Wazzup Pilipinas!
Looking for ways to improve your website? Avoiding these 7 common mistakes can greatly improve your website. Find out how you can make your website more engaging today.
One of the most common trends in websites today is large media integrations on their home pages. Most businesses make long introductory videos for their companies and products. These videos are sometimes more than 20 minutes long and are published on their homepages. Some of them are so heavy that it drastically affects the loading time of the webpage.
What web designers forget about is that not everyone has Optimum 400 internet speeds. Web design is not an exact science.
One of the most common trends in websites today is large media integrations on their home pages. Most businesses make long introductory videos for their companies and products. These videos are sometimes more than 20 minutes long and are published on their homepages. Some of them are so heavy that it drastically affects the loading time of the webpage.
What web designers forget about is that not everyone has Optimum 400 internet speeds. Web design is not an exact science.
Sometimes you can think what you are doing will be appealing to your audience. But it turns out to be a flop. Even still there are some common mistakes that you should avoid making.
7 Web Design Mistakes You Should Avoid
Websites are the face of your business. Most consumers make up their mind about a business based on their website experience alone. Studies show that most users decide in 5 seconds or less if your website is appealing. So your website needs to be immediately appealing. That leaves very little margin for error in the design and development of the website.
Here are some of the common mistakes that you should avoid in your website design:
Over-Cluttered Home Page
Slow Loading Times
Small Fonts and Non-Contrasting Colors
Poor Navigation
Poor Content and Structure
Not Optimizing for Mobile Devices
No Clear Call to Action
#1. Over-Cluttered Home Page
Source: https://www.bluecorona.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/01/website-design-mistakes-example.jpg
Believe it or not, this is an actual design of a live website homepage. Do you see what is wrong with it? Only a good UX agency will tell you that one of the biggest mistakes you can make is immediately bombarding the viewer like this. So much of information is never good.
7 Web Design Mistakes You Should Avoid
Websites are the face of your business. Most consumers make up their mind about a business based on their website experience alone. Studies show that most users decide in 5 seconds or less if your website is appealing. So your website needs to be immediately appealing. That leaves very little margin for error in the design and development of the website.
Here are some of the common mistakes that you should avoid in your website design:
Over-Cluttered Home Page
Slow Loading Times
Small Fonts and Non-Contrasting Colors
Poor Navigation
Poor Content and Structure
Not Optimizing for Mobile Devices
No Clear Call to Action
#1. Over-Cluttered Home Page
Source: https://www.bluecorona.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/01/website-design-mistakes-example.jpg
Believe it or not, this is an actual design of a live website homepage. Do you see what is wrong with it? Only a good UX agency will tell you that one of the biggest mistakes you can make is immediately bombarding the viewer like this. So much of information is never good.
Your home page should be clutter-free. And it should be well organized. If you have a lot of listings, like the website page above, then they should follow a structure. The images should all be of the same size and have some space between them. That will make your page look cleaner. And not overwhelm your viewer to the point that they decide to use another website.
#2. Slow Loading Times
Source: https://www.bluecorona.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/12/web-design-mistakes-speed.png
Slow loading times are a tremendous concern. Studies suggest that loading times of more than 5 seconds can be really bad for your user retention. It has become a common trend for business websites to have heavy images integrated on their homepages. That makes the pages slower to load.
Most users tend to simply move onto the next website suggestion in the search results. So if you are integrating heavy media on your website, it shouldn’t be on the home page. If you absolutely must, you can include a thumbnail or link on your home page. That keeps your homepage cleaner and improves loading times.
#3. Small Fonts and Non-Contrasting Colors
Another common mistake that web developers make is not paying attention to fonts and colors. A font might look good in the development stage, but turn out to be too small after publishing. The font that you select should be clear simple. You should also consider the fact that most of your website views will be over mobile devices. That means the screens are likely to be smaller so your already small font becomes even smaller.
Additionally, you should also pay attention to your font and background color scheme. These should always be in contrast, rather than complementary. Complementary colors schemes might look good at first, but make it difficult to read the words. Especially if the font is also small.
#4. Poor Navigation
A good website experience allows the viewer to navigate easily and effectively. That means the navigation bar should be easily accessible. And visible from all the pages on your website. It is also important to name the links to different pages clearly. You can certainly be creative in naming pages. Instead of the standard ‘About US’ page, you can change it to ‘Get to Know Us’.
But whatever you do, make sure that the term clearly defines what the page is about. Otherwise, it can cause a lot of confusion and lower your website experience. Another thing to keep in mind is to never leave a dead link on your navigation bar. You might have removed a page from your website but forgotten about the link in the navigation bar. Dead links make the user feel like you don’t care about your website experience.
#5. Poor Content and Structure
Remember this rule for any website, content is always king. If you have good content then it will increase your website experience. And structure goes hand in hand with your content. You need to carefully plan out your pages. The size and placement of images and the structure of your written content should all complement each other.
#6. Not Optimizing for Mobile
Source: https://www.bluecorona.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/12/common-website-mistakes-to-avoid2.jpg
Not optimizing your website for mobile views is one of the most common mistakes. Today’s audience is a lot more likely to visit your website over a mobile device. So you need to focus on making your website mobile-friendly. That means optimizing your images, fonts, colors, and your content.
#7. No Clear Call to Action
There has to be a reason you invest your time and money in creating and promoting your website. If your website does not have a clear call to action then it negates the purpose. If users can’t fulfil their purpose of visiting your website then they will simply leave.
Conclusion
If you haven’t realized, websites are now more important than ever for any business. The internet is more than just a medium for entertainment. Think about how you use the internet. I can speak for myself. I use my Optimum service for more than just Netflix and YouTube. I use the internet to do all my research, as well as most of my shopping. So most of my day involves using different websites. The one thing I have noticed is that if a website is not well designed, I am not likely to spend a lot of time on it.
Ross is known as the Pambansang Blogger ng Pilipinas - An Information and Communication Technology (ICT) Professional by profession and a Social Media Evangelist by heart.
