Five common mistakes made in web design
We come across a mixture of usable and not-so user friendly website designs. To help you identify the good from the bad, or improve your current website's design we have assembled a list of some common web design mistakes.
These are just a few, we'd love to hear of some more! Let us know what you believe to be good web design practices in the comments below.
1. Bad search design
The search box needs to be the least dysfunctional website area. This website function has to effectively handle simple query items, plurals, typos, hyphens and other options in enquiry. A website's search is what links the user to a site's information, especially when navigation doesn't succeed. A website's search box design should be simple, straightforward, easy to use and yield good results.
2. Unfriendly text
A wall of text presented on a site that fills-up the four corners of the page will turn a website user towards back button, quick smart. Use the good old tricks in enhancing document presentations to encourage user scanning such as; subheading, bulleted lists, short paragraphs and inverted pyramid when further detailing your articles.
3. Permanent font size
Most of the time, websites have a default size for their fonts. This results in people with poor vision to cringe and back out of the website the minute they need to grab a magnifying glass in order to read. Giving users the power to change or re-size the font to earns a “user friendly” advantage. Again this all depends on the audience you are capturing on the website, and if your text is of a sufficient size, this mightn't apply.
4. Low search engine values of page titles
Your title is your gateway for users to access your article or your site. If you do not have good titles that cannot be searched or cannot attract visitors, chances are your site will sit in a dim corner of the room waiting for nothing. Titles help your visitors locate specifically what they need in the search listings. Arrange a catchy, concise but appropriate title in 66 characters - enough for the searcher to read in full.
5. Using PDF for online reading
If you know PDF very well you probably wouldn’t use it for online reading. It serves its purpose for distributing documents and printing volumes of papers, but not as a primary page to be read on a site. Instead put the PDF content online and have an optional link for the user to download it.
Source URL
http://theprodesigner.com/top-ten-mistakes-in-web-design/
Blog post written by Feedia of Feedia - Web Design Brisbane
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Comments
Letitia wrote:
29/10/09 - 6:19 am
One that I notice especially with businesses that have a lot of products or services, is the lack of direction on the home page of their website.
A lot of companies try to put everything on their homepage - which in turn makes the website's design cluttered, unfocused and turns users to the comfort of the back button.
Keep it simple! Keep it focused!
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