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Do you know a site that demonstrates excellent design, or one that really needs redesigning from scratch?

   

A list of sites that show bad application of design principles

'Best and Worst' is a rolling list of links to sites that demonstrate the importance of quality user-oriented design, either through good design in action, or lack of it.

This is our collection of sites we think exhibit some poor application of design principles.

These sites aren't necessarily all bad, and don't necessarily fail, but they provide useful examples of problems caused by design.

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Worst use of core design principles

Boso.co.uk
(Visitor suggestion) Interesting concept (trading site for students), but lots of design weaknesses. Black on blue main nav is unclear, and should not be centered. Bar-style headings with extra graphics are over-designed and misleading (look separate from their respective content areas). The language (on the home page at least) is far too chatty. Footer design is strange, doesn't look like the end of the page.

Interflora.com
Basically decent concepts are let down by a horrible forms (check it the order form, took me 40s to load, and is one of the worst web forms I've ever had to use), lack of space between navigation elements, small text, really needs an overhaul.

Findhotel.co.uk
A hateful site, devoid of any structured layout with a disparate collection of elements slung haphazardly into space. Way too much white space leaves the eye nothing to go by.

Web Pro World
A great community site, with neat forums encased in a seriously overbearing template: lots of elements with intense colours and high contrast compete for visual attention; important elements are not clearly differentiated making it very hard to use.

Hicks and Company
A one-page encyclopaedia of what not to do: distracting flashing ads (at periphery draw the eye more); top nav bar leads off-screen; no clear prioritisation; dreadful jumbled layout; click here for homepage etc. etc.

British Airways
Fairly neat visual layout, but ruined by obtuse and obstructive interaction failures. Errors are handled badly, Contact Us makes no sense *at all* and is one of the worst web pages I've ever seen. Needs totally re-thinking in order to serve the majority o

Royal National Institute of the Blind
Obvious jokes aside, this is a well-written site totally compromised by illogical layout and garish colour choices. In critical need of help.

2AdvancedStudios
2Advanced used to push boundaries, but their current site falls flat. Bad colours, bad layout, poor readability, and enormous download times all serve to obscure their content and message. A few critical adjustments could bring big benefits.

Hotmail.com
Despite some improvements over time, Hotmail fails because it doesn't help me quickly achieve my primary goal from visiting - "Do I have any mail?". Plus it's slow to load, has a clumsy interface and over-intense colour.

The Trainline.com
A confusing layout, and dreadful behaviour severely compromise this train timetable and ticket purchasing site.

Undecided... what do you think?

Most of these are sites submitted by visitors.

Teknision.com
Flash site with some gratuitous effects, and unnecessary interaction (like making you click to open content on the home page). But does it work? Not badly at all...

Sportsline
Submitted under 'best'. I think this site suffers from a severe lack of white space. Fairly conventional, but painfully compact.

DifferWorld
Suggested as best - what do you think?

DifferWorld.com
Some good use, some mistakes. Notably, over-use of emboldening in text actually decreases readability. Graphical top nav links are not very clear. I think there are too many L1 links, and white on mid-grey is not sharp enough.

Babies 'R' Us
Suggested by a visitor under 'worst' category... Definitely not up to Amazon's standard, but worthy of 'Worst use...'??

Institute of Technology
A bad splash page that makes you search for the way in; the rest of the site feels back-to-front with a top-right origin, and clumsy layout that needs a grid. What do you think? Does this qualify as 'worst'?

Hicks Design (2)
New redesign from Jon Hicks. I like this less than the previous version. I enjoy the rotated side image, but the layout of screen elements is chaotic, and navigation in mid-screen doesn't work for me. No longer best use of core design.

Racekites.com
Strong, clear design. well laid-out homepage with useful features. Could benefit from a bit of contrast-balancing (some low-value elements are too dark, some important elements need more contrast)

Biz 'n' Tips
Good simple layout. Uncertain why the Home / Contact tabs don't mouseover like the others. Also needs an 'About' introduction on home.

Goodgrove.com
A simple family site showing photos of a new baby. Does the job. Can't fault its design :-)

Quickedivorce.co.uk
A successful site with decent layout and well written. On the down side: lacks solidity, colour scheme, problematic mouseover effects,

International Herald Tribune
Doesn't quite make it. Odd usability problems in top nav, and lacks differentiation between content and cross-promotion in main body. Logo is on dodgy background too.

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Comments
Institute of Technology http//:www.it-colleges.com has redesigned their site finally. You would figure the school would hire a former student or someone within their organization. No, they go with the cheap local solution http//:www.netricks.com minus the creative approach. Shouldn't an educational website reflect the people/students that make the school or is it the school that makes the people/students?
Concerned Student - 11:50 on 09 Jul 2005
Are you serious 2advanced is a work of art. It is not really intended to be a text website it is intended to break new boundaries in web artistic abilities, webdesignfromscratch obviously does not see that nor understand that...
Malvic James - 09:06 on 20 Sep 2005
I'm serious. I get that 2Advanced v4 is artistic, and I get the experience. It does impress me. The animation and sound are excellent. My criticism is that the user interface is not very effective. It's a struggle to get the information they're presenting. You really have to strain. Now, for art alone, that's OK, but this is design, and part of what their goal here is to communicate hard information about their company. They do the 'soft' part really well, but the transfer of hard information is compromised. Some will argue that you *can't* do both really well, but I'm not sure I'd agree. I could list a bunch of UI mistakes and fixes for the main page.
Ben Hunt - 07:09 on 20 Sep 2005