Robin Williams
Below are features that can make a web design look dorky. These are not just my personal opinions, but are ideas I have collected from speaking to groups around the country. Examples of many of these features and more detailed explanations of the problems and solutions are in my book, The Non-Designer's Web Book, written with John Tollett.
- Backgrounds
- Default gray color
- Color combinations of text and background that make the text hard to read
- Busy, distracting backgrounds that make the text hard to read
- Text
- Text that is too small to read
- Text crowding against the left edge
- Text that stretches all the way across the page
- Centered type over flush left body copy
- Paragraphs of type in all caps
- Paragraphs of type in bold
- Paragraphs of type in italic
- Paragraphs of type in all caps, bold, and italic all at once
- Underlined text that is not a link
- Links
- Default blue links
- Blue link borders around graphics
- Links that are not clear about where they will take you
- Links in body copy that distract readers and lead them off to remote, useless pages
- Text links that are not underlined so you don't know they are links
..(If you're not going to underline your links, please make darned sure
..that each link is perfectly clearly a link! Don't make me wander around
..with my mouse checking to see if randomly colored text is a link!) - Dead links (links that don't work anymore)
- Graphics
- Large graphic files that take forever to load
- Meaningless or useless graphics
- Thumbnail images that are nearly as large as the full-sized images they link to
- Graphics with no alt labels
- Missing graphics, especially missing graphics with no alt labels
- Graphics that don't fit on the screen (assuming a screen of 800 x 600 pixels)
- Tables
- Borders turned on in tables
- Tables used as design elements, especially with extra large (dorky) borders
- Blinking and animations
- Anything that blinks, especially text
- Multiple things that blink
- Rainbow rules (lines)
- Rainbow rules that blink or animate
- "Under construction" signs, especially of little men working
- Animated "under construction" signs
- Animated pictures for email
- Animations that never stop
- Multiple animations that never stop
- Junk
- Counters on pages -- who cares
- Junky advertising
- Having to scroll sideways (800 x 600 pixels)
- Too many little pictures of meaningless awards on the first page
- Frame scroll bars in the middle of a page
- Multiple frame scroll bars in the middle of a page
- Navigation
- Unclear navigation; over complex navigation
- Complicated frames, too many frames, unnecessary scroll bars in frames
- Orphan pages (no links back to where they came from, no identification)
- Useless page titles that don't explain what the page is about
- General Design
- Entry page or home page that does not fit within standard browser window (800 x 600 pixels)
- Frames that make you scroll sideways
- No focal point on the page
- Too many focal points on the page
- Navigation buttons as the only visual interest, especially when they're large (and dorky)
- Cluttered, not enough alignment of elements
- Lack of contrast (in color, text, to create hierarchy of information, etc.)
- Pages that look okay in one browser but not in another
* * * * * * * * * *
so you can see what the effect will look like.
or Freehand Select 
tool.
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