Web App Trouble, help please?

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So I guess this makes me officially old but I am having trouble using many of the "new" style "web app" web sites that are invading the web (and it seems like I am the only one so I apologize if this gets ranty). I really would like some help, if anyone has any suggestions.

I can live with the flat, blocky design but many of these so-called websites have precious little content and what content there is is hidden behind objects I would never think to click on. The little menus and drop down boxes that are nearly my exclusive method of navigation seem to have vanished leaving me stranded and wondering how much of a site I am missing. Surely, surely, there is more? Of course, there are also the links that are there - but don't work. Absolutely nothing happens when I click them. (Maybe my browser is out of date and can't handle the new code? Nope, nope everything is current - and the computer is nearly brand new).

Then there are the adds and pop-ups that have no way of closing (the universal X is gone), that shut down the rest of the website once they appear or follow you around blocking such a significant portion of the screen that the whole site becomes unusable. And speaking of blocked screens - many of these sites overflow the monitor, so you can't see the edges - and then don't have scrolling bars.

Even this site (Yes, did you think I did not notice?) looks striped down and empty. The forum search box is missing, replaced with a generic one (I categorically avoid these because everyone(?) knows those kinds of search boxes are useless - returning tons of unstructured, irrelevant results). Yet left with no alternative I tried it - and was completely convinced (for several minutes) that it did not work because the results blended right in with the large sponsored adds on top and were followed by such a large disjointed empty space I thought - Surely, that is another error - something else not showing up properly.

Anyway, as embarrassing as this is these sorts of issues have nearly reduced me to tears twice in the last week. Something as simple as generic web surfing should not be this hard - and used to be as easy as breathing. Has anyone else had similar problems? Any tips - mental or technological that you might have are welcome. I am using Firefox which is up to date and has the popup blocker enabled. Thanks a bunch.

There's a term called "mystery meat navigation" that describes navigation\menus etc where you can only know what the menu or icon does by clicking on it. It used to be a "no-no" in website design but as you've described it now seems the norm.

What I do these days is have one browser on my machine with javascript disabled and one with it enabled and I browse the web without javascript, only using the javascript enabled browser for sites that need it to work. I'm just so sick of intrusive and CPU-sapping javascript that infests most content-driven websites these days. WP actually crashes if I don't disable JS or disable the adverts using an ad-blocker (it's the ads that do it), and if I look at WP on my phone I'm often redirected to malicious phishing sites that pretend to look like google and ask me to install things, or say I have a virus or something. I wish WP would choose a more ethical advert supplier for this site.

I uninstalled Flash and Java a few years ago as it is a terrible security risk, often with zero-day security vulnerabilities which are actively exploited by malicious site content or adverts. Similarly I always use an adblocker and no-script to block java-script as there is too much malware on the net nowadays. Even innocent and popular sites have been known to pass on adverts containing malware. It just isn't worth the risk. I never see any adverts, ever. If a website it important to me e.g. internet banking then I temporarily allow scripts to run on it. All other sites, if they don't work without scripts then I generally don't bother with that site and go elsewhere. If sites make their interface complicated and needing to run lots of scripts then its bye bye and I leave the site, never to return. I prefer my computer to be malware free and so rarely "drop my shields" to cater for poorly designed sites or those bloated with dodgy adverts. On this site I only allow the primary wrongplanet.net domain to run scripts, no third party scripts and the site works just fine without all the risky bloat.