I've just read a good article by Ha Cong Tien called 20 Most Common Web Design Mistakes you Should Avoid. I could almost have written this list myself, I agree with so many of the mistakes highlighted in this article. Also check out 18 website designer problems in article. So I have summarised the list of some most common web design mistakes below. Avoid these website mistakes at all costs. Ha Cong Tien's list is in brown along with my comments in black.
- Website takes too long to load (more than 10 seconds). I think slow web loading is unforgivable now that everything seems to be getting faster and faster. If your web pages takes too long to load people will move on before they see it. So it doesn't matter how great your page looks, if its slow its bad news.
- Logo is not on top of every page, and is not linked to the home page. I think this is so easy yet forgot by many. A logo in the same place on every page gives your website uniformity and reliability from a users view point. This is so easy to get right but is missed by so many websites.
- Posts have too many words in a line making it hard to read. Posts have too few words on a line (and many such lines), making it frustrating to read – I mean make it scannable.
- No “Contact Us” page. I really agree. Why wouldn't a website have a 'Contact Us' page? There is nothing worse than having search for contact details on a web site.
- Uses fancy fonts unreadable on most PCs (– use clean, common fonts) or font sizes too tiny. Fancy fonts may look great but if the style is not available it will default to a standard font which may not fit in as planned on your web page. There is no excuse for tiny fonts unless you don't want anyone to read what they say on your web pages.
- External links do not open in new tab / window (– it is a turnoff, trust me). I really agree with this one, being taken away from a site that you found that is really good and not easily being able to return to it, may mean you never return so the site has lost a potential customer. Bad business planning for any website.
- Plays music upon loading, and I can’t find where to stop it. I dont often come across this problem but like any problems on a website, you should be able to find everything really easily. A website should not pose a challenge to visitors or they will leave.
- Website shows up fine in Firefox, but is broken in Internet Explorer (cross-browser compatibility). This happens alot and must result is alot of lost traffic to websites. It doesn't take long to check appearance of website across different browsers.
- The URL remains the same even as I browse through the pages (– avoid cloaking). I really can not see why anyone would want to do this or any other 'trick' that may annoy search engines or Google. Is it worth having your website blacklisted?
- Webpage is so large for my screen resolution that I have to scroll horizontally as well (– 1024 pixel width plays well). Again I think this is an unforgivable mistake especially as screen are getting smaller and smaller with mobile internet usage. Why make it difficult for a viewer to see and read your website?
- CAPTCHA is not readable. How the heck do I post comments?! I'm everyone has had this problem with captcha - is it a 0 or a O, is it a 1 or a I? Some are so difficult to read that I move on a leave the website. Thats not what the web designer intended, so why not make things more easy for the viewer?
- Visited links don’t change color, and I end up on the same page again and again. I'm not so worried about this mistake, its useful to see which links you have visited but not essential.
- Bad search functionality – no way to find what I need. This is very frustrating. Why create a website that can not be easily navigated?
- Linking to “.pdf” files without disclosing it (pdf files take a lifetime to load). This is one of my pet hates. I do not understand why anyone uses pdf files on websites, with pdf files to download. Are they trying to make life difficult for their viewers?
- The webpage is cluttered with too many ads (– suggestion: not more than 3 ads on a page above fold). I think this is right, no more than 3 ads per page. After all is your website an advertising board or is it an informative web site? Affilliate sites full of ads need careful designing to work and avoid being too chaotic.
- Bad color contrast / matching (white text on light blue background, for example!). With all the colours to choice from why make a web site difficult to read? Colour choices can make or break a web site design and flavour.
- Skips “Alt” and “Title” tags for images, whilst there’s no description. Lack of knowledge leads to this mistake. I think anyone that knows any seo would agree these tags are important. Just because you can't see what you write in tags, doesn't mean you should leave them empty.
- Posts are not dated, and no good way to find it out (– users want to know if you post regularly, and how active your site is). Not sure why anyone would leave out dates on posts unless they post so rarely that they want a post in 2006 to seem current in 2011? Be upfront on your website, show people you are current.
- Page says “Coming soon!” (If it so does, it is better, if that page doesn’t exist.) Another of my pet hates. Why oh why would anyone put 'Coming soon' on a url?
- Last but not least, useless content. I agree, why have any content if its useless. Content needs to be informative and interesting to read and presented in an easily readable form.
