Web Design The 10 Biggest Mistakes

Web Design The 10 Biggest Mistakes There are plenty of mistakes in the world of web design. Let's look at what I believe to be the 10 biggest.

1. Too Many Ads.

When you're trying to make money from your website, it's all too easy to overwhelm your site with ads. Put yourself in your user's place and take a good hard look at your site and ask yourself if the ads feel intrusive. Does the site look like an information source or does it feel more like a page-holder for the ads?

2. Plugin Overload.

You have to keep plugin usage to a maximum of 1 type per page. If you've got Flash, then you can't have a media player, or if you're using Java, then no Flash. It's not as bad to use the same plugin twice, however.

3. Flash Intros.

Please, don't use a Flash intro on your website. They have been so overused that they're becoming universally mocked.

4. Unclear Layout and Navigation.

Many websites, especially business sites, suffer from some kind of disease where the very simplest task takes 10 steps. If users are asking you how to do things on your site, then you need to improve your layout and navigation. If there are certain tasks people want to do frequently, put them on the front page.

5. No Marking for External Links.

There are 2 kinds of links: internal (to other parts of your website) and external (to other websites). For the benefit of your users, it's best if you mark external links, either by making them a different color or using some kind of a symbol (a box with an arrow is the usual one). It's also good to make the external links open in new windows, so people aren't leaving your site altogether when they click them.

6. Unclear Linking.

Some web pages are designed to show links only when people put their mouse over them. While this might make the design look nicer, it is not very user friendly. Instead, use a clearly contrasting color for links, and preferably underline them. This makes them more visible to the user, thus more user friendly.

7. Unlabelled Email Links.

Always clearly mark a link that will send email (a mailto link) with the word 'email'. If you turn clicking a name into send email, you'll annoy users who expected to find out more about the person.

8. Broken Links.

You should check your links regularly to make sure that they all still work. There's nothing worse than finding a site that looks useful, only to find that it hasn't been updated in years, so most of the links don't work. While a website does mostly run itself after a while, that doesn't mean that you should neglect essential maintenance.

9. Strange Fonts.

Stick to the most common web fonts: that's pretty much just Arial, Georgia, Tahoma and Verdana. If you use more obscure fonts, then most users won't have them - and those that do will find your text hard to read. The only place for non-standard fonts is in your logo or headings, and then only if they are displayed as an image.

10. Badly-sized Text.

It's important to keep your text around the standard size. Making text too big or too small makes it hard to read and annoying for many users. The best thing you can do is use relative text sizing (not pixels) that allows the browser to respect the user's preferred text size. You should also consider offering buttons on your site to decrease or increase the font size.

Top 10 Biggest Web Design Mistakes
Oh yeah! Must reading especially for the novice designer or webpage consumer. To understand the Top 10 Biggest Web Design Mistakes you need only read this authors excellent take on the situation - explained in clear language.
Web Design The 10 Biggest Mistakes
Its best to learn from mistakes others have made before you rather than commit your own ones. Learn from this wonderful list of follies many sites suffer from and keep your traffic!
Five Common Web Design Mistakes
There are often many mistakes encountered when creating a webpage or website. Learn about the top five website mistakes, and how to avoid them.
The 5 Biggest Mistakes of Web Design
Your business needs a website. Heres a quick primer on how not to screw it up.
5 Biggest Reasons why Website Design Fail
Here are 5 biggest reasons why your website design fail make profits for you.
Ten Of The Most Common Mistakes Made In Web Design
Designers can keep more of their website visitors by avoiding common mistakes. The following list describes some of the most common design errors associated with websites.
Search Engine Optimization Tips - The Top Five Worst Mistakes
In order to keep your website listed in the search engines you need to avoid the common mistakes that many people still make. These mistakes can only harm your rankings and there is simply no reason to use them.
Web Site Design Mistakes
Some wise human once said Learn from the mistakes of others. There isnt nearly enough time to make them all yourself. Hence this article. Here are five of the most annoying and common web design mistakes...
Website Redesign- Planning as easy as 123!
In the past, businesses and other entities are busy mounting their own website but now, the hype is all about redesigning them. This change has shifted the interface of web design services to a different level and the focus is now on redesigns.
Common Mistakes in Website Design
Just when you thought that you have the coolest website design in the World Wide Web, you just realize that everything has been wrong all along. Youre not ranking well in search engines, and youre not driving the right kind of traffic from your target market.