose flash because it was a music site and I figured people would need a good connection to stream audio anyway. People aren't going to come to my site to read about me, they'll want to come and listen to my music first and foremost. In the end I see that, depending on the nature of the content being delivered, flash may not be the right choice for every project but I still don't think it's inherently bad in and of itself. So again, could somebody please show this admittedly inexperienced guy some examples of html + CSS delivering rich media content with the same pizzazz as flash? I'd very much appreciate it.

[~pcwiz]

I also hate flash sites but if you wanted to save an image, just go to the page where the image is, make a screenshot of the entire screen, paste it onto Fireworks or some image editor and crop out the image you want and save it as a seperate file. yeah I know a lot of work just to get 1 image.

[gazasaurusu]

A couple more I find annoying: God damn lightbox style image / page faux pop ups. They are great for photo galleries etc and when used right look good, but I've seen quite a few online shops now using htem for product details and thats just retarded, it totally breaks usability, how am I supposed to compare two different items side by side? Open another tab? No, stop using it you jizz heads.This next one, I now believe is the worst crime possible. Those flash ads that expand and cover the content your trying to view. Yes they may have a close button, usually tiny and barely visible, but I shouldn't have to close it, it shouldn't be there. People are bloody idiots sometimes.

The web is a very interesting place indeed. I'm not more for one than the other. I just find it interesting that (at least on online forums) there is a distinct polarization of flash versus html. I found this out when I started making my website and people (web designers) freaked out and gave me all kinds of grief when they saw that it was all flash. I found this extremely irritating because it took a hell of a lot of effort to figure out how to do this stuff on my own only to get harassed over the platform. It's as ridiculous as sketch artsts ganging up on the amateur oil painter. I chose flash because it was a music site and I figured people would need a good connection to stream audio anyway. People aren't going to come to my site to read about me, they'll want to come and listen to my music first and foremost. In the end I see that, depending on the nature of the content being delivered, flash may not be the right choice for every project but I still don't think it's inherently bad in and of itself. So again, could somebody please show this admittedly inexperienced guy some examples of html + CSS delivering rich media content with the same pizzazz as flash? I'd very much appreciate it.

The general grievance is that Flash is a genius tool for certain tasks, these are creating animations and user interactions, obviously markup and css can't come close, but a whole site done in Flash is just plain stupid, it breaks so many accepted conventions, plus I don't know about you, but I've never seen one of these attrocities that had body text above 8pt.Flex, on the other hand, is really catching on, and I like it. Flash should be left for what its best at, animations and silly games etc.

[Numberzz]

I hate most sites designed with flash.

[qbattersby]

Hey I would like some insight. I am designing a new site to portray my works, it is still a work in progress but creative criticism is welcomed. As per the design, the moving fractals are actually going to be adjusted and just fade in and out very slowly so you barely notice it. Let me know what you think. www.qbattersby.com

 

qbattersby

[gazasaurusu]

Takes too long before anything comes on screen, do you need to use Flash for any reason? Possibly better to use Flash for just the essentials bits ie the animations and HTML over the top, with no background image or colour so you can see the Flash behind it. Don't like where the navigation is. Why's it so big? Its scrolls in both directions at 1280x800, the text for "sound on/off" is too small, I can barely read it on my screen at higher res it would be worse.

 

I like the smoke effect, though if you could chop it up into two seperate and smaller flash files that were the minimum size you could probably increase the framerate without it getting too big, its a bit choppy.

 

What kind of stuff will be on here?

[qbattersby]

Hey thanks for the input, it is still a work in progress as you can imagine. I am about to graduate school with a Media & Design diploma specializing in Advertising and I plan to use it to portfolio my work.Thanks again, I will still have to play with it. I want the nav to be flash so I can add some nice elements to it, however I may be able to cut the flash to a minimum and use two separate flash elements, one for nav, one for the smoke element and the rest could be xhtml.As per the location of the navigation I think I am going to leave it in that area as everything will be coming up from below, I considered on the right hand side but didnt like it. Sorry for hijacking topic.

[Thao]

Hey thanks for the input, it is still a work in progress as you can imagine. I am about to graduate school with a Media & Design diploma specializing in Advertising and I plan to use it to portfolio my work.Thanks again, I will still have to play with it. I want the nav to be flash so I can add some nice elements to it, however I may be able to cut the flash to a minimum and use two separate flash elements, one for nav, one for the smoke element and the rest could be xhtml.As per the location of the navigation I think I am going to leave it in that area as everything will be coming up from below, I considered on the right hand side but didnt like it. Sorry for hijacking topic.

