The Biggest Mistakes In Web Design

OTT design

The most obvious and common mistake of web design is going over-the-top with colours, blinking text and flash animation. We’ve all seen those websites littered with flashing images, and text boxes displayed in an array of colours, begging for our attention. Animated pictures on the screen distract us from what we’re actually trying to find. Sites like these are guaranteed to drive visitors away in a matter of seconds.

Background music can be a right pain, especially as it’s often hard to find out how to stop it playing. If you wish to include music on your website, then you should leave it to the visitor to decide whether they want to play it or not. You could have an absolutely brilliant site but your visitor would never know as they’ve left as soon as the music kicked in.

Domain name

Not owning your own domain name (a.ka. URL a.k.a web address) can prove problematic, especially in the business sector. As well as looking nicer, another reason to have your own domain is so that it looks more professional. Customers and clients are more likely to trust a website that has its own name. It will also be easier to find in search engines. Many people do not realise the importance of this when creating a website and regard it as purely aesthetic. At BaseKit, we understand the importance of owning your own domain and therefore include one with most of our packages and allow you to bring any existing names over when making your website.

Impossible content

Simply inputting all your content onto your site is not good enough. A common mistake is websites displaying masses of information on the page. However interesting and well-written it may be, it needs to be organised so that it can be read quickly. When we’re browsing a website, we mean just that. We want to be able to scan down the page, browsing key sections that interest us. This is why content should be formatted into clear and coherent segments. Many websites will be eager to get their information across but need to take a step back when thinking of how best to display it.

Refrain from underlining or highlighting pieces of text that are not links. Visitors will be annoyed when they go to click what they think is a link and find that, in actual fact, there isn’t one. When you do insert a link, ensure that it is clear what the link is actually linking to. Your visitor wants to know exactly what they’re clicking on and where it’s going to take them before committing to leave the current page.

Frames

Using various frames for your website is not a good idea. You may think this is a good way to separate information but don’t be fooled, it’s far from the ideal solution as multiple frames can prove confusing and disrupt the flow of the website. It’s also very bad for being found on Google.

Images

There is something very annoying about pictures that don’t load properly. Seeing a blank box with a small red cross in the corner will grate on your visitors giving them the impression that the site doesn’t work properly. Make sure you upload images properly.

Flash

It’s all very well having pretty, flashing graphics for your website but is it really user-friendly? The answer is no. Using flash will slow down the whole visitor experience on your website and the most common word they’ll see is ‘loading…’ as all elements have to load before the page can be displayed. BaseKit uses HTML5 and therefore avoids the unnecessary pain of flash. It’s the downfall of many websites and can put visitors right off.

In an age of super-fast internet speed, it’s simply not acceptable for visitors to be waiting around while your site loads. Flash can also prove incompatible with mobile phone browsing and tablets. This would be a huge mistake for anyone creating a website as these browsing platforms are continually expanding.

Why not get started today and build a website with BaseKit?

The biggest mistakes in web design