Although it can be a very useful tool, Flash has become one of the most abused tools for a great many website designs. Many Flash designers, both amateur and “professional,” have a tendency to create designs that detract from the website’s message. Flash also can make a website difficult to load, impossible to view via mobile phones, and SEO incompatible. That said, here are some of the worst Flash websites available. Maybe by viewing them, you can avoid the same pitfalls that led these websites to be on this list.

1.) Evangel Cathedral
One of the worst Flash-based websites ever designed, this site not only has too much scrolling but also a background voice and music that is irritatingly shocking when the page loads. One good point: the sound can be turned off by clicking on an almost unnoticeable button at the bottom of the page.

 

2.) Cherokee Rose Border Collies
Remember those ecards that contain cheesy music? That’s exactly what you get to listen to when visiting this page with no way to turn it off. The home page scrolls on and on, but worse than the length is the fact that it contains nothing of substance - just endless flash animation and ads.

 

3.) MONO Crafts
Besides the fact that this company sounds like a disease, their website begins fairly well. Unfortunately, like so many bad Flash designs, you have to click to enter the site. Fortunately, the entrance page is rather intriguing and simple. Once inside, though, the scrolling menu becomes confusing since moving the mouse causes the menu to enlarge or shrink, scroll to the left or the right.

 

4.) VF Designer
This website contains one of the most obnoxious backgrounds ever, and even worse, you have to click on a flashing button to get to the real homepage. But maybe the homepage makes up for the splashpage. In fact, with no images except for three links and only a couple of scrolling messages, the homepage seems almost the complete opposite of the splashpage in complexity.

 

5.) Mia
More horrible flashing and a collage design makes navigating through this website completely impossible. Apparently, each of the pictures in the collage are page links. You don’t want to click on them. Each one is nearly as bad as the home page.

 

6.) My Complete Health
Triumphant music, a long introduction, repeats - more like an annoying DVD intro than a website. And what are the sound effects for? The scrolling menu makes viewing the page links nearly impossible, and to top it all off, there is a link for a repeat of the introduction!

 

7.) Accept Jesus, Forever Forgiven
This webpage seems to be a psychadelic approach to this message. With such a dizzying background of movement and color, the message is unreadable. And what’s the point of the cat running along the bottom of the page?

 

8.) Brill Publications
Apparently, visitors are supposed to click on one of the elevator lift options on the right of the elevator, but it takes awhile to figure out that one of the buttons skips all of the elevator ride details and goes right the pages. And why are there two “now leasing” links? And what’s up with the pointless Flash pages that are simply a picture and music? It’s so confusing that every page link (floor on the lift) has to have an explanation before you enter the page…er, floor.

 

9.) Leo Burnett
If the pencil drawing on the white background doesn’t confuse you, then the page links will. And what exactly is the point of this website? Who is the company? Why the list of famous brand names that you can’t click on when you hover the pencil (mouse) over the “Feeling Lost?” button?

 

10.) FabricLand

Someone is actually still using scroll windows, colored boxes and text, and scrolling words. There are so many boxes of text, that you won’t know where to start. And if you click on the “home” link at the bottom of the page, you get three scroll bars instead of two!

 

11.) Billy Connolly
This site should win an award for the most clicks necessary to finally get to the actual home page. And each intro page is so distracting with dragonflies to chase and unknown page links that visitors may never find the main home page.

 

12.) Fuzzy Martian’s Lair
Talk about a pissed off web designer. Once you force your eyes to read the almost invisible text on such a loud background, you’ll see the message about a purposed design and no one forcing you to view this website. I have a feeling the “forcing” is the only way that this website will get read, unless someone actually wants to remain long enough to get a royal headache.

 

13.) Just Like Sugar
The only way to skip this distracting into is to somehow look past the flashing objects and ignore the annoying song. Unfortunately, there is no escaping the noise, since immediately a voice starts talking and an instrumental piece starts playing when the home page loads. Even worse, the voice begins again each time you revisit the home page. All of the links have the same icon and tiny words, so getting to the right page is a chore.

 

14.) The World’s Worst Website
This website tops them all off. It was created with the idea to educate on what not to do when designing a Flash based site. The only problem is that it succeeds and none of the information is readable. Plus, the repeat music is annoying enough to drive someone insane before they learn anything from the boxes and boxes of text lining the page. This page should come with a warning: “Don’t try this at home, kids.”