Article by Martin Hofschroer

Bad web design can result in a lack of online visitors but horrible web design can lead to nightmares.

Whilst searching for the latest web design news I stumbled across the most stressful slideshow of “website horrors” on the technology page of the Telegraph site, which I confess was deeply disturbing.

The publication produced nine examples of the worst sites on the web including some of the least navigable and comprehendible homepages I have ever witnessed.

Telegraph journalist Hunter Skipworth said: “It was no easy task creating that slideshow, sifting through the internet to filter out the absolute best of the worst.”

I am deeply impressed with Mr Skipworth as I could barely sit through the exhibition of confusing content, flash overuse and downright design incompetence without reaching for the strong stuff.

My personal favourite, however, was the Ski Utah Rentals site, a textbook example of how not to approach web design as it was stuffed full of broken links and nauseating graphics.

Meanwhile on the subject of unattractive website it appears that ugly people no longer have to Photoshop their internet images in order to find romance after a new dating website for the unattractive was launched.

TheUglyBugBall.co.uk is apparently the world’s first dating site for the “aesthetically challenged” and has been created by multimillionaire entrepreneur Howard James from Mayfair.

Mr James seems to have made the site in response to Beautifulpeople.com, which is an exclusive dating website for those who are more likely to be easy on the eye.

Some ‘facts’ on the UglyBugBall homepage include such chestnuts as 50 per cent of British daters are ugly and the benefit of dating an unattractive person is a Family Bucket will usually do the trick for the first date.

“Just because they don’t look like Kate Moss or Cheryl Cole doesn’t mean they don’t have a lot of love to give and we’re scooping up these people and offering them a glimmer of hope,” Mr James told the Sun newspaper.

Unfortunately the site’s web design is as unappealing as some of UglyBugBall’s members and is unlikely to win any awards.

British businesses may want to invest in beautiful web design because the nation’s consumers are spending more time online than ever before.

Research by independent regulator Ofcom revealed that time spent surfing the internet has increased by over two-thirds since 2008 and adults are now spending an average of 14.2 hours per month on the web.