I have a feeling I’m going to break someone’s heart with this post, but it’s true. There are professional web designers, and there are people whose pages belong on Geocities in the 90s.
The website for (long-shot) mayoralty candidate Louise O’Sullivan belongs in the latter camp:
partimontrealvillemarie.ca
Let us count the ways:
- <title>Test2</title>
- Candidate’s photo in 256-colour GIF
- Photo of the city stolen from Google Image Search
- Drop shadows on everything
- Scrolling marquee
- Coloured boxes inside other coloured boxes inside even more coloured boxes
- Text is all in bold
- Date written via JavaScript
- No links in main text
I’m sure you can add more in the comments. Feel free.
Sadder still, there are other atrocities where this came from, people who presumably spent hundreds of dollars for these sites. Perhaps the “© 1999” at the bottom might have something to do with it.
Well, Steve, you destroyed that company’s reputation… Those websites do scream Geocities with their scrolling marquees, counters, cheap backgrounds and guestbooks…
There is also a big continuity problem with the shadow casting, especially in the title box for “Équipe O’Sullivan”.
And, I guess you didn’t look at the English version of “thé” site… It’s really, really, really bad with line breaks, words in colours to put the emphasis on them (since everything is actually in bold, as in the French portion), spaces missing, capital “p”, French written boxes and so on… As a copy editor, you would have a good laugh, I guess.
I did. :)
Oh god… not a marquee! Make it stop, make it stop!!!
wow. I haven’t done a lot of website but this one beats the hell out of any website I have done……from 1994.
Seriously, even the graphics artist website needs a graphic artist http://mojade.com/
Sorry but in these day and age, I can’t take someone seriously if I can’t take their website seriously.
Thanks for the laft Fagstein!
LOL …I was hoping to see at least one “under construction” animated gif!:)
Hey she stole my photo from Wikipedia!
Hello,
Let me come out clean. First and foremost, I am Louise O’Sullivan’s supporter. I think she brings a lot of experience, energy, business savvy and personal integrity into the arena of municipal politics. What she is not, (as you have so painstakingly pointed out in your blog), is a web-site designer. Neither does she have a whole ‘lotta’ money to throw around building a web-site that will stand-up to your professional scrutiny. And thus, here’s the rub.
Louise understands the importance of her website’s visuals and contents. She concurs with your comments. She believes that in addition to her party’s website, its Facebook, YouTube and Twitter presence must be developed rather quickly… not only with an objective of enhancing her own photo’s pixels, but if she is to succeed spreading her message to the Internet savvy future voters, among whom, many are your readers.
Based on your recent blog entry regarding Vision Montreal’s leader, Benoit Labonté, I am happy to see that you are an equal opportunity … critic. Clearly, you had plenty to say about Labonté web presence outshining his political heft.
So, I say, “How ’bout gettin’ involved with O’Sullivan’s party, O’Fagstein? After all, doing something positive about her website’s affront on your aesthetic and linguistic sensibilities should prove ultimately more satisfying than just critiquing them from your blog’s sidewalk.
Let me know if interested.
Thanks in advance.
Marina