Thursday, December 28, 2006

Top Ten Mistakes in Web Design

Bad Fonts: Sometime designers use multiple font types which make reading webpage extremely difficult. Too small or too large fonts are also hard to read. If you want to emphasize on a particular word don’t underline it better option is highlight text by using italic, bold or color. Underlined text is difficult to read and it is complicated for visitor to distinguish between underlined text and hyperlinks as both look same.

Inconsequential Links: If you are using links within your webpage, underline them or use color so that visitors can easily differentiate between text and links. Instead of making whole line a link use keywords for highlighting and hyper linking, like” Ecommerce web site design”. But one important thing here is that keywords should be meaningful and in sync with the context of the rest of the text.

Animation: Where on one hand, animation makes web pages more appealing on the other hand excessive use of animations makes a webpage heavy and it takes long time to load. More often than not, web site designers are inclined to use moving text and moving pictures on webpage. It may not be that good an idea as it diverts the user’s attention from the webpage.

Content: Content is key to success of any website. It tells about the website; like purpose of website, services offered, company background, etc. Website Content should be short, meaningful and understandable. Most common mistake in content is grammatical and spelling mistake. Try best to avoid these mistakes. Content should be written in a flow aimed at clarifying all visitor queries and making him/ her feel at home with the website.

Compatibility: Earlier, Microsoft Internet Explorer was the first choice of internet user (it still is) but in recent past a number of other browsers are making inroads on to the internet map. E.g. Mozilla Firefox and Netscape Navigator to name a few. Try to make your website compatible to maximum number of browsers. Test it with different browsers before putting it online.

Bulky Forms: Visitors have many problems related to forms on website. Most common problem is its length. Generally, forms are too lengthy and contain unwanted fields and options like “first name, middle name, last name, etc”. Better way is to avoid unnecessary fields and option. Include only those fields which are really required.

Do not Forget Price of a product or service: One can buy almost everything online from shopping sites. Another, common mistake found on many websites is that one forgets or avoids putting in price for products. Price helps website user to categorize different item and select most relevant one. Try providing details of product price and features which distinguish it from other products. Specially highlight any special offers that your website is offering.

Scrolling: some websites requires horizontal scrolling which is again a tedious task for the visitor. Although, both, vertical and horizontal scrolling should be avoided, but in some cases it becomes impossible to restrict vertical scrolling. Try avoiding scroll as far as possible on your website.

Pop-Ups: Pop Ups are one of the worst ways of advertisement. Visitors hate unwanted pop ups. Avoid this kind of features to attract visitor attention. Secondly, the scrolling popup is a strict no – no. It does nothing but irritates the visitor.

Outdated information: It is imperative to regularly update the information on your webpage. No one wants to read outdated information. There is no excuse for this mistake; user may never come back if you roll out stale content on your website.