How to NOT design a web page

DavidTO · September 28, 2005

Unfortunately, the awesome school that my children go to has one of the most unfortunate web pages I have ever seen. Just try and find something on it.

I'd love to find a way for them to make it better, but I also don't want to just mosey into the school and tell them what they're doing wrong.

Colina Middle School

W.W. Webster · September 28, 2005

DavidTO wrote:

Unfortunately, the awesome school that my children go to has one of the most unfortunate web pages I have ever seen. Just try and find something on it.

I'd love to find a way for them to make it better, but I also don't want to just mosey into the school and tell them what they're doing wrong.

Colina Middle School

You're right - web pages don't get much worse than this. It's a shocker!

From a look at the home page, I'd bin the whole thing and start again, and keep the 'designer' of this monstrosity in solitary confinement throughout the process. But if you've absolutely got to work with what you've got, I'd get rid of all the animation, chuck the ticker, eliminate the slideshow, seriously cull the spurious volume of content on the home page, and completely replace that crass colour-scheme!

dragon300zx · September 28, 2005

Don't mosey in and tell them they did it wrong.

Burst in and tell them their design is antiquated, wretched, revolting, and blech. That they should fire their web designer, and find someone with a clue.

Ok now that I go tthat out of my system. Who designed that thing? It's really bad.

DavidTO · September 28, 2005

dragon300zx wrote:

Who designed that thing? It's really bad.

My kids' counselor. See? Diplomacy required.

dragon300zx · September 28, 2005

DavidTO wrote:

My kids' counselor. See? Diplomacy required.

Forget dipolmacy I'd get the kid transferred to a new counselor before this artistically handicapped individual does serious harm to your child.

colourbox · September 28, 2005

Unfortunately, the awesome school that my children go to has one of the most unfortunate web pages I have ever seen.

GAAAhhh.!..my eyes...my EYES!!! :cry

photodoug · September 28, 2005

dragon300zx wrote:

Don't mosey in and tell them they did it wrong.

Burst in and tell them their design is antiquated, wretched, revolting, and blech. That they should fire their web designer, and find someone with a clue.

Ok now that I go tthat out of my system. Who designed that thing? It's really bad.

if you say A N Y T H I N G....it'll be Y O U R J O B. Don't do it.

Sam · September 28, 2005

DavidTO wrote:

My kids' counselor. See? Diplomacy required.

They have 12 year old counelors?????

Sam

behr655 · September 28, 2005

Jeeze.....go easy on them. Maybe the kids designed it. It looks that way anyhow.

Bear

Andy · September 28, 2005

it looks like it was done by me, after a long night of ribs at virgil's. and the ribs won.

devbobo · September 28, 2005

andy wrote:

it looks like it was done by me, after a long night of ribs at virgil's. and the ribs won.

forwarded to DavidTO

devbobo · September 28, 2005

Hmmmm....looks like some software companies' attitude to development. Why redesign something when I can squeeze something in or bolt it on the side.

Sad but all too true.

David

DavidTO · September 29, 2005

andy wrote:

it looks like it was done by me, after a long night of ribs at virgil's. and the ribs won.

Well, it could be that Andy's trying now to get more humor on his Random Quote Generator...but I'll take what I can get.

Maybe I should change the name? At work we used to have the Wall of Shame for the stupid things people said. Any suggestions?

gus · September 29, 2005

Reminds me of that home page Homer Simpson did.

gluwater · September 29, 2005

Humungus wrote:

Reminds me of that home page Homer Simpson did.

Bwahahahaaaahhaaa

That whole page looks like a pop up ad.

rahmonster · September 29, 2005

It surely is bad. But I have seen worse. If you don't beleive me check out this

gus · September 29, 2005

rahmonster wrote:

It surely is bad. But I have seen worse. If you don't beleive me check out this

what are you reading woman to know about that site ?

rahmonster · September 29, 2005

Humungus wrote:

what are you reading woman to know about that site ?

Erm...Im a fish breeder....

Well I try to be its a hobby. Keeping fish is my other really expensive hobby.

gus · September 29, 2005

Well now that your laundry is out in public...i track & watch satellites.

There i said it !

I feel somewhat... grubby.

rahmonster · September 29, 2005

Humungus wrote:

Well now that your laundry is out in public...i track & watch satellites.

There i said it !

I feel somewhat... grubby.

rofl

you are too funny.

you asked me how i knew that site as if it had dirty things on it

I double checked 3 times I put the right hyperlink in

gus · September 29, 2005

rahmonster wrote:

rofl
you are too funny.

you asked me how i knew that site as if it had dirty things on it I double checked 3 times I put the right hyperlink in

Fooling with peoples minds is my specialty...you passed.

