Top 10 Web Design Sins
Hiring the right web design company will avoid the pitfalls of bad design outlined below.
Poor Concept Planning The first step in creating an effective website is proper planning.
Flow and layout should be completely mapped before starting any design to ensure the site's message is clear and consistent throughout.
Sites without organisation are frustrating for visitors and result in little to no sales.
Overuse of Colours and Fonts A business website should appear professional.
This means a simple, neutral colour palette with a white background.
Too many different fonts and colours distract from the site content and may turn visitors away.
Lack of Contact Information One of the biggest errors in business design is hard to find or nonexistent contact links.
A well-designed site will have a link to a contact form or an email address on every page.
Visitors should never have to search for this feature.
Outdated Content A business's web success is directly proportionate to the freshness and relevance of its content.
Any changes in products offered, sales, pricing or availability should be reflected immediately.
Lack of updating may also result in a lower search engine ranking.
Bad Links Broken links will simply drive business away.
It's important to test all links before the site goes live and to keep testing them on a weekly basis to make sure they are not leading visitors into the ether.
Disconnected Pages All pages on a website should have a link back to the home page.
This is just proper navigation.
It also avoids the issue of visitors ending up in a dead-end situation when visiting from a forwarded link.
Disallowing the Back Button This is a large annoyance to visitors and will certainly drive business away.
It is best practice to be flexible with all navigation options.
Links in New Windows While there is a great deal of debate on this issue, it is best to have links open in the same window.
Too many tabs or windows open can severely tie up system resources.
Poor Optimisation One of the biggest factors to drive traffic away is slow loading pages.
This can be avoided by not placing too many images or apps on a page and also having the right hosting for the site's requirements.
Too Much Technology Business sites should remain simple and accessible in every web browser.
Visitors should not have to download or update anything to browse or make use of the site.
A web design company can create and maintain an effective site while avoiding all of the above problems.
It is a good investment for any business.