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Inventory of Web Sites
Bad Page Design

(1)Ralph Covert and the Bad Examples
(2)Frye Art Museum
(3)American Rose Society

Bad Page Design/Ralph Covert and the Bad Examples (1)

Company: URL:	Ralph Covert and the Bad Examples http://www.waterdogmusic.com /artists/badexamples/badbio.html


http://www.waterdogmusic.com/artists/badexamples/badbio.html

Ralph Covert and The Bad Examples was the name of the band. They are an Illinois group. As their name represents, there are bad examples everywhere here.
Three different colored fonts were used on home page. They use five different fonts ranging from outlandish to conservative. Offensive and distracting selection of three different colors in large areas of the home page; green, black, and blue.
The physical properties of the page layout consist of black and white; white font on black background. Also used on pages is the combination of yellow and green; yellow font on green background. A third page color combination is one of light blue and dark blue; light blue font on dark blue background.
Photographs were gross and too large. Took too long to render.
I learned a new word, discography. Bet I'll use that word every day!

The navigation plan was okay, but most links, of course, deadended.

Did not hear any sound tracks during the review of the site. Think occasional sound might have enhanced a music site, since anyone intentionally going to this site would be interested in hearing their music.

On the email connection, it went to another link on the same page before hyperlinking to their email account, [email protected]

Bad experience, mainly because of the uncoordinated, gross color scheme.
NOTE: In doublechecking this site, I observe that it has been changed as of Sunday, October 28, 2001!
It's still not my cup of tea.


Bad Page Design/Frye Art Museum (2)

Company: URL:	Frye Art Museum http://www.fryeart.org

Although I love going to the Frye Art Museum, I find their web site less inviting. Aesthetically, I guess some would label it classy because of its frequent usage of the black background, but I find it too hard to read the type of print they are using over it.

The home page is dramatic and well done. It suggests what an art museum should be about. The categories on the buttons seem to cover all that one might wish to know in wanting to visit or in wondering what is currently showing...
For some reason, the hyperlinks responded very slowly for me. On some, I finally decided that something so large was loading that maybe I just didn't want to wait to see it! I did not experience any dead-ended links, but in most cases, I didn't wait long enough for it to suggest there was nothing on the other end.

They have a tendency to use italics instead of going for a variety of different fonts and different sizes on their site.. On the black background, the italics do not render well. It takes one into a land of dizziness. The calendar of events page was so busy it said, "Do you really want to come to this gallery? Look how busy we are! Look how many people could be here...and you just wanted a quiet day looking at art!" Wow, what confusion that font displays on that black background! There must be a better way...

On the subject of fonts, I looked around trying to identify what font they are consistently using on that black background that gives anything but a crisp outline. They are using frames for this site, so I couldn't find any information to identify any of the fonts precisely.

While you are on the Calendar of Events page, you'll notice that in the table of contents on the left linking list, you find a plethora of subcategories. That's fine, but they are spaced so closely in that listing that there isn't enough room for anyone to accurately place the pointer to access the desired link. More space in between links, please.

The graphic on "How to Find Us" was well done. Perhaps I liked it because it had a white background and after going through the entire site, my eyes needed to see a white background. During the entire trip through the site, I felt as though I was in an optometrist's office, having my eyes tested to see how far my vision would reach!

Sorry, folks at the Frye, but you just made it into my Bad Page Design category! Make your site easier for me to read about all the wonderful things your museum offers and also allow me to navigate more freely!



Bad Page Design/American Rose Society (3)

Company: URL:	American Rose Society http://www.ars.org


It took some real digging for me to establish that I would place this site among those in the Good Page Design category, mainly because I started out in my navigation on the site so poorly. Because the button panel at the top of the page is so similar in color to the normal Windows operating system standard operating bar colors, I just couldn't find anywhere on the page how to get into the bowels of this site. I was familiar with the site design work done by one of the webmasters for ARS, and I trusted her competence, so I just kept trying. (but I am going to drop her an email after going over this site carefully). I clicked on every image and icon on the page, and finally, I found the tabs at the top and discovered navigation, layout, and organization all at one time! I am going to drop my friend a line and tell her of my futile peregrinations.

Generally speaking, most of the pages in the site are extremely long-scrolling. BUT I cannot find any "to top" navigational buttons at the bottom of the pages. This was particularly noticeable while I was at the bottom of the home page and couldn't find anyplace to go. I had scrolled out entirely from the list of locations/contents contained at the top of the page.

From a design standpoint, I find the hyperlinks listed at the bottom a little too busy than need be. The site committee and the designers have used a [ home ] layout instead of a more simply stated \| home \| to identify (and separate) the page entries for hyperlink viewing. It is just too busy down there, and it need not be. I will be curious to find out why they went with this busier hyperlink expression. Also, within that list of hyperlinks found at the bottom, the entry of [home] is listed lastly. I believe "to top" should be first on the list, followed by \| home\|; i.e., ideally, it would look like....top \| home \|...

When one enters the second level of the site hierarchy, the information comes up, but on top of each page there resides a bright purple banner (#CC33FF, as shown below) showing the items contained within that hierarchical level. I cannot figure out the purpose of this visually obtrusive banner. It takes up a great deal of valuable real estate to be serving no discernable function. Also, when one hyperlinks from that panel, the hyperlink color fades into the purple background so one cannot effectively track migration throughout the level. Placement within that bar appears alphabetical, but so randomly placed on that huge bar that it is confusing and reeking of disorganization. Although the consistent usage of this bar on all of the pages provides uniformity, the presence of the bar itself does not aid the viewer in knowing at exactly what level of the hierarchy he/she is viewing.


I was disappointed to see that the huge Seattle Rose Society does not have an active hyperlink listed under "Other Links/Local Societies". The "Personal/Home" link off of "Other Links" is a pleasant addition and a means of contacting active Rose Society members.This page to add your rose event to the Rose Society calender was dead: http://www.ars.org/rosey-events.html.

Under the All About Roses/Rose Recommendations drop-down, I was amazed to notice a graphic of a rose with holes in its leaves! Surely, not at the American Rose Society's web site, but there it is! In the All About Roses/Show Supplies drop-down, I thought that page would never render...way too long in coming up, and it appears to be only text tables done in black and white..

All form pages appear crisp and well organized. The layouts are easy to read and follow.

I noticed a graphic that was not rendering on the membership information page.

The site uses white space well on all of its pages. Many of its pages are text-only formats, so they are able to control the white space to provide ease in reading and viewing.