When you design a website for business, there will be a lot of things that seem stylish, but which can actually alienate its audience. In the last few years, there are numerous lessons learned by combining careful examination and usability testing of website logs. The wisdom gained from these examinations advises those who intend to design a site to avoid these things:
Splash Screens
Before, some designers consider splash pages as a stylish doorway to the main site. Nowadays, there is no longer any reason to have one as it can actually harm the website. Visitors are usually annoyed of making extra click just to reach those contents that they are after. Search engines are also annoyed by it since it does not contain any useful information so that spiders have nothing to read and index. There is even no good technical reason for employing them. These days, only those sites having adult content will be justified in using this for their disclaimers.
Pop Ups
You have to realize that many people use pop blockers on their firewalls and browser. Pop ups are also accessibility nightmare since the screen reader can be confused by it and navigation will be broken. This is only ideal in displaying terms and conditions. Pop under or those windows which open behind the current window and will only reveal themselves when the main page is closed must also be avoided. Most users get irritated by them.
Flashing and Blinking Elements
It is one big mistake to make use of rotating logo as well as flashing call to action. Flashing and blinking elements are much bigger as compared to regular images. It will also require plug ins that can push page weight, increase loading time and cost for development. Worst, it can be disabled by the user using controls on browser making it a big waste of money and time. If you intend to place some moving element on a page in order to draw attention towards specific items, you can make use of quick animation every few seconds.
Embedded Sound
Most users surf online while in their offices. There can be nothing more annoying than a music suddenly blasting when a site is opened. Websites music is tacky and extremely divisive. You surely would not want to lose those potential subscribers or customers because they hate an artist whom they think is genius. If you intend to make use of sound on your site, you should never set it on default and give your user the option to have it turned off.
Too Dark Background
Have you ever been into a business website that makes use of dark background with orange and yellow colored text? If yes, then you must have realized how difficult and annoying it is to read on it. If you intend people to stay on the site and check what you have to offer, design the site in such a way that it will be comfortable for them. Staying on your site should not mean too much of an eyestrain.
Small Fonts
In designing a site, one must be very careful about the size of font. Some commit the mistake of using small font sizes without the option of increasing the size. You have to remember that most people would run the desktop on high resolution. What may look good in 800×600 may not be very readable in 1600×12000. Preferably, you can stick to 14 pixels, although 12 pixels are safe.
It is of utmost importance to take note of these things because not committing these mistakes will ensure that visitors will have the optimal experience and will stay on the site to see what you have to offer.
Author Bio:
Wil Le is Director at ziplinewebsites.com; ZipLine is Web Design Company in Phoenix, Arizona. With decades of professional experience, we have the expertise and the longevity our clients have come to know and trust. We are expert in Web Development, Content Management, Mobile applications, Social Media Marketing & Search Engine Optimization.
