Worst web sites of 2006
I’m a big fan of websitesthatsuck.com, especially their annual hall of shame. I go there when I feel depressed about my own web shortcomings - nothing like a dose of schadenfreude to brighten the spirit.
Here are just a few of the many useful lessons from the list of offenders this year:
1. Keep it clean and easy to read—busy is bad.
2. Have one, clear focal point (and, I’d add, one clear call to action) or else you’re making it very unpleasant for the visitor. Don’t believe me? Visit the Salt Institute (warning: take two Tylenol first).
3. Good navigation is essential and must be from the perspective of the audience, rather than your own.
I could go on and on, but they already did. There are more than 100 more tips on their site—check out 148 Mortal Sins That Will Send Your Site to Web Design Hell. Yikes, some of my work may be purgatory bound. But at least I’m not the Salt Institute!
Syndicate
As we go through our website redesign(s), this is great fodder. I’m actually trying to ‘score’ our existing site using the checklists so that we can hopefully see the growth with the new site. This along with taking the ten top things we can do to make our site more 2.0 (taken from 59 of the smartest orgs online) will also help us to build a community around our issues. http://inwardout.blogspot.com/2007/01/tips-we-can-use-from-59-smartest-orgs.html
I like Vincent’s daily sucker too!