404 Error Pages for Your Viewing Pleasure
No one likes seeing the dreaded error page on a website. It usually occurs when a link is bad. Error pages, also known by their street name as 404 pages, are depressing. They make you feel sad and confused and angry at the web designer. Perhaps all of this is irrational, but it happens. As a way to defuse any ill feelings, many web designers came up with a simple yet smart solution– customizing a 404 error page. As simple as it may seem, a customized error page will make a visitor feel like you care about their user experience on your website.
Error pages are easy to create, so there’s no excuse to avoid them. Even with the most solid website, you never know when someone might mis-spell a URL link and hit a page that doesn’t exist. Be prepared when that happens to you, even if by no fault of your own. Let these great error pages be your inspiration to creating your own.
Do you know of any cool 404 pages we’re missing?
About the Author
Jacqueline is an artist and a writer who spends an inordinate amount of time playing Super Nintendo and watching Star Trek. You can find out more about Jacqueline on her website, and follow her updates on Twitter.
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50 comments
Oleg
October 14, 2009Coll list! Take a Look at My Personal 4o4 Error Page:
http://www.xtraboy.com/404.php
Daniel Long
October 14, 2009There are some really good ways to show an error 404 page int his collection. They are all very inspiring and have a massive impact. Some of the pages are almost too good, that you would want to accidentally stumble across them so you can view them. Definetly something to take into consideration when making a 404 page…
Dave
October 14, 2009I Love this Collection. And this is my ERROR 404 Page
http://www.jazzdrummerworld.com/404.php
for Drummer
!!
Stuart Holmes
October 14, 2009Some good and amusing examples here, I am currently trying to change my employers 404 page to something more meaningful than ‘Page not found’, so I will show them this!
Here is one of my 404 pages; http://trubru.co.uk/404
Sathish Sampath
October 14, 2009Hi,
Excellent collection. Few things are really inspiring. Came in a real good time, when i revamp my site. May be i should also put something like this to hold the people hitting broken links
Thanks a lot
sathish sampath
stronglook
October 14, 2009I dont know where you’d find it, but Playmobil used to have the Mexican kid in Devil Halloween fancy dress as theirs (apparently!)
http://www.millionaireplayboy.com/mpb/wp-content/gallery/7playmobil/newdevil.jpg
Adrian
October 14, 2009Nice list, but smashing mag already has most of these listed.
Checkout mine http://www.blogfullbliss.com/404
BleedingSweat
October 14, 2009Did anyone else notice the Goatse 404? I almost fell out of my friggen chair!! Nothing like hiding some sicko pr0n in your typography. Now THAT’S class!
Michael
October 14, 2009Here’s a cool Elvis 404 from a music lessons company: http://takelessons.com/error
emily
October 14, 2009I’ve always loved the illustration on the mica.edu website’s: http://www.mica.edu/404
Kevin
October 14, 2009A full game in a 404 page: https://thcnet.net/zork/index.php
You can even save/restore if you are a member of the site.
seraph
October 14, 2009does mine qualify?
http://tutsaz.com/404
Frank Stallone
October 14, 2009I am partial to wefollow.com’s 404 page because of its back to the future reference. That will win every time in my book.
http://wefollow.com/404
Alexandre Gamela
October 14, 2009may i add my own?
http://www.alexgamela.com/blog/404
Kendall
October 14, 2009Ours even has a haiku about 404 pages:
http://www.arsgrafik.com/404.php
Justin L.
October 14, 2009These are great! I just did a custom 404 page for my wife’s store… it was fun. http://unleashedpetshop.com/404.html
James W
October 14, 2009Google has a handy search widget for 404 pages to help visitors find what they were looking for: http://googlewebmastercentral.blogspot.com/2008/08/make-your-404-pages-more-useful.html
Matt
October 14, 2009The 404 goat ftw..
And of course, the obligatory ‘i made a 404 page too and i like it’ link: http://www.mattnortham.com/404.php
John
October 14, 2009This is also good http://keremsuer.com/404
haxpor
October 14, 2009Holy crab!!
These are wonderful. Fresh ideas out there huh.
German
October 14, 2009Nice collection here my 404
http://www.factormetal.com/404
Adam
October 15, 2009Great list!
