Tuesday, August 3, 2010

Hongkiat.com: 15 (More) Web Design Mistakes You Should Know

Hongkiat.com: 15 (More) Web Design Mistakes You Should Know


15 (More) Web Design Mistakes You Should Know

Posted: 03 Aug 2010 12:15 AM PDT

Written by: Jenny Warner

Have you ever wondered why how drugs are capable enough to make you addicted to them. And, the strangest thing that you don’t even get to know when they become the inescapable part of your life. So does the Internet guys, someone has put it right;

“If addiction is judged by how long a dumb animal will sit pressing a lever to get a ‘fix’ of something, to its own detriment, then I would conclude that net news is far more addictive than cocaine.” – Rob Stampfli

Don’t you think that considering such prevalence of the influence of the net, one should try and reap fruits of profits by venturing into the online business? Moreover, Internet is the only medium with the help of which one individual can reach to the millions of audiences at a single time and leverage the benefits to the fullest extent. Being well aware of the fact that websites, the soul bodies that are responsible for representing you in front of the millions out there, ought to hold a lot of relevance in the web industry.

“Internet is a drug that makes its addicts potential madmen.”

fail whale 15 (More) Web Design Mistakes You Should Know
Image Credit: monkeyworks illustration

This is very true, which ought to be fetched advantage of. However, there are innumerable mistakes that the web designers tend to make while they design websites, which hinders the ongoing process of sharing the profits in lieu of the online market. Why not make use of this drug, unlike the other drug that attracts indispensable destruction of life?

Based on the same fact, this post is to avail you with some of the horrible website design mistakes that should not have been the part of the website ever. Here, we load you with the same:

Do not seek attention, but provoke it

Avoid being an attention seeker. The idea of your website should be in such a way that it should provoke the visitors to go through the site at least once. The very landing page of the site should be able to reveal the basic idea of the whole site. Attention is the most valuable asset that the online industry takes advantage of. The landing page and the content should be subtle and ought to hold the crux of the entire site.

JavaScript

There is no doubt the that the JavaScript is for good and allows interactivity, yet there are some problems that we tend to face. Despite of the fact that it is a great technology, yet its use is recommendable when it is needed the most. The browsers like IE exploits the security problems, and makes your web page bloated. The JavaScript links ought to be avoided because these links tend to create problem, and since then, their use have been restricted.

javascript 15 (More) Web Design Mistakes You Should Know

Avoid Fancy Apparels

Most of the times, in the lieu of making your website more fancy and stylish, you ruin the basic essence, and forget that a person visits your site for an information and if your website lacks readability then, what! You would drive away the potential customer.

Try and maintain a sophisticated attitude in your taste. Yes, we talking about the fonts that you would be using for the content of the site. Arial, Helvetica, and sans-serif fonts are highly recommendable for the web pages.

Never Make Assumptions

Assuming things would screw your rapport badly. This happens when any external link, automatically opens up in a new window discarding the fact how the user wants it. The main point is to provide this liberty to the user itself and allow him/her to open up the link anywhere he/she wants to. This way, you won’t be forcing your page on the visitor.

Color Scheme

As it is said that color scheme holds a lot of relevance in deciding onto the destiny of your website. A vibrant colour scheme would surely lead your website nowhere, except being a headache. Colors set the mood and they should be used in accordance to the basic idea of your website. They should be subtle and be able to merge with the theme. They should not overshadow the real message of the site.

color scheme 15 (More) Web Design Mistakes You Should Know

Grammatical Errors – A Big Turn-Off

Nothing can spare your site’s reputation of the horrifying damages that it would encounter if it contains simple grammatical and typo errors. Make sure that you double check the content before making the website live.

CAPTCHA is your Way

Being a designer yourself, have you ever encountered a time when you had to call the whole family to read those letters to carry out the process further. Yes, we are talking about CAPTCHA. These days, it becomes a necessity to have CAPTCHA filters to be able to reduce the spams that one encounters mainly on the comments and the registration section.

recaptha 15 (More) Web Design Mistakes You Should Know

Do not make it a Maze for your Visitors

Imagine yourself on a website and where you need to look out for even a simple navigation. This would actually be the last thing that you would ever think of doing to your visitors. Make a clear and a simple navigation system, preferably not those drop down menus that hide the information. A straight forward and a navigation straight in front of the eye is what the visitor looks out for. A confused navigation can drive the visitors away.

Avoid Whatever Turns Out in Excess

Here, I am particularly talking about the use of Flashy images and the glittery animation that overshadow the real purpose of the site and prove to be a real nuisance. In addition, it annoys the visitor at the first place only because it increases the website loading time, and it becomes the biggest turn off.

Avoid Unnecessary Registrations

Spare your visitors from the additional headache of registering themselves for any darn information. Seriously, the procedure is a pain in the neck until and unless it serves a purpose and the visitor is willing to do it.

Special attention to the Link that you Provide

Keep in mind the fact that the links that you provide on your webpage are more likely to be visited if the visitor is interested in your site. Just make sure that you highlight them, also that you underline them. Don’t let your visitors be confused in case of the links, by coloring and underlining even the normal content. If you want them to gain special importance then, check out for the other fonts or make them bold.

hyperlink 15 (More) Web Design Mistakes You Should Know

Avail your Footer with some Essentials

It is always recommendable that you provide the footer of the web page with the essential links, so that it avoids the unnecessary effort in scrolling again to the top.

CSS over HTML

With the advent of CSS, HTML is no more indispensable. Gone are those days when you had to use HTML tables. Now, the CSS is easy, fast, and a reliable option available that is laden with ample of advanced features.

Pop Ups Are Really not Happening

No matter how flashy and attractive your website’s pop ups are… they are a real source of distractions and annoyance. However, the modern browsers avail the option of pop up blocker and yet, embedding them in your page with a reason that you are providing a full customer-user interface is not worth an effort. Avoid them. They are doing nobody’s good.

Usability test

It is by far, the most important set of mistake that cannot afford to be overlooked. This is the sole factor that decides on to the quality of your web age in different environments such as Firefox, Opera, IE, Safari and many more. Find out for the answers-

  • Are the images not broken/disabled?
  • Is the text readable even after the JavaScript is disabled?
  • Is the consistency maintained?

In a nutshell, you need to check out the consistency and the accessibility of your web page on the individual browsers.

I am sure that if you keep a track of the following points while you design a website, and at the same time, follow a subtle approach towards the same, your website would not fail to work as a drug for your visitors. A good content, subtle and a classy design ( with a color scheme and a background that merges with the basic theme of your website) and the easy accessibility and the usability of the website never fails to make its visitors addicted to your page.

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