Ten Common Web Design Mistakes

Twenty years ago, just having an online presence put you streets ahead of your competition and the quality and ease-of-use of your site was secondary (at best). Now, of course, with millions of company websites out there, each one needs to be at the top of its game to attract and retain visitors.

Any mistakes on your site will lose business and very often, when someone’s been turned off from a site, they never return. Here’s the ten most common mistakes found on websites, so read on and make sure you give them a swerve.

No focus

You need to sum up what you and your company are about as early and as succinctly as possible or people just get lost. If someone’s interested in finding out more, make it easy for them to navigate your site.

Huge blocks of text

Lots of content is fine, but if it’s presented as massive, unbroken reams of words, it’s off-putting. Break it up with sub-headings, short paragraphs, bullet points, images and even some free space here and there.There’s a web design company in Perth that concentrates on mobile-responsive sites as it believes they will soon dominate and that clunky desktop sites will become extinct.

Hard to read text

Make sure the words are visible against the background. It was fun (for five minutes, back in 1997) to have orange text on a red background, but just because you can doesn’t mean you should. Similarly, dark grey against black is a no-go.You should also consider people with visual impairments when you choose your colour schemes.

Pop-ups that don’t pipe down

Just lose the pop-ups. They distract visitors at best and infuriate them when they cover the page. The same goes for pointless animations, lines of waffle and discount banners.

A site that’s hard to navigate

Think about how to guide visitors through your site, or how to get straight to the parts they want to see. Wading through irrelevant pages just sends people away. Clear navigation panels are the go-to solution here.

Irrelevant images

Of course images make a website look better, but each image has to fit the content it’s illustrating. Unrelated images are especially irksome if they take ages to load.

Old, tired info

Keep your site up-to-date so people know you’re still going!

Going contactless

This isn’t the fancy, new, hassle-free way to pay, it’s having no phone numbers or customer service emails visible (or even available). People still like to talk.

Endless forms

Filling in contact forms is time-consuming and can make customers drop off. Pare down forms as much as possible and don’t force people to give their ages and phone numbers.

No anti-spam reassurance

The other thing that stops visitors completing forms is the worry that you’ll pass details onto third parties, leading to a spam flurry. Make sure customers know you won’t do this – and then don’t!

All in all, if your website offers an enjoyable UX, visitors will return and will recommend you to their friends. Of course they come initially for the content, but you want them to keep coming back!