Sponsor's Message

This regular feature showcased the very worst in website design and implementation, both here in New Zealand and elsewhere in the world.

As the overall quality of websites gradually improved, this feature became redundant and although it will always be easy to find lousy websites built by idiots with a copy of Front Page, really bad sites built by professionals were becoming more difficult to find.

Well that's what I thought until recently.

With the launch of TVNZ's new website I realised that there are still a surprisingly large number of websites out there that are professionally built rubbish.

As a result of this realisation, I've launched a new section that I've titled The Aardvark Hall of Shame and which will feature the very worst, laziest and most incompetent examples of web design on the local scene.

Now have your say Got something to say about today's column, or want to see what others think?  Visit The Forums While you're here, why not visit the Aardvark Hall of Shame and perhaps make your own nomination.

Already the nominations are streaming in and I expect this page to become quite a comprehensive list of what's bad within a very short space of time. If you've got any suggestions, please send them to me for consideration.

The most obvious problem so far is the way that so many web designers seem to think that *the* standard for HTML is whatever Microsoft says it is.

These designers have probably never even visited the W3C website and likely don't care at all that their websites are non-conformant with the standards documented there.

(A note to all the smart-alecs who are poised to email me and complain that *this* site doesn't validate properly -- I know! However, *I'm* not being paid to build this site for anyone else and the warnings/errors involved have no effect on its rendering or operation in any known browser :-)

I guess it's just so easy for a lazy or ignorant web designer to lean back and say "hell, everyone uses Internet Explorer anyway" and ignore the fact that there are other options that a small but growing number of people prefer to use.

And what's the use in having standards if industry professionals feel free to ignore them?

But exactly what constitutes bad web design?

What do you think of those websites that are nothing more than a string of Flash files and effectively lock the door on those who have cleverly avoided installing the Flash player?

If you've got a GSM-capable PDA and want to order a Pizza from this crowd's website then you're probably going to be very disappointed.

I know there are a lot of web designers reading this column, so now I turn the discussion over to The Aardvark Forums

If you feel that this is a good thing and/or you hold a "geniune affection" for yours truly -- then you are welcome to gift me some money using the buttons provided. In gifting this money you accept that no goods, service or other consideration is offered, provided, accepted or anticipated in return. Just click on the button to gift whatever you can afford. NOTE: PayPal bills in US dollars so don't accidentally gift more than what you were intending :-)

Contacting Aardvark
I'm always happy to hear from readers, whether they're delivering brickbats, bouquets or news tip-offs. If you'd like to contact me directly, please this form. If you're happy for me to republish your comments then please be sure and select For Publication.

Other media organisations seeking more information or republication rights are also invited to contact me.

Just add a couple of lines of JavaScript to your pages and you can get a free summary of Aardvark's daily commentary -- automatically updated each and every week-day.

Aardvark also makes a summary of this daily column available via XML using the RSS format. More details can be found here.

Contact me if you decide to use either of these feeds and have any problems.

Linking Policy
Want to link to this site? Check out Aardvark's Linking Policy.

Did you tell someone else about Aardvark today? If not then do it now!