# Website redesigns that make things worse **URL:** \ **Category:** Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share\ **Created:** [March 5, 2012, 8:33am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/website-redesigns-that-make-things-worse/614800 "2012-03-05T08:33:14Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 10\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![SciFiSam](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/47e85d/32.png) [@SciFiSam](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SciFiSam)\ **Post date:** [March 8, 2012, 4:22am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/website-redesigns-that-make-things-worse/614800/21 "2012-03-08T04:22:05Z")
A couple of years ago, the BBC was briefly possessed by a retro designer who thought that everything should be in A4 format in very small type even on a big screen as if it were one of those ancient newspapers which all look like small ads - but with colour pictures. After about a week they changed to something similar to the current format (which has changed again since). > [@chappachula](#): > > for fun: an almost relevant link > with the perfectly appropriate name: [www.WebsitesThatSuck.com](http://www.WebsitesThatSuck.com) It was kinda hard to tell the difference between the websites they said sucked and the websites they had on ads, right under their own articles. > [@ZipperJJ](#): > > The problem with that is that menus are not static documents, but HTML is not usually a skill of the restauranteur. But it’s very easy for them to make a new PDF and upload it over the old PDF as their menu changes instead of paying someone to update the HTML with the changes. It’s also more timely - even if you can afford it, can the Web guy get around to doing it before the menu differences cause a problem? > > Having an easily-updated menu online as part of a CMS is nice if the restaurant can afford it, but most can’t. Or won’t. > > So don’t begrudge the restaurant owners their PDF menus. Be glad their is a Web site and a menu at all and not just an entry on Yelp. Um. I’ve done that. My thirteen-year-old can and has done that. We’ve just kinda read around and asked for help and (in my case) thought that something people could actually use was worth the extra ten hours’ effort - I have never studied or worked in IT at all, but I made a website where people with an admin login can input a few words. TBF, it’d be outdated now because it was all CSS, but at least it would still work if the company had kept up their domain registration. ---
**Author:** ![gaffa](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/e68b1a/32.png) [@gaffa](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/gaffa)\ **Post date:** [March 8, 2012, 5:01am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/website-redesigns-that-make-things-worse/614800/22 "2012-03-08T05:01:20Z")
IMDB has been ruined, their movie showtimes especially. Some cretin decided that listing the theater, names of movies playing and the times of each showing just wasn’t slick enough. No, they decided that every single movie in every single theater had to have a huge copy of the movie poster beside it! [Here is my earlier rant on the topic.](http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?t=607322) Since then, they have brought back my custom list, but it is still pretty much useless. I’ve switched over to Google’s movie listings. ---
**Author:** ![Joey\_P](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/919ad9/32.png) [@Joey\_P](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Joey_P)\ **Post date:** [March 8, 2012, 5:19am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/website-redesigns-that-make-things-worse/614800/23 "2012-03-08T05:19:22Z")
[Obligatory XKCD](http://xkcd.com/773/) There’s a tech school in town that I’ll occasionally take a class at or at least look at the class schedule and pretend like I’m going to take a class at. Problem is, the schedule is buried like 4 pages deep on their site. On top of that it’s clearly handled by another system so when you do finally find it the style of the site changes and everything you were used to from looking for it is gone. ---
**Author:** ![Gukumatz](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/74df32/32.png) [@Gukumatz](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Gukumatz)\ **Post date:** [March 8, 2012, 8:03am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/website-redesigns-that-make-things-worse/614800/24 "2012-03-08T08:03:53Z")
Obligatory [The Oatmeal](http://theoatmeal.com/comics/design_hell) comic. (To whichever Doper once pointed me to that site - I adore you.) ---