Here is our 404 page:
http://www.puntoexeinformatica.it/404
Tutorial Lounge
October 15, 2009really latest and amazing collection for better design idea. thanks
kuba
October 15, 2009hackles.org
in that comic pig is the l33t hax0r1ng ski113d guy therefore he appears on 404 error
http://www.hackles.org/xyxyx
Lincoln Plumber
October 15, 2009haha, some of these made me chuckle. I’ve got to say though, you must have spent a huge amount of time finding these 404′s. Great compilation!
Edgar Leijs
October 15, 2009Have you seen the 404 of the company i work for?
It’s in Dutch…
Discription: A cartoon made by a famous Dutch cartoonist dissing insurance companies… and we are an insurance broker! Some self-criticism isn’t quite bad!?
http://www.klap.com/ooohps
Ian Harding
October 15, 2009Oh wow, thanks for listing my 404 design in your collection (“Hang in there”, iStockphoto.com – 7th down from top). Lots of great page designs in there with humorous messaging.
Dave Sparks
October 16, 2009Gotta love a good 404
Here’s mine
http://www.kamikazemusic.com/404
David
October 16, 2009I really would love my 404 page to be included in one of these posts. I thought I was being quite smart, given it is a photo site
http://www.flixelpix.com/404
David
Jason
October 20, 2009Hehe, the uh oh spaghettio one was by far my favourite, almost fell off my chair. I’m surprised there isn’t a ‘you’ve been rick rolld 404′.
Some very creative stuff though, has inspired me to invent one myself
JaneA
October 21, 2009Great collection! I love a good 404 page. Here’s my 404: http://www.paws-and-effect.com/404
Natalia
October 26, 2009Great!
bartonm
November 10, 2009A friend of mine sent it: 404 page of Blizzard: http://us.blizzard.com/en-us/us/
Luke Jones
November 10, 2009http://www.traxor-designs.com/not-found/
Not amazing, I know. But it could be worse.
gwipDesign
November 10, 2009While not nearly as creative as some of these I like it.
http://gwipdesign.com/wp-content/themes/FREEmium/404.html
Although my blog does too good of a job redirecting messed up url’s so no one will probably ever see it.
TysonR.
November 12, 2009Quote”Do you know of any cool 404 pages we’re missing?”
http://tysonsean.com/four-o-four
Matt
November 16, 2009There are some really great 404 page examples here but I noticed on a number of them, despite their novelty, it wasn’t immediately clear why you aren’t at the page you expected to be at, and how to find your way to somewhere else on the website. I think it is vital to make it clear how to get to the rest of the website as well as clear that the page can’t be found so that a novice user understands.
leo
November 16, 2009my page «error 404» — http://dadako.net.ru/error-404 (refresh image)
w3planting
November 17, 2009more cool & inspiring 404 error pages
http://www.w3planting.com/2009/10/30-creative-404-pages-for-your-inspiration-w3planting/
Ashely Adams : Sticker Printing
November 26, 2009Creative indeed…..LOL!!!! How would you react to a 404 message that says: “What the…?” or “You’re Screwed”….I liked the chicken ones also….And I would enjoy an error message that says: “You Broke the Internet” (Wish i could really break it. LOL!!)
Charlize Art
December 10, 2009Another funny one, with sound.
http://www.tatuarte.org/404.htm
div
December 11, 2009superb collection…..
Future Webs
December 12, 2009Some really cool error 404 pages here, check mine out: http://www.future-webs.com/error
Marta Spendowska
January 3, 2010Love the 404 post.
I think my error page is quite fun as well :
http://martaspendowska.com/blog/404.php
Stjepan Tafra
February 11, 2010My industrial 404 page (carved in metal):
http://www.stjepantafra.com/404
suraklin
February 15, 2010lol it was a funny time spend here XD
hermes kelly bag
July 2, 2010And of course, the obligatory ‘i made a 404 page too and i like it’ link
site
August 12, 2010Ari Suardiyanti
November 25, 2010Lovely collection, check the one on my site as well: http://chykalophia.com/404
Djazeiry
January 28, 2012is those pictures copyrighted ?? i wanna use one of them in future website