Storms predicted this week-end 'eh.

rahmonster · September 29, 2005

Humungus wrote:

Fooling with peoples minds is my specialty...you passed. Storms predicted this week-end 'eh.

suuupahhh. I'm hoping for some nice ones of the ocean while we are at wooli. Not really so I can take pictures I don't reallt have right gear for it. Just because I am a nut and I love watching them.

I'm sure i've seen a worse website somewhere but i cant remember it.

gus · September 29, 2005

What camera have you got again ?

If it has a manual setting then it can do storms.

rahmonster · September 29, 2005

Humungus wrote:

What camera have you got again ?

If it has a manual setting then it can do storms.

Its a fuji s5500. Max shutter speed is 3 seconds.

Richard · September 29, 2005

DavidTO wrote:

Unfortunately, the awesome school that my children go to has one of the most unfortunate web pages I have ever seen. Just try and find something on it.

I'd love to find a way for them to make it better, but I also don't want to just mosey into the school and tell them what they're doing wrong.

Colina Middle School

I read the above posts before looking at the site and thought, it can't be all that bad. But then I looked at the site. :puke

The only good thing I can say about it is that it finally gave me a good excuse to use the South Park smiley.

You are in a delicate position, it seems. I gather you don't want to take over the site yourself. Perhaps the most diplomatic approach would be to look for some examples of better designed sites from other schools in your area. I'm guessing that should be easy enough to find.

Then send the designer an email with links to the other sites and briefly explain why simpler is better. And let it go at that. After all, it really isn't all that important, is it?

Cheers,

gus · September 29, 2005

rahmonster wrote:

Its a fuji s5500. Max shutter speed is 3 seconds.

It goes down to f/8...put it on that & see how long the shutter stays open.

Try it outside in the dark & practice a bit before a storm.

Dee · September 29, 2005

School pages

rsinmadrid wrote:

I read the above posts before looking at the site and thought, it can't be all that bad. But then I looked at the site. :puke

The only good thing I can say about it is that it finally gave me a good excuse to use the South Park smiley.

You are in a delicate position, it seems. I gather you don't want to take over the site yourself. Perhaps the most diplomatic approach would be to look for some examples of better designed sites from other schools in your area. I'm guessing that should be easy enough to find. Then send the designer an email with links to the other sites and briefly explain why simpler is better. And let it go at that. After all, it really isn't all that important, is it?

Cheers,

Think of the poor counselor who got kind of forced into doing this job and has to please everyone who wants "their" item on the front page. In fact there are no other pages at all and that's the problem! The person may not know how to add a second or third page.

What is the "approved" software the person is allowed to use, does anyone else update the page?

There can be a lot of school politics surrounding the web page that the counselor can't work around -- maybe an outsider could have an effect.

Showing local schools' pages might have some good purpose (if they are any good, that is).

My daughter's preschool website is also one big mess, primarily because it's not updated -- all parent volunteer.

So before you criticize this counselor, find the story behind the webpage first.

BTW I thought it was neat they have "bees" other than spelling!

DavidTO · September 29, 2005

Dee wrote:

Think of the poor counselor who got kind of forced into doing this job and has to please everyone who wants "their" item on the front page. In fact there are no other pages at all and that's the problem! The person may not know how to add a second or third page.

What is the "approved" software the person is allowed to use, does anyone else update the page?

There can be a lot of school politics surrounding the web page that the counselor can't work around -- maybe an outsider could have an effect.

Showing local schools' pages might have some good purpose (if they are any good, that is).

My daughter's preschool website is also one big mess, primarily because it's not updated -- all parent volunteer.

So before you criticize this counselor, find the story behind the webpage first.

BTW I thought it was neat they have "bees" other than spelling!

This guy is very enthusiastic and full of energy. He's a great asset to the school. Very nerdly, too. Makes him kind of funny, all that nerdly enthusiasm. I'd like to help, but also understand that it takes diplomacy (dragon300zx).

David_S85 · September 29, 2005

The last time I saw that many animated GIF's on one page, it was on a site that only offered animated GIF's.

There should be a setting in my browser to disable those things, right?

Even so, that's a mess of a website.

ian408 · September 29, 2005

colourbox wrote:

GAAAhhh.!..my eyes...my EYES!!! :cry

Can I have some tone to go with those bars

Ian

dragon300zx · September 29, 2005

DavidTO wrote:

This guy is very enthusiastic and full of energy. He's a great asset to the school. Very nerdly, too. Makes him kind of funny, all that nerdly enthusiasm. I'd like to help, but also understand that it takes diplomacy (dragon300zx).

David,

I promise you no one has ever accused me of being a dipolmat.

However you sould setup a un-named email account. And send some of our comments to him along with some suggestions for improvement. That way you can be blunt and not have to worry about reprocussions.

How to NOT design a web page

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