Bad website examples highlight how poor design can hurt your business. Your website is often the first impression potential clients have of your business. A poor design can drive them away and damage your reputation.
This article analyzes bad website design examples. You’ll also learn practical tips to improve user experience and avoid common mistakes.
Avoid Common Mistakes: Build Your Website With the Right Platform
| Provider | User Rating | Recommended For | |
|---|---|---|---|
 | 4.6/5.0 | Beginners | Visit Hostinger |
 | 4.4/5.0 | Pricing | Visit IONOS |
 | 4.2/5.0 | Design | Visit Squarespace |
What Makes a Bad Website Design?
Various factors make up a bad website design. These factors tell you what is causing a negative user experience on your website.
Cluttered & Confusing Aesthetics and Layouts
First impressions do matter. A good website design keeps your clients on your website for longer. This is mostly because the site is easy to navigate and has a good design.
In contrast, an outdated design gives your website a neglected look and decreases trust. In addition, an overcrowded website layout can overwhelm users. The position of your buttons and menus also affects the design of your website.
If you have complex navigation menus, it could frustrate your site visitors. Users are more likely to quickly leave a site with a bad website design. Nonetheless, a user would visit your website again if it is:
- Visually appealing
- Easy to navigate
- Mobile-friendly
Slow Loading
Patience is a rare commodity in the present day and age. Most users wait for at least 2 to 5 seconds for a page to load. Anything slower, and you might risk losing their presence to another website. Slow loading times are often due to issues like:
- Poor hosting
- Excessively large images
- Unoptimized files
Therefore, you need to address these technical issues for a smoother user experience.
Poor UX & Lack of Accessibility
Your business website should be clear and easy to navigate. Some features contribute to a poor user experience, including:
- Intrusive pop-ups
- Overabundance of ads
- Complex forms
Your website should be accessible to any screen user. It should also use alt text for images to maintain inclusivity for all users.
Irrelevant, Badly Written Content
Content is king, but only when it’s high-quality and relevant. If your website contains outdated or poorly written content, it will have a negative impact on your brand’s leadership.
You should also watch out for spelling and grammar errors. Readers are going to spot these errors, and this could reduce your website’s credibility. So, it’s vital to keep your website content copy engaging, informative, and error-free.
Not Being Mobile Responsive
With mobile browsing on the rise, your website must keep up with the latest trends. With the mobile-first design trend, you need to optimize your website for various screens.
Google also focuses on mobile responsiveness in its page rankings. This makes it an important factor for search engine optimization (SEO). In essence, you need to rank mobile users to improve your website’s reach and visibility.
39 Worst Websites Examples: A Deep Dive
Now, let’s dive into the hall of shame and explore 39 websites with major design flaws.
1. Santa Pod Raceway
Santa Pod Raceway’s website design example shows what bad websites look like. The site gives an outdated outlook with its design.
It also has confusing website navigation, with some buttons that lead to dead ends. This navigation style contributes to a bad user experience. It also lacks accessibility features, which might cause users to visit other pages.
2. Ash End House Children’s Farm
Though the Ash End House Children’s Farm site focuses on families, its site design is quite unwelcoming. The website design is out of date, with a cluttered layout. These features make it difficult to navigate, especially on mobile devices.
3. The Property Investors Network
The Property Investors Network’s website suffers from a cluttered and dated design. It also has features that detract from its usability, including:
- Poor mobile responsiveness
- Inconsistent fonts
- Jarring color scheme
4. Discount Beds Belfast
Using Discount Beds Belfast‘s website feels like stepping into the internet’s early days. It gives a bad user experience with features like:
- Dated design
- Cluttered layout
- Lack of mobile responsiveness
5. Sutton Maddock Vehicle Rental
Renting a vehicle should be a straightforward process. But with Sutton Maddock‘s website’s outdated design and cluttered layout, the process might be frustrating. This car leasing company website also has inconsistent design elements and lacks mobile responsiveness.
6. Onyx Accountants
For a business that values professionalism, Onyx Accountants’ website misses the mark. Some of the features that make it a bad design example include its:
- Unengaging homepage
- Lack of compelling calls to action
- Sparse content
7. Gotham Garage
Despite its cool name, Gotham Garage fails to impress. It has bad features that make it difficult for users to explore. These features include:
- An outdated design
- Confusing navigation
- Lack of mobile responsiveness
8. Velden Engineering
Velden Engineering has an obsolete design and a messy layout. The website content fails to highlight the company’s engineering skills. Other features, like a lack of mobile responsiveness and sparse content, limit its effectiveness.
