El 4: 12 inspired 404 pages that make falling into a hole fun

Posted 18 March 2013 13:22pm by Chris Lake with 3 comments

From time to time I like to compile some of the the more recent examples of 404 pages that I've seen, which stand out for their creativity. Here's my latest semi-regular round-up of the web's more entertaining error pages.

It's worth pointing out in advance that not all of the following comply with best practice. If a user can't find a page (typically the result of a broken link, which isn't their fault, or a mis-typed URL, which is) then it is your job to guide them out of a hole.

In practice, this means a link back to your homepage at the very least, and preferably a search box, links to popular areas of your site, and some kind of messaging that tells the user what's going on.

On top of that I think it is a good idea to throw in a little humour, context, and / or entertainment that makes light of a lame situation. To that end, these 12 examples should provide some inspiration for you to overhaul an often overlooked page on your site.

Your users may thank you for it. And hey, you might generate a few new inbound links from websites that like to compile these things!

Romain Brasier

Everybody of a certain age loved to play Lemmings, which is the interactive backdrop to this 404 page. You can 'save' the falling lemmings by hovering your mouse over them, to provide them with a parachute.