What Makes a Website Bad?
What makes you want to click out of a website before you read the first sentence? For me, it is tacky music with no “off” button.
Signs of Webmaster Newbies
All of us have been “newbies” at one point in our webmastering lives.We spent hours at dhtml, javscript and graphics sites looking for copy-and-paste stuff that we thought would make our sites look impressive.
First timer’s websites are easily spotted with their smorgasboard of javascripts, animated gifs, sounds and other components. This only makes a site look amateur.
Creating an Amateur Image
You might have a brick and mortar business that’s been around for the last decade, with tons of satisfied customers.On the Internet, your visitors are meeting you for the first time.A professional online image will inspire trust. When designing your website, here are some things to avoid so that your business does not look amateur or like a fly-by-night operation:
- Dark, heavy backgrounds with hard-to-read fonts - For a business website, it’s best to use a plain white background and black text so that your visitors can read it easily. Some first timers are tempted to have “fancy” backgrounds with different colored text. Not only does it make your text hard to read, but if you are including pictures of products, it is hard to make them blend in with the background.
- Pages that are larger than the browser screen - There’s nothing more irritating that trying to read a web page that scrolls across the screen. Most web usters have their desktop resolutions set at 1024 x 768. Try to remain within those confines.
- Sound effects - Everyone has different tastes when it comes to music, but even if you discovered music that appeals to every single person alive, don’t make it automatically load on your site. If you have a music site, you can create a jukebox that allows the user to click play if he or she wants to hear it. This applies to audio advertisements or other background sound effects — have a pause button or an off button.
- “Cool” effects - About 8 or 9 years ago, it was real “cool” to have a flash presentation on the index page. Everyone was doing this. This does not help establish your online reputation. Flash introductions take a lot of effort to create and in the end, many are just downright stupid. These intros can take a long time to load and most people will not wait around to view them. Other things that beginners think are cool include animated images, page fading effects and scrolling text. I added these types of things when I first started out, thinking it made me look talented. However, the harsh reality is that these effects are a turnoff. I have seen some sites designed by alleged website design specialists, where the links quickly scroll across the screen and you have to “aim and shoot” just to be able to click a link. Don’t bother including these effects. Your visitors discovered your site when searching for information or products — they are not there to be impressed with your stie design skills.
- No clear navigation scheme - Many people enter a website by the interior pages, not at the home page. You need to provide them a way to easily navigate through your site. Because of their popularity, your visitors will be most familiar with menus that are on the top or the left. The key is that you keep your menu in the exact location throughout your site so that it is consistent. An amateur web design has no clearly defined and consistent navigation menu.
- No search feature - Particularly if you have a large product line that you are selling or if you have a content rich site, always include a search box to help your visitors. If you don’t know how to do this, try Google’s free search box or another quality free service. This makes your site “user friendly” and shows that you care about your visitor’s experience on your site.
- “Secret” prices - If you’re selling products, include the price. Don’t force your potential customer to go through the shopping cart process just to find out the price — many are turned off by this and will not do it in the first place.
- Policies - An amateur site will not include privacy policies, terms of use and, when selling products or services, returns and shipping policies. It’s a good idea to provide contact information, particularly if you are selling products or services.
- Under construction pages - “Under construction” or “coming soon” pages are a surefire way to announce that you’re an amateur. If you are not done with a page yet, do not link to it. Once the page is completed and uploaded, then you can add a link to your menu and sitemap.
- No online shopping cart - If you are selling a product, provide a way for people to purchase your product online. If people are online to buy something, they want to be able to buy it immediately. Generally, they do not want to mail a check or money order. If you don’t have a merchant account, take a look at Paypal or, if y ou are selling digital products, consider services like Clickbank. There are other quality shopping carts available for people who already have a merchant account, such as Mals-e.com, which also provides an affiliate program option.
What’s Your Gripe?
Newbie or pro, you can voice your opinion about what makes a stinking website at the NotGuru’s survey about poor website design.The NotGuru blog offers plenty of simple resources and tips, as well as software, giveaways and other offerings. Take the site design survey today and feel free to submit your comments - the results are quite interesting.
Tags: javascript, newbies, sound, survey, Web Design, website design