Ugly Web Designer Websites?
You think that if you were a website designer, or at least a graphic designer, that you would have an attractive and usable web design. Apparently not. How do they stay in business? How do they not repulse their visitors and disgust their clients? There should be some sort of test, a passing board. Lawyers have to pass the bar exam, doctors need a license to practice, engineers have a certification they must pass, why don’t professional web designers?
These are some of my picks. Not necessarily the worse, just some pretty ugly ones. Actually, some of them are the worse. Of course, it is impossible to make any type of “the top ugly web designer websites” because there are just so many that deserve mentioning and there are so many that are too ugly to even look at (therefore making it impossible to judge). So yes, back to the point. Here are some of my picks, in no particular order.
http://www.favicon.com/
http://www.candddesigns.biz/index.htm
http://www.applevalleycomputerservices.com/
http://www.cyber-key.com/web-development-directory-7.html
http://www.hevnerwebdesign.com/links.htm
http://www.firestardesign.com/
http://www.itheoreyez.com/
http://www.richardquickdesign.com/
Okay, so that last one isn’t too bad, but seriously, why so freaking narrow? Does it have anorexia or something? I thought nerdy geeky web designers were above the influence of Hollwood’s pop culture.
I have to admit though, I miss the good old days of Web 1.0 where you could make the most annoying background image, throw a bunch of bright-ugly text on it, throw in a few “cool” animated GIFs and call it good. It made web design a 10 minute process, certainly a blessing for freelance designers.
Now I am probably going to get a bunch of pricks saying “Well take a look at your own site!” Heh, so it isn’t the prettiest, but I’m still not the pot calling the kettle black. I’m not a designer… as of now.
Perhaps I should send a little letter to these people, with an image that they can proudly display on their website, that informs them of their incompetence. Something that makes them look like the dumb hippies they are.
This guy obviously has issues with what web site design is all about. The websites he has chosen are designed for the owner to display their products in a way that makes it easy for their customers. They probably are not even the designers idea or maybe even a website the designer has taken on after it was already designed. If you want to see a really ugly website look at the one you are on now. It has no design to it at all. Anyone can make a webpage with tables. That is so elementary. Anyone who would take this guys word on what is ugly knows even less than him about web design.
Ladies and gentlemen of the jury, let me direct your attention to Exhibit A, the websites listed in the above article. Most of them lack a coherent color scheme. Those that do suffer from poor usability or rough corners (that haven’t been anti-aliased).
For the next Exhibit, I would like to highlight a phrase from “Web Design Expert.” In his opening statement, he says “They probably are not even the designers idea or maybe even a website the designer has taken on after it was already designed.” This sentence clearly shows how much of an expert he himself is on web design. As a designer, you would hire another designer to create your portfolio page? It seems that is something you would do yourself, I wouldn’t hire a designer that relies on other designers to create his presentation. It shows a lack of aptitude.
For the next piece, I will use an excerpt from my own article. I state “Now I am probably going to get a bunch of pricks saying ‘Well take a look at your own site!’ Heh, so it isn’t the prettiest, but I’m still not the pot calling the kettle black. I’m not a designer… as of now.”
1) I admit my site isn’t the prettiest.
2) I concede that I myself am not a designer.
Next I would like to direct you to the source code of Rashy.org. Sure, it isn’t layed out all nice and filled with comments, but lets play a little “Spot the Table!” I’ll give you a hint, there is only one, and it isn’t on this page. (Psst, try here: http://rashy.org/life/energy-drinks.html).
Clearly “Web Design Expert” is indeed an expert. He correctly identified the use of tables on my website, and noted that my own website could use a bit of a makeover. Unfortunately he failed to recognize that the websites I linked to, and thus the whole purpose of the article, are butt ugly. Ladies and gentlemen of the jury, this man is guilty of libel, slander, and a lack of buttered toast. I rest my case.
Good news Rashy! There’s not a damn thing wrong with using a table for displaying–wait for it–tabular data! You could even say that’s what the table tag was designed to do. Tables are only bad when they’re used for layout. Which is not to say that I never use them for layout, because I totally do. But it makes me feel dirty.
And that clown that posted the first comment? Bet you he arrived at your post by way of his access log.
Hehe, I still have some trouble with pure CSS layouts (view this site in IE 6!), but at least I try.
I couldn’t imagine trying to format tabular data without a table. The absolute CSS positioning would be murder, and completely pointless since the W3C says that using tables to display tables of information is more than acceptable, but the only practical way.
Heh, in universities they teach you to always use tables when designing websites. At least, in England.
I only use tables when:
a) displaying tabular data
b) I [i]really really really[/i] need to use borders, and have mysteriously forgotten how to use CSS (I actually did this once. I was slightly embarrassed).