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Web design elements that anger you

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What do you see on other sites that makes your blood boil and becomes an instant click away?

 

For me a good one is underlining things that are not anchors! It's confusing and just dame right wrong, stop it!

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  • user-removed
    user-removed

    People that read CSS3 tutorials, then whinge that the demo doesn't work in IE7.   I don't know who you are. I don't know what you want. If you are looking for browser compatibility sympathy, I can t

  • Stupid stock imagery that depict people much happier and more successful than myself.

  • this     rubbish comments like "this site works best in <insert browser>" or "optimised for".

 

For me a good one is underlining things that are not anchors! It's confusing and just dame right wrong, stop it!

 

this ;)

 

 

rubbish comments like "this site works best in <insert browser>" or "optimised for".

There's a lot of things that annoy me. One of the biggest is average/crap web design propped up by incredible photography, not taken by the person who built the site.

 

People look at a template and think it's brilliant, but the reality is remove the images and it's nonsense.

  • Author

There's a lot of things that annoy me. One of the biggest is average/crap web design propped up by incredible photography, not taken by the person who built the site.

 

People look at a template and think it's brilliant, but the reality is remove the images and it's nonsense.

 

In the same league (but maybe the complete opposite) i've had loads of clients (photographers etc) that turn down a well designed site (well in my humble opinion ;) ) in favour of a rubbish design that is just the photos.

Here's a few off the top of my head:

 

  • Comic Sans & Papyrus
  • Centred text
  • Sidebars to the left of content
  • Capitals forced into italic
  • Standard caps used in place of small caps
  • Anachronistic titling figures
  • Body text at below 12px - we're not all at 800*600 any more
  • Inadequate leading
  • Inadequate margins
  • sIFR or Cufon used where @font-face would work

Edited by Renaissance-Design
Thought of more.

Pretentiousness. This industry is rife with smarmy, smug individuals.

 

The thing I hate most is the introductory headlines designers/developers write on their personal sites.

Pretentiousness. This industry is rife with smarmy, smug individuals.

 

The thing I hate most is the introductory headlines designers/developers write on their personal sites.

 

Oops.

'W3C Validated' logos

 

"My name is..... and I <insert blah blah pretentious nonsense that may have looked cool once on one site>"

Oops.

 

The difference is, I believe you.

 

I really shouldn't be in this thread, I'm gonna find it hard to stop.

 

I'm going to start raging about the Lobster font in a minute.

Haha but it's so hard not to! It's what clients expect.

 

To be fair, I did my research beforehand and response was overwhelmingly positive except from other designers.

 

 

The difference is, I believe you.

 

I really shouldn't be in this thread, I'm gonna find it hard to stop.

 

I'm going to start raging about the Lobster font in a minute.

 

Feel free to weigh in on any of my list. Some of them really p*** me off, be nice to know I'm not alone.

Edited by Renaissance-Design

  • Author

Feel free to weigh in on any of my list. Some of them really p*** me off, be nice to know I'm not alone.

 

Centred text.should.die

 

...but not as much as justified, i had a client a few months back that insisted on it.

It's the first time i've refused something haha

Centred text.should.die

 

...but not as much as justified, i had a client a few months back that insisted on it.

It's the first time i've refused something haha

 

That's context-sensitive. I've used justified a couple of times when it seemed called for (eg, newspaper-inspired layout). So sometimes it's justified...

Whilst we are at it, could somebody kindly explain the point of dribbble to me?

 

Especially the three bs. Wtf.

 

Edit: I have another. People think that subtle design is an alternative for "no contrast" or "nearly invisible".

Edited by brightonmike

  • Author

Whilst we are at it, could somebody kindly explain the point of dribbble to me?

 

Especially the three bs. Wtf.

 

Edit: I have another. People think that subtle design is an alternative for "no contrast" or "nearly invisible".

 

I think that may be the epitome of your 'Pretentious' pet hate.

  • Author

Edit: I have another. People think that subtle design is an alternative for "no contrast" or "nearly invisible".

