Were they even thinking?

There's good design. There's bad design. Then there's the "holy crap! what the hell were they thinking?" kind.

Listed on netdiver's Best of the Year 2004 page, AmoebaCorp: Graphic Design and Visual Communications Company in Toronto. I only clicked on their listing because I've always liked the name. Say it with me, "amoeba"..."amoeba"..."a-m-o-e-b-a-a-a-a"... ok! Moving on...

Unique, innovative, stellar concept and craftmanship - is not how I would categorize them. I've never encountered a website with such a frustrating and pointless site-wide navigation system. You'll probably check it out now. It will resize and reposition your web browser window. That might annoy you. After making a silly decision on their splash screen - you choose the Flash option (yes, Flash 7) because it's more prominent and "rock and roll" - it will launch in a popup window. That might annoy you. The popup window might be blocked by your browser. That will annoy you.

So you're finally in the site? Great - let's play a game!
Before we start, I suggest you disable the sound in the top right corner by clicking on the N. It doesn't really disable the sound, it just gets rid of the music. I guarantee, after the novelty of those bleeps and distorted frog croaks wears off, it will drive you insane.

+10 points if you can figure out how the navigation works; -10 points if you develop a headache trying. +10 points if you can navigate to the "contact" page on first attempt; -10 points if you land up somewhere else or get stuck in some other section for over a minute.

In retrospect, this example is probably better classified as a "were they even thinking?" kind of design.