9. Atlas Plastics
Atlas Plastics’ website has an outdated design and an overwhelming layout. With this website style, users will have a hard time navigating the site. In addition, the website lacks mobile responsiveness and content. This will discourage users’ confidence in the company’s services.
10. The Ice Cream Farm
The Icream Farm website’s dated design and inconsistent user experience leave a sour taste. It also has a confusing layout. This will make it difficult for users to find useful information.
11. Christmas Tree Farm
This website of The Christmas Tree Farm has an unengaging design and difficult navigation. This makes it hard for users to get into the holiday spirit. It also has inconsistent fonts. These features will detract from the user experience.
12. Brindleys
Brindleys Accountants’ website has a dated design and uninspired layout. The website layout barely showcases the company’s offers. Moreover, it lacks mobile responsiveness and has sparse content. These features make it difficult to engage with.
13. Bromley Education Matters
If you’re searching for relevant information, the Bromley Education Matters website’s layout might not help you with that. The website lacks mobile responsiveness and barely has content.
14. The Birth Partnership
The Birth Partnership website has an outdated design and a disorganized layout. This design makes it difficult to navigate. It is not mobile-friendly and has unengaging content. This reduces the user’s confidence.
15. Home Birth Supplies
Home Birth Supplies website has a poorly designed layout and a lack of mobile responsiveness. These bad features make it difficult to find essential information. Its sparse content further limits its usefulness.
16. Simplify Structural Engineering
Simplify Structural Engineering’s website has an outdated design and unappealing layout. It does not inspire trust in the company’s engineering expertise. It also has a cluttered interface and lacks mobile responsiveness. These features further detract from its usability.
17. Yale School of Art
Yale University/School is renowned for its artistic excellence. However, the website’s design is ironically disappointing. It also has features that make it difficult to navigate:
- Unclear website color scheme
- Complex navigation
- Cluttered layout
18. MRA Ireland
This racing news website, MRA Ireland, has a cluttered layout and poor usability. This makes it difficult to find relevant information. Its lack of mobile responsiveness and sparse content further limit its effectiveness.
19. Haunted Happenings
Haunted Happening’s website has an uninspiring/design and inconsistent fonts and colors. The layout barely captures the excitement of haunted happenings. Its long, off-putting copy also detracts from the user experience.
20. Heights of Abraham
This website’s dated design and convoluted layout make it difficult to navigate. Its overwhelming interface and lack of mobile responsiveness further hinder its usability.
21. The Cheese Shop Nottingham Ltd.
The Cheese Shop website’s bad design does not do justice to the delicious cheeses it offers. It has features that detract from the experience. These features include:
- Inaccurate copy
- Outdated design
- Inconsistent fonts and colors
22. Monkland Cheese Dairy
Monkland Cheese Dairy’s website has an amateurish design and poor navigation. The design makes it difficult to find basic information on the site. Its lack of mobile responsiveness and sparse content further limit its effectiveness.
23. Lings Cars
Lings Cars’ website has an overwhelming design. Some of its bad features that hinder its usability include:
- Chaotic design
- Excessive text and graphics
- Cluttered layout
- Lack of mobile responsiveness
24. Pacific Northwest X-Ray Inc.
Pacific Northwest’s website has a spam-like appearance. Its untrustworthy design does not inspire confidence in the company’s services. Its overwhelming layout and lack of mobile responsiveness further detract from its credibility.
25. Liberty Games
The features of the Liberty Games website make it difficult to find the desired games. Some of its features include:
- Challenging navigation
- Busy interface
- Poor content organization
- Inconsistent fonts and colors
26. Blinkee
Blinkee website’s overwhelming text and graphics make it difficult to focus. It also has other features that detract from the user experience. Some of these features include:
- Lack of coherence
- Chaotic visual elements
- Confusing navigation
27. Arngren.net
Arngren’s website is a prime example of what not to do in web design. Some of its poor features include:
- Excessive clutter
- Overwhelming images and text
- Lack of structure
- Outdated design
28. State of the Art Marketing
It’s difficult to take a slow-loading website seriously. Apart from its slow loading time, here are other poor design features of State of the Art Marketing’s website:
- Cluttered layout
- Excessive images
- Poor use of space
- Inconsistent design
29. Edial Kennels
The Edial Kennels website has an inconsistent typeface and font sizes. It also lacks security (no SSL certificate) and has an unprofessional design. These features do not inspire trust in the company’s services.