 

Generally, because of my poor eyesight, my stuff is usually quite contrasted.

 

I'd also like to point out that i'm probably guilty of most of these at some point in my career :D

I'd also like to point out that i'm probably guilty of most of these at some point in my career :D

 

 

Oh man, me too. The number of times I've gotten annoyed by bad typography or lack of contrast, then realised I've been guilty of the same is humbling.

Auto-starting videos and those "Give us feedback about the site" pop-ups that appear within 5 seconds of your first visit.

 

Oh and websites with a "Quick login" bar at the top of the page but the place-holder JS for it at the bottom so by the time you're halfway through typing your username the page fully loads and it gets replaced with "Username"...

Edited by Spitfire

  • Author

Automatic 'Mobile sites' where design, features and content is sacrificed with no way to get to the desktop version. (IPB i'm talking to you!)

Hopefully the responsive movement will kill this one.

Auto-starting videos and those "Give us feedback about the site" pop-ups that appear within 5 seconds of your first visit.

 

If enough people filled in their feedback as "I f****** hate those intrusive survey popups"...

  • Author

sIFR or Cufon used where @font-face would work

 

...even when both of those add stupid weight to page.

 

Also... decorative fonts used for main body text... WTF is the point in having content if i can't read it?

My pet hate is people proclaiming to be web designers who have no grasp of typography. Incredibly long lines of text in a tiny font with default line spacing. And centred text. MAKES ME MAD I TELLS YA!

 

And those worse-than-useless headlines that web designers use because they lack the imagination to do anything with words that they didn't copy from a .net magazine tutorial. Hi, my name's Groovy Designz and I'm passionate about masturbation.... etc

 

Here's another one. Using fancy flash/ js because they can, even when it doesn't suit the project, or decreases usability.

 

 

 

Ooh I feel much better now! Namaste mofos! ;)

People that put the toilet paper on the holder so that the loose sheet is at the back... and the proclaimers

Edited by 4colourprogress

Some of these have already been mentioned:

 

Comic Sans, Papyrus, Lobster and the massive overuse of Museo.

Small body copy (and the insistence that 'corporate' sites need 11px body copy and 13px headlines)

Display faces used for body copy

Abused leading / kerning / tracking

Ignored leading / kerning / tracking

Splash screens or intro pages

Auto-playing music or video with sound

Lack of white space in a design

Inconsistent margins

Things that look clickable when they aren't (and the opposite)

Sites that rely entirely on fancy jQuery animations and otherwise lack substance

Justified text. Centered text I can get on board with in certain situations. But left-aligned is where it's at.

Anything that changes the way usability conventions behave

Tag clouds

 

Man... I must come across far angrier than I actually am... Good to know there are people out there who share a fair number of these with me.

People that put the toilet paper on the holder so that the loose sheet is at the back... and the proclaimers

 

Oh heck I thought it was just me,with the toilet paper thing.

Edited by GalaxyTramp

People that read CSS3 tutorials, then whinge that the demo doesn't work in IE7.

 

I don't know who you are. I don't know what you want. If you are looking for browser compatibility sympathy, I can tell you I don't have any. But what I do have are a very particular set of skills; skills I have acquired over a very long career. Skills that make me a nightmare for people like you. If you stop whinging that CSS3 demos do not work in old browsers now, that'll be the end of it. I will not look for you, I will not pursue you. But if you don't, I will look for you, I will find you, and I will kill you.

Edited by brightonmike

I expect to see some SEO outfit spamming a therapy site real soon...

People who can't correctly pad their content i.e. text tantalising close to a margin or other element makes me want to tweak it for them - cue me loading Firebug just to see how much better it could look!

  • Author

OK i know it's not directly web design based and more client hate but... i hate clients that want me to build in the option of being able to change their body font themselves.

I can't ever imagine a good use for this.

  • Author

People who can't correctly pad their content i.e. text tantalising close to a margin or other element makes me want to tweak it for them - cue me loading Firebug just to see how much better it could look!

 

Totally.

The other way round too.

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