Welcome To My Website!

Welcome to the World's Worst Website!

This web was designed to graphically demonstrate the most common mistakes made by new Web Page designers. 

Where am I and where are the links to other pages?

An easy to use navigation structure is essential to any well designed website! Important information should never be more than 2 clicks away. 

wild eyeAs you can see, this text is difficult to read. There needs to more contrast between the background color and the text color. Here's another example of a poor choice of a background/ text color and size.

Keep your backgrounds simple. White or light colors usually work best. Your background should not compete with the content of the page for the users attention. If you would like to use a background picture, select a picture that uses muted colors or format your picture as a watermark. Select text colors which will contrast well with the background picture. 
minutemanerupting volcanoConstantly running animations can be distracting when used excessively. There should be no more than one animated object in your view at any time. Also in this category are excessive, large, flashing & obnoxious advertisements. 
Excessive advertisements: Aggressive pop ups, banners, flash ads and other intrusive ads annoy your visitors, make your site difficult to use and bury your message in a sea of clutter.

Enjoying the music?  Your website visitors probably won't enjoy it either. Usually, it is best to skip the tunes, but if you must add music, be sure you provide a way for them to turn it off!  Specify the number of times it will run, or add the following tag to the html anywhere between  <HTML> and </HTML>

<EMBED SRC="
soundfile path" AUTOSTART="TRUE" HIDDEN="FALSE" loop="TRUE"> 

Replace the words "soundfile path" with the location of your sound file. The "HIDDEN" command specifies whether to reveal or hide the music player. Replace the "TRUE" after loop with the number of times you wish it to run. If you leave "TRUE" it will run until the visitor turns it off.  

    * If no player is visible, you can hit 'Stop' on your browser

Unnecessary use of technology: Splash pages which require you sit through a long download and don't offer a 'skip intro' option. Especially torturous on a dial-up connection. Avoid excessive or exclusive use of java script menus.

Fake error messages:
One of my 'pet peeves' are the fake error messages that trick new computer users into clicking on an ad.*A real error message will not scroll up and down with the page. Your pointer will become a hyperlink 'hand' over fake error messages.

fake error message

Misspelled werds and impropr punktuation, make yur web look amaturish, and unfinishd.  Awlays run a spel chek befor yu uplode!!!!!!  : )  Enclosing blocks of text within borders breaks up  the flow of the page and causes unnecessary distractions

Pictures which don't load properly could be due to improper uploading of files, improper characters in filenames or unusual formats or file extensions:

Alien Spacecraft photo*News Flash!*

NASA releases first images of alien spacecraft!   
Here's the picture: 

Orphan pages  provide no way back to the originating page. These can cause users to get 'stuck.' 

Hyperlinks that don't work is another problem with poorly designed websites. Click through all your links often and update them regularly.

Hyperlinks of unusual colors can cause confusion for new users.

Hyperlinks which are overly long and don't tell the user where it goes or what it's about
http://calendar.netscape.com/cobrand/netscape/serviceIndex.html?GXHC_GX_cst=fc7eb075024d6164

Hyperlinks that lead to the wrong place:
Click here for local weather information!

Other Browsers & Screen Resolutions: Internet Explorer may be the most widely used browser, but it is not the only one. Others include Mozilla Firefox, Safari and Opera to name a few. Different browsers may display your page very differently. Check your website in as many different browsers as possible. Check it in both 800 x 600 and 1024 x 768 screen resolutions. Using tables may help control the layout. Avoid components which only render properly in specific browsers.

Outdated information: If your website contains timely information, you need to keep it updated regularly, or remove the old  stuff like the article below.

old gloryCoast to coast fun as Y2K hits U.S.A.  (CNN: 14-Mar-00)
From the crowd jammed streets of Times Square to the beaches of Hawaii with fireworks, concerts and parties aplenty in between the United States celebrated the arrival of a new year, a new century and new millennium.

In addition to the problems outlined above, remember DOWNLOAD TIME is one of the most important factors in your web design. Most web surfers will not wait for more than 10-15 seconds for your page to load before they move on. Use pictures sparingly or use thumbnail images. Be sure to save images in .jpg or .gif format.

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for more bad examples and other useful website building tips

email: webmaster@goldnuggetwebs.comThere should be a link somewhere on your page for users to contact you.
Provide an
email link   at the bottom of the page.

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Thanks, Fox89

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michelle@goldnuggetwebs.com