When faced with coming up with new site ideas or designs, it can help to look at examples of brilliant design. When examining the specifics of a Google map interface, or how Apple designs its sales pages, you know that teams of the brightest minds have worked to compile some of the best content available today.
"There, but for the grace of God, go I" - John Bradford
There are times when bending to the extreme can be just as helpful, and this is where the fine people at webpagesthatsuck.com leap to the rescue!
I came across this site while taking a lynda.com course from Sue Jenkins, and it continues to provide both laughs and lessons.
Vincent Flanders compiles a list of laughably bad websites and while mockery on the internet is nothing new, the author actually includes a clear explanation of the errors being made and why to avoid them.
An example is this review of the gif-laden interpretation of the afterlife. Perhaps this was meant to be an artistic piece and not entirely an educational web page, but the lessons to be learned here are substantial. Apart from the obvious (avoid flashy graphics that could cause seizures) are subtler lessons about not taking away the users ability to scroll under any circumstance and to include some navigation so they can derive context from your content.
Of course, part of the fun is in gawking at the painful mistakes of others, though the opportunity to do so while actually learning something about design is worthwhile.
