Wow, the headline is so large, I'm having trouble reading it.
Then there's the sticky header, on my screen it takes up 1/5th of the available space. Or the headings, subheadings and tabs that float away (proximity principle from the blog post) and the column of text, that becomes hard to read because of small line length.
It clearly looks designed, but they should take a look at this post.
I've been on a JavaScript purge recently. One of the underlying concerns is that giant companies can't even build the basics right, like this sticky nav. Front end developers can get JavaScript when they can build reliably. It's not like you need a sticky nav either, it's just extra page load time. Plain HTML just works.
As I was clicking on this link without reading the URL, I was thinking to myself how Vanguard's website got less dense and more terrible. I was surprised when the link took me to Vanguard. Yes, for showing financial information, lack of density is a TERRIBLE idea.
Yeah, but it's beautiful. I guess that's the main goal of a page like this.
IMO, that's a huge red flag. If the sales information puts beauty before functionality, that's an insurmountably amount of contempt they are showing for you before you even become a customer.
On an investment company it's even worse, because contempt is less likely than they just wanting to actively select dumb customers. That's a very strong indication they'll try to steal my money (I have no idea what this one site is tough, it's not my opinion on them, it's what their design choice makes me think).
https://investor.vanguard.com/investment-products/mutual-fun...