**Author:** ![GuanoLad](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/guanolad/32/42_2.png) [@GuanoLad](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/GuanoLad)\ **Post date:** [March 8, 2012, 8:45am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/website-redesigns-that-make-things-worse/614800/25 "2012-03-08T08:45:59Z")
> [@kushiel](#): > > I dunno about that, most clients’ eyes glaze over when mentioning FTP. FTP a PDF? OMG! WTF? ---
**Author:** ![Yorikke](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/yorikke/32/4335_2.png) [@Yorikke](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Yorikke)\ **Post date:** [March 8, 2012, 9:23am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/website-redesigns-that-make-things-worse/614800/26 "2012-03-08T09:23:08Z")
> [@Gukumatz](#): > > Obligatory [The Oatmeal](http://theoatmeal.com/comics/design_hell) comic. > > (To whichever Doper once pointed me to that site - I adore you.) Hey, thanks - that site’s a lot of fun! Joe ---
**Author:** ![Troy\_McClure\_SF](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/troy_mcclure_sf/32/4150_2.png) [@Troy\_McClure\_SF](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Troy_McClure_SF)\ **Post date:** [March 8, 2012, 6:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/website-redesigns-that-make-things-worse/614800/27 "2012-03-08T18:23:45Z")
> [@tdn](#): > > Eh, those are still better than most restaurant websites. No kidding. This is among my favorites: [http://www.oldjerusalemsf.com/](http://www.oldjerusalemsf.com/) [QUOTE=ZipperJJ] The problem with that is that menus are not static documents, but HTML is not usually a skill of the restauranteur. But it’s very easy for them to make a new PDF and upload it over the old PDF as their menu changes instead of paying someone to update the HTML with the changes. It’s also more timely - even if you can afford it, can the Web guy get around to doing it before the menu differences cause a problem? Having an easily-updated menu online as part of a CMS is nice if the restaurant can afford it, but most can’t. Or won’t. So don’t begrudge the restaurant owners their PDF menus. Be glad their is a Web site and a menu at all and not just an entry on Yelp. [/QUOTE] Bull. Have someone set up a Google Spreadsheet once, then set up an embed on the website and a document template to print it out. Twenty seconds work a day, if that. ---
**Author:** ![Rhythmdvl](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/85f322/32.png) [@Rhythmdvl](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Rhythmdvl)\ **Post date:** [March 8, 2012, 7:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/website-redesigns-that-make-things-worse/614800/28 "2012-03-08T19:17:58Z")
All these mentions of Google yet no one has complained about Google itself? From a nice, clean interface that worked perfectly to an animated disaster. The splitting it into three vertical panes is enough to damn their designers to Geopages. In short: fuck the new Google. ---
**Author:** ![Reply](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/reply/32/15952_2.png) [@Reply](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Reply)\ **Post date:** [March 8, 2012, 8:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/website-redesigns-that-make-things-worse/614800/29 "2012-03-08T20:28:24Z")
> [@Rhythmdvl](#): > > All these mentions of Google yet no one has complained about Google itself? From a nice, clean interface that worked perfectly to an animated disaster. The splitting it into three vertical panes is enough to damn their designers to Geopages. > > In short: fuck the new Google. What are you talking about? If you’re stuck in iGoogle, their personalized homepage, just go to the upper right, click the gear icon, and choose “Classic Home”. Or do you mean some other change? ---
**Author:** ![Rhythmdvl](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/85f322/32.png) [@Rhythmdvl](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Rhythmdvl)\ **Post date:** [March 8, 2012, 8:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/website-redesigns-that-make-things-worse/614800/30 "2012-03-08T20:43:23Z")
I’m not seeing the option. My biggest complaint is in the Website preview. I have no idea who uses that or what good it will do me. It takes up the rightmost column and pops up pictures of the target site when I accidentally hover over the trigger. I can get rid of them one at a time, but can’t find how to turn the whole system off without breaking all sorts of other Google content. I want to return to a clean, text-only layout where space is used to efficiently convey as much text and information as possible. I don’t give a shit about pretty Flash or Javascript. [/curmudgeonly] [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/website-redesigns-that-make-things-worse/614800.md?page=1)