30. The Egg Shed @ Little Verzons Farm
The Egg Shed’s website is difficult to navigate, especially if you need relevant information. Its poor features include:
- Cluttered layout
- Disorganized text and images
- Excessively centered text
- Outdated visuals
31. Woodfield Building Services (Staffs) Ltd.
This building materials website has a dated design. Its cluttered layout and excessive text make it difficult to find relevant information. It also has small images and lacks a prominent display of important details.
32. La Cornue
La Cornue’s website has an unclear navigation style that hinders the user experience. Some of its poor features include:
- Washed-out images
- Inconsistent typography and colors
- Untidy layout
These features do not reflect the high-end kitchen appliances it offers.
33. Viking
Viking’s website has an inconsistent art direction. Its big, ugly website banner ads and cluttered layout make it visually unappealing. Its limited animation and overwhelming navigation further detract from the experience.
34. Bosch
Bosch’s website lacks basic art direction and animation. Moreover, its stock photography does not showcase the company’s innovative products. Its overwhelming navigation and poor use of white space further hinder usability.
35. Chislehurst Caves
This big, ugly exploration website has an outdated and cluttered design. Its excessive text also makes it difficult to navigate. Its lack of interactive elements further detracts from the experience.
36. TFM Superstore
This e-commerce website has a cluttered layout. Its outdated design makes it difficult to find desired products. It also has slow loading times, likely due to extensive content.
37. Prestige Midlands Ltd.
The Prestige Midlands website has a messy layout. Its outdated design, low-quality images, and inconsistent fonts make it appear unprofessional. Crucial information buried in the text further hinders usability.
38. Suzanne Collins’ Books Website
Suzanne Collins’ Books website, dedicated to the renowned author, ironically suffers from several design flaws. It requires zooming to read. Other flaws include:
- Content moves off the screen when zoomed back
- Book covers are unclickable
- The “Works” section has a poor design
- Store links are inefficient
39. Bavarian Brauhaus Website
Bavarian Brauhaus’s website looks like an ’80s street wall, with a brick background and no parallax effect. It barely attracts potential clients with its poor features, like:
- Boring graphics
- Poor website navigation
- Dull visuals
Tips to Avoid a Website Design Disaster
By now, you have a good idea of what bad website examples look like. With this in mind, let’s explore varying strategies you should apply when creating a website. Your website shouldn’t just look good. It should also function effectively.
1. Prioritize User Experience (UX)
Keep the user in mind when designing your website. Put yourself in their shoes and think about what they need. Make the site easy to navigate and ensure your calls to action are clear. Keep the information flowing logically. A user-friendly website encourages visitors to stay longer. Your users should also explore further and, with time, convert into customers.
- Navigation: Can users easily find what they’re looking for? Is your menu structure clear and intuitive? Install breadcrumbs and a search bar to aid navigation.
- Calls to Action (CTAs): Are your CTAs prominent and persuasive? Use clear verbs and compelling language to encourage desired actions, e.g., “Shop Now,” “Learn More.” Your contact details should be accessible too.
- Visual Hierarchy: Guide users’ eyes through the page with effective use of headings. You can also use subheadings, bullet points, and whitespace. Focus on important information and make it stand out.
2. Optimize for Speed
Website speed is crucial for both user experience and SEO. No one wants to wait for a slow website to load, and search engines penalize sites with poor performance.
You can optimize your images by compressing them. You can also leverage browser caching to store website data locally on the user’s mobile device. This reduces load times on later visits.
Choose the best web hosting service that can handle your website traffic. It should also provide fast loading times.
- Tools: You can use tools like Google PageSpeed Insights for your website. This tool will analyze your website’s speed and identify areas for improvement.
- Content Delivery Network (CDN): Consider using a CDN to distribute your website content. Sharing it across many servers will reduce loading times for users.
3. Embrace Mobile Responsiveness
In today’s mobile-first world, your website should work smoothly on any screen size. Use a responsive design to keep the experience smooth and consistent. It should work well on all devices, from phones and tablets to desktops.
- Mobile-First Indexing: Google ranks websites using this strategy. It relies on the mobile version of your site for indexing and ranking. Optimize your mobile site and ensure it reflects your desktop site.
- Testing: Regularly test your website on different devices. This test will ensure it displays well and smoothly across all screen sizes.
