Is this the worst business website in the world? (Note: link removed as site has been changed and is now much better… and I was feeling bad that they were ranking number 1 for the term “worst business website”! It is now quite a nice website password protected a bit jumbled but looking better).

It’s pretty shocking for a company that offers “IT support”, “IT Training” and “Multimedia Connectivity” among it’s services. Check out the scrolling marquee and visitor counter - retro! And Adwords on a business site? Aren’t you supposed to promote your own products and services on your site?

Best of all is the “fun section” (the link to which doesn’t appear to work on the homepage). I mean, when I’m looking for an “IT Support and Multimedia Connectivity” service, I always find it a bonus to be able to tune into some reggae music and watch an Eminem video or two. Well, I might. If any of it worked.

Now that I’m bored of the broken “fun section” (which was far less fun than the link suggested) I want to check out another page. But oh look, the navigation has disappeared and been replaced by a picture of Biggie Smalls. Who else? Where am I supposed to click now? After scanning the page for a moment I’ve located the nearly invisible “home” button on the top left.

Now what to do? I mean, I came here looking for IT Support, but maybe I want to check out the BBC News and Sport beforehand? Well, conveniently, they’ve placed a link to the BBC news RSS feed right there on the site, so lets forget about IT training for a while and go check the footie scores. Of course, those cats a Qasys are a clever bunch… they’ve made it so that you can see all the headlines without even leaving their site. But what if I click on a particularly grabbing headling (”Sacked chimney sweep pumps boss full of mayonaisse“, perhaps)? Oh look, I’m now on the BBC News site. Great.

And it continues… if you’re a bit too geeky to be distracted by the BBC News and Sports, then how about the CNET downloads or software reviews? Perhaps you’re strictly here on business, so how about some useless information on stock quotes and small business news? Maybe you just want something a little bit more lighthearted, like a brain teaser of horoscope? It seems whatever you’re into, theres a link on this site designed to distract you from the site itself. Perhaps that’s the point?

But lets just say that, somehow, I’ve managed to stay focussed and stay on the site. I manage to find the top navigation buttons and click through to, say, IT training. The content tells me virtually nothing, but that’s okay because it’s surrounded by stock photography of grinning customers and the ubiquitous “call centre girl with headset”, ‘cos that’s what makes people buy stuff online, innit?!

Loading this site in Internet Explorer pretty bad as it is, but wait ’til you’ve tried it in Firefox. Owww, my eyes!

I’ve always said that a business website is effectively an online brochure, and that you should put as much consideration into it’s layout or content as you would an actual brochure or leaflet that you’d hand out to prospective clients. To make a site that looks and works as badly as http://www.qasys.co.uk/, you may as go to your next expo handing out used tissues, stapled together with “Qasy’s Brochure” written on each sheet.

So come on people, can you find a worse, legitimate business website? I’m not talking about some amatuer home-made personal Frontpage site. I want to see more god-awful sites that are actively used to promote a product, service or shop. Go team!

UPDATE 06/03/08: After a redesign, the site is now password protected… will be interesting to see what they come up with.

UPDATE 26/03/08: Well this backfired.