WEB DESIGN MISTAKES TO BE AVOIDED

When people log onto your site, they should be able to see straight away what your site is all about.  Being able to grab somebody’s attention as soon as they set eyes on your web pages is the most priceless thing on the Internet.  If you do not grab the attention of your site voyeurs, then you need to go back to the drawing board.

Ensure the web pages can be read quickly by using short paragraphs, bullet points and lots of sub headings. Web pages are not book pages and people want to be able to see the content rapidly.

The use of ornamental style fonts should be avoided, because although they may well give a sophisticated look to the website, if they can’t easily be read, site visitors will find the content of the web page difficult to assimilate. Make it easy for them, or they will leave your pages.

Minuscule font size should not be used because, once again, site visitors need to feel comfortable looking at the web pages. If visitors find they have to zoom in to read site content, they will leave your pages.

Opening new browser windows is a mistake.  You may think that by opening a new window, the visitor won’t leave your site.  This just isn’t the case.  Allow your visitors to control where they want the links to open – this is why browser controls have a "back" button. You should not be concerned about site visitors going to another site, as they will easily get back to yours if they want.

Don’t annoy visitors by requiring registration unless it’s absolutely necessary!  When people browse the Internet, they do so to get information, not give it. You can only get away with this if what you offer is so good that your visitors will put up with having to go through all the hassle of registration.

Subscribing visitors to something without their consent is a huge mistake. Often, people are automatically subscribed to newsletters, etc. they simply don’t want. You will make no friends this way.

The over use of Flash will annoy many visitors and this should be used only if you have features within your site that will not be supported by static pages.

How often have you visited a site only to be greeted with annoying music that causes you to turn off the sound? This ploy was something that was tried many times in the early days of the Internet and you still see it, but its annoying, so is best avoided.  Everybody has differing tastes in music.  If you must have an audio file, allow your visitors to start it by having a "play" button.

Cluttering your website with badges looks unprofessional. Even if you have many awards and recognition badges, avoid putting them on your home page. Keep them for the ‘About’ page if you have to use them and then they can be passed over easily by site visitors.

When websites have a home page that launches the ‘real’ website, its annoying because the less steps the visitor has to take to get where they want to be, the better and the more comfortable they will feel with your site.

Ensure you have contact details that are easy to find, preferably on each page of the site, as there is nothing more annoying than having to search through a mass of web pages trying to find a contact link.

When building a site, ensure you use CSS instead of HTML tables.  HTML tables were fine in the early days of web design, but these days CSS is much faster, more reliable and has a plethora of features.

Drop down menus should be avoided, as visitors should be able to actually see all the navigation options straight away without having them hidden. This makes it easy for them to see what’s on offer.

As far as navigation is concerned, use text and not images. Some images simply don’t convey what you may wish to express. Be concise.

If you need to link to a PDF file, then say so because it’s really annoying for visitors to your site to find that Acrobat is loading when it hasn’t been requested. Clearly mark any files that need to be opened with Acrobat Reader so visitors know what’s coming.

The over use of advertising inside your content may well increase your click through rate over the short term, but over the longer term it will reduce your readership base. An irritated visitor is a lost visitor.

Its helpful for visitors to have clicked links that change colour because this will help them to locate themselves far more easily so that they don’t keep visiting the same place more than once.

So often, you will find web pages with harsh colour schemes, which will give site visitors a headache in no time at all. Give careful thought to the colour palette so that it relates to the whole mood of the website and the content.

Long pages make visitors to any site have to scroll down for ages before they get what they want. If visitors are made to feel uncomfortable by long pages, they may just skip your site altogether. It’s far neater to use more navigation so visitors can easily guide themselves around to where they want to be.

Ensure you don’t have grammatical or spelling mistakes on your website as they looks unprofessional and will denigrate the whole value of your site. This should also extend to your links.

If you use CAPTCHA, then ensure the letters are readable, as there are many sites who use this method to reduce spam on registration forms, etc. but where visitors of sites need to consult their whole family to decipher the letters, this will put people off your site.

In summary, websites should be attractive, have an attention-holding wow factor and be easy to navigate so that site visitors can quickly find what they are looking for.