4. Craft Compelling Content
Content matters, but only when it’s clear, useful, and engaging. Invest in quality copy that connects with your audience. You can achieve this by:
- Use clear, concise writing.
- Break up long paragraphs with headings.
- Add visuals to make it easier to read.
To create compelling content, use:
- Keywords: Research relevant keywords and incorporate them into your content. Try to keep the keywords’ incorporation natural. This strategy will improve your website’s search engine rankings.
- Originality: Avoid duplicate content and create original, valuable content. This content should address your audience’s needs and interests.
5. Ensure Accessibility
You also need good accessibility to keep your website relevant to all users. Design your website so it is accessible to all your users, even those with disabilities. Some other useful tips include:
- Use alt text for images. This will provide context for screen readers.
- Avoid poor color contrast for users with visual impairments.
- Follow accessibility guidelines like WCAG (Web Content Accessibility Guidelines).
Here are other accessibility tools:
- ARIA attributes: This tool provides more information about website elements to assistive technologies.
- Keyboard Navigation: Make sure users can navigate your site with only a keyboard.
6. Maintain Consistency
It’s essential to maintain consistency in your design elements. These elements include fonts, colors, and branding.
With this consistency, you can create a cohesive and professional look on your site. Try to avoid inconsistencies that can distract site visitors. With a clear style guide, you can maintain consistency on your website.
- Branding: Use consistent branding elements to strengthen your brand identity, such as:
- Your logo
- Color palette
- Typography
- User Interface (UI): Maintain consistency in UI elements, such as:
- Buttons
- Forms
- Icons
7. Use White Space Effectively
Don’t overcrowd your website with elements. You can use white space to adjust your site design. This white space will give your main page breathing room. It will also guide the user to relevant data.
- Margins and Padding: Use margins and padding to create space between elements. You can also use it to improve your site’s visual hierarchy.
- Layout: Choose a layout that balances content and white space effectively.
8. Test Thoroughly
It’s important to test your site on different devices. You need to perform this test before launching your website. With this test, you can discover and fix any bugs or bad usability issues.
- Cross-browser compatibility: Ensure your website displays correctly. It should also function properly on all major web browsers (e.g., Chrome, Firefox, Safari, Edge).
- Usability testing: Conduct user testing to gather feedback on your website’s design. This user testing will help you identify issues.
Want to avoid losing visitors to a broken layout? Learn how to check browser compatibility and make sure your site works everywhere.
9. Seek Professional Help
Unless you are an expert, don’t try to design your website yourself. You can hire a professional web designer to handle that aspect of your website building.
They have more knowledge about the best and current practices. Moreover, they can give you a quality design that fits your business style.
- Portfolio: Review the web designer’s portfolio to assess their style and experience.
- Communication: Choose a web designer who understands your needs and goals.
10. Stay Updated
As the digital world evolves, you should, too. Keep up with web design trends to keep your website relevant. You can also perform consistent website maintenance to ensure its smooth running.
- Content Management System (CMS): Choose a CMS that is up-to-date. It should also offer new features and security updates.
- Analytics: Track your web page analytics to check user behavior.
Conclusion
A bad website can hurt your online business. Learn from others’ mistakes and use these tips to create a site that draws visitors and builds trust. Remember, good web design represents a smart investment in your business’s future.
Need to create a unique portfolio website to showcase your services or skills? Check out our curated list of creative portfolio website examples.
Next Steps: What Now?
Ready to enhance your website’s design? Start by:
- Identify speed, layout, and navigation problems.
- Optimize images and ensure mobile compatibility.
- Choose clean, responsive, and user-friendly layouts.
- Select one of the best hosting service providers.
Further Reading & Useful Resources
Refine your web design skills with these insights:
- Web Design vs Graphic Design: Compare these fields to see their roles in website creation.
- UX vs. UI Design: Differentiate user-friendly experience from the user interface for better design.
- Choosing Colors for Websites: Select colors that enhance usability and appeal.
- How to Make a Website Faster: Explore proven techniques to boost your site’s loading speed and performance.
- 25 Essential Tips For Building a Website: Follow this checklist to avoid common pitfalls and create a polished, user-friendly site.
- How to Make a Website Look Professional: Get actionable advice on layout, fonts, imagery, and structure to make your site look credible and trustworthy.
- CMS vs. Website Builder: Understand the pros and cons of content management systems vs. drag-and-drop builders to choose the best option for your website needs.