 

Personally, I think flash is a mistake.

I understand the need for it to look good, but it's just, I don't know.

 

Flash is usually always a mistake.

Think of how many BIG sites run off flash?

[qbattersby]

Personally, I think flash is a mistake.

I understand the need for it to look good, but it's just, I don't know.

 

Flash is usually always a mistake.

Think of how many BIG sites run off flash?

 

 

I understand that BIG sites don't run off of flash, but for this circumstance, I think it is fitting. It is a personal portfolio, the amount of content itself is limited, and the navigation is simple. It's essentially supposed to be used as a digital portfolio. I understand your input nonetheless, I just think for the most part if you look at a portfolio for anyone within this field, it is a simple design, with the portfolio being the main element involved.

 

Thank you for the input, but because you related it back to BIG sites, which this is not supposed to be imitating I feel that your rationale is weak. (I dont mean that harshly, you just haven't justified it)

[gazasaurusu]

I understand that BIG sites don't run off of flash, but for this circumstance, I think it is fitting. It is a personal portfolio, the amount of content itself is limited, and the navigation is simple. It's essentially supposed to be used as a digital portfolio. I understand your input nonetheless, I just think for the most part if you look at a portfolio for anyone within this field, it is a simple design, with the portfolio being the main element involved.

 

Thank you for the input, but because you related it back to BIG sites, which this is not supposed to be imitating I feel that your rationale is weak. (I dont mean that harshly, you just haven't justified it)

 

I agree, its definitely appropriate for a portfolio site of this nature to use Flash, the target audience generally doesn't care about accessibility or the oh so holy W3C standards. They just want to see some nice examples by someone they may be considering hiring, and generally, the business jerks that do the hiring and firing are impressed by Flash thats done well.

[DJChee]

IE only websites.

YEAH!

[qbattersby]

I agree, its definitely appropriate for a portfolio site of this nature to use Flash, the target audience generally doesn't care about accessibility or the oh so holy W3C standards. They just want to see some nice examples by someone they may be considering hiring, and generally, the business jerks that do the hiring and firing are impressed by Flash thats done well.

 

Thank you, that is what I was thinking as well, I am in marketing and although there is alot of information on my so called "target" (employers). This specific information is unavailable but my gut feeling was pretty well exactly what you stated. I am open to opinions on the general design so far.

[Suhail]

Also remember that using DOM, Javascript and Ajax you can do some of the things Flash can do without having to install a addon. All you need is a modern browser .

[ozboi]

Thank you, that is what I was thinking as well, I am in marketing and although there is alot of information on my so called "target" (employers). This specific information is unavailable but my gut feeling was pretty well exactly what you stated. I am open to opinions on the general design so far.

 

The design looks nice and simple, but a couple of suggestions:

 

1) For everything flash, include a preloader -- otherwise it looks like there's nothing there for several seconds. I was tempted to hit the back button or close the window when nothing showed up immediately.

 

2) The whole page needs to be bumped up -- you have to scroll down to see half the content, even though there isn't much of it. Scrolling is fine when there is plenty of content, and while some might saying designing above the fold is old-hat, it is still important. (p.s. I'm using Safari, may not be an issue in other browsers, but still needs to be considered).

 

3) Hide your email address in the source code ... there are way to do this unobtrusively, like using HTML comment tags, and it will save you hours of frustration sifting through spam.

 

4) You have the same colour for the links on the right, and the section titles on your pages. Either make the titles black, or choose a contrasting colour for the links.

 

5) Don't put the words "coming soon" anywhere on your site. Either have the content there, or don't mention it -- I'm specifically referring to the Word document that isn't there. Highlight what you have, not what you're missing.

 

6) The "privacy policy" is a little wanky for a portfolio site where you don't even collect user information. I suggest getting rid of it completely -- you can always inform a client in person when discussing a project. While you're at it, copyright is implied, so unless anything you've done is truly unique the copyright notice isn't needed either.

 

Hope this helps a little I know it was more than a couple of things, but they're all based around making your site more usable on this end.

 

P.S. For the sake of remaining on topic, all but the email thing are aspects of web design that do annoy me.