Top 10 web design mistakes to avoid

 Web design is the process of planning, conceptualizing, and arranging content online. Today, designing a website goes beyond aesthetics to include the website’s overall functionality. Web design also includes web apps, mobile apps, and user interface design.

 Avoiding the most common web design mistakes should help you on the way to that success.

We’ll walk you through the worst web design mistakes that you need to avoid. We’ll also provide examples, plus killer tips to help you nail your web design and outshine the competition. Remember – don’t try any of these at home…

 1.  The design does not speak for itself.

If you are a policeman and you want yourself to be identified as one, then you must always wear the right uniform and the right badge.

 

The same principle goes with web design: you have to wear the right ‘tie’ for your users to know who you are and what you do. If you are selling e-books and tutorials, then you don’t want to let people think that your site is that of a local restaurant they are familiar with.

 

Start asking if you have solid branding. Do the colours, the font styles, and the objectives of your company reflect your website design, and vice versa? Do you use only the necessary and the right elements for your company to be clearly identified?

 

Do you use trigger keywords to make people understand at once what you offer? People don’t take more than a minute to guess what your website is about, so you had better show the right face at once.

 2. Noisy, unorganized visuals

Since design is about visuals, you must show how user-friendly your website is. User-friendliness is just another technical way of understanding user-centeredness, and if your design is poor in this respect, then it is another way of saying that you don’t deserve a user. 

 

Noisy and unorganized visuals here mean that your content is not properly laid on the surface. Do you have clear navigation? Do the
elements of your website fall on the right sections or areas of the page as a whole?

 

Do your posts have a clear readability, example are they well-spaced, scannable and friendly to the eyes? Do your ads and banners fall on the right areas, so as not to be mistaken for something else? Are there too many distracting elements, like flashy banners and animated texts?

 Read more on: Building an effective marketing website strategies 

3.    Your design manipulates or prohibits users from spontaneity

This may sound very harsh, but you may not be aware of it yet. You know these terms for sure, but for web design, this means that a part or the whole of your design forces users to do something or not to do something.
If people don’t want to enter into your survey, don’t force them to do so in exchange for access to something they’re asking for.

 

• How about a pop-up window?
• Any sudden music playback?
• Do any links of yours require a new window?
• We all know that these things are annoying.

 

• How about access to some materials or pages?

 

Do you require your users to sign up first? If you are really strict with your content, at least you make yourself clear about why things should be kept that way.

 4.  Unclear or broken navigation and structure

People hate it when they click a broken link, or worse, a link that leads them to somewhere else. More so, despite the fact that you have a navigation bar, sometimes people want to look for something immediately and specifically without scrolling on your hover buttons one by one.

 

The question now is, do you have an internal search engine and a link to your sitemap?

It is always a failure for websites if their goals are naturally and usually not met. People are being led to your site for a reason, and you only want to satisfy their need. If they cannot find what they are looking for in the first few minutes, then all your efforts and planning fail.

 

 5.   Confusing and misleading links

Links are but the circulatory system of the internet. These are the necessary elements wherein all (relevant) pages meet and are anchored upon.

 

Knowing how important links are, you should treat links with respect, and so your users as well. Let the links say what they are about to see and nothing else.

Make a clear distinction also of the differences between your underlined or coloured words or phrases with your links. Make sure also that your links at different states (hover, on, off, etc) portray a different visual cue so as to aid people in knowing which links they have already clicked or not.

 Lastly, buttons should appear as buttons, and those which are not should not appear as such.

 6.  'Long’ pages

The word ‘long’ here equates to two aspects of a web design: length and time. In length, your website should not be so long (vertically or horizontally) that people get sick going back to some key areas they find important. If you are providing a single-page website, make sure that you give assistance to your users by anchor links which will help them jump from one section to another, or even back to the top of the page.

Long texts and content should also be broken down into pieces or ‘chapters.’ You can lay these chapters out in separate pages which is done in a lot of designs. 

 

If you are about to integrate a presentation or a PDF, be sure that at least you provide the first few pages or slides first – those that don’t take the most amount of time to load or download. Afterwards, always give users the link to the whole file.

 

Additionally, you must realize that people hate it when their data connection is slow, and worse, when the website they are in need of connecting to is darn slow and even non-responsive.

 

That’s where optimization comes in, and that’s where you really need to learn to trim your content to a loadable limit. If you are really a good resource, then be a good resource.

 7.  User filtration

I have discussed manipulative web designs, but I would like to give more space to user experience as a whole. Remember that readers are impatient, and you cannot blame them if they are seeking only
convenience.

 

Do any of your pages or resources need a ‘higher clearance level’ for them to get access to, such as a required membership? If you are really serious about membership and if you want to take control of and grant access to specific content, at least you must make it easy and clear.

 

 Users won’t be happy if it requires them to fill in personal information over and over again; they are lucky if their browsers have an auto-fill feature. How about you allow other registration methods, such as linking a Facebook or Google account which is quicker?

 

The same also goes for purchases and payments. Do you provide prices at once? Do you make them feel safe when they enter credit card details, or at least provide a PayPal assurance? Does your CAPTCHA look too blurry or is it illegible, meaning that people will just get frustrated making too many attempts?

 

Remember that making that utmost appeal to your potential clients or customers is not enough; you must actually guide them along up to the last step and not leave them coughing in the middle.

 

User filtration comes in when they are about to bite what you offer, but turn away frustrated in the middle of the process.

 8. Unreachable contact details

Don’t ever forget to include contact details that are visible, comprehensive, and offer a lot of options. Make sure also that the options you offer on your contact area are all working fine and someone is ready to respond.

 

Remember that your contact information is what makes your users feel assured that they are understood by humans, so you don’t want to compromise it by letting users call an offline channel.

 Read more on: What is email marketing? 

9.     Sing splash pages

No, this is not really a sacrilege to web design, but you must understand that using splash pages will create a very rigid barrier between search engines and your site. If you are really worried about SEO stats and reports, then removing the barrier will lead to better results.

Using splash pages can often be seen as an amateur way of advertising as well; it is the equivalent to a shout-out. Do your marketing the natural way, and people will visit you naturally as well.

 10. Old design and content

Carefully look at how your website is designed. Is it already out of date? Is the content updated at least regularly? Will there still be somebody looking for your old product?

 

Always consult a professional if you are not sure if your site needs a redesign. If you have trouble loading your site with content, you can always outsource for talented individuals. If you are really serious about your site’s goals, then you need to do something.