Websites and blogs are easier than ever to setup. Gone are the days when setting-up sites can only be done by IT guys or web geeks. Using free Content Management Systems or blog platforms, everyone has an even chance to have their own online presence. However, the easy road to setting up sites does not always translate to websites with good website designs. At some point or another, you must have seen websites with bad designs. A bad website design is very easy to identify. Unconsciously, we determine a site to be ugly based on some common characteristics. This article discusses the common traits of bad website design. With this knowledge, you, as a website designer, will be fully armed to avoid these bad website design mistakes. Here are a few pointers to help you get started.
Background And Text
Dark background, incompatible color combination of background and text, or very small font size makes for very hard reading. Avoid stylish fonts but instead use sans-serif fonts for your contents. Having the proper color combination and good font size will increase usability of your site and make a big impact on the browsers' experience.
Communication Style
It is nice to appear intelligent and smart but geek speak or highly intellectual wrtings will not be perceived well by your potential clients. Each of your webpage should not be used for showing off your linguistic prowess or technically-laden lingo. The usual rule here is to clearly convey with your visitors in an understandable, grammatically-sound, direct to the point manner. Technical info should be presented in the language level of your visitors.
Graphics
Having nice large graphics is only appropriate for printed articles. On the Net, it is preferable to use light graphics so webpages are refreshed fast. If your website can't load content swiftly and the longer your visitors become idle, the quicker your visitors will exit from your site never to go back.
Templates and Navigation
As much as possible, have a consistent look and feel in your website thru the use of templates. If your potential clients have to re-familiarize and re-learn the headers, navigation and footers for every webpage, your visitors will eventually get tired and leave.
Pop-ups
Unless you can justify it, never use pop-ups. It is by far the single most annoying thing your visitor bumps into while browsing. When visitors close the pop-ups, they also close your site, never to be annoyed again.
As regularly developing websites for my clients, I see a lot of website designers both good and bad. More often, the bad website designers have perfected the science and art of bad and ugly website design. I'm pretty confident this article opens your eyes and will aid you identify the difference between the two.
William D. Jimenez runs a website that uncovers the complexities of
website design that can rank high in the Search Engines. There are 33 things you need to know before choosing your
web design team. To take advantage of this cool stuff and more, make sure you check out William's site at www.will2design.com.
