6 Web Design Mistakes You Must Avoid

A lot of your competitors have sites that are designed fantastically, with great functionality and features to boot. The primary reason why these webmasters put so much effort into the design and style of their site is to attract as much visitors to their site as possible.

If you have a site, but it wasn’t nearly as well designed or properly thought out, then you may notice that its traffic has never really met up to expectations, or maybe you’ve notice a slow decline in its number of visitors. Either way, there are several traps that you may have fallen into – traps that all web designers should look to avoid.

Below you will see a compilation of 6 web design mistakes that could unknowingly hampering your sites potential. So you’ll want to fix them, as soon as possible.

So, let’s take a look at these mistakes, shall we!

 

1. Improper Use of White Space and Its Content

When it comes to any website, content forms an integral aspect of it, along with its marketing efforts. It’s your content that will let your visitors know what your business, along with its services and/or products are all about. You need to pay as much attention as possible to the different fonts used, and how you position the text on your page.

The typeface you go with, will ultimately form your brand image, in addition to the words that you write, so make sure you go with a font style that makes sense. Make sure you properly utilise white space on your page, so as to draw attention to the blocks of text. Having too much text on a page is one mistake a lot of users tend to make. You don’t want to do that, so be sure to break up your text, where possible. You can use visual elements, if it makes things easier. Your content should be constantly kept up-to-date. Otherwise people may think you’re no longer in business.

 

2. Using PDF Files

Most web surfers hate it when they are forced to read a PDF file, because it can easily break the flow of their surfing experience. Even simple things, such as copying and pasting text or saving and/or printing the text becomes increasingly more difficult, because standard commands no longer work. The text layout on the PDF file may be optimised for a sheet of paper, which usually doesn’t match the typical size of your user’s browser window. Scrolling is also another issue, along with small fonts.

The worst part of it all, is that PDF files are usually unformatted blobs of text that are difficult to scan through.

PDF files are best suited for printing and distributing large documents, flyers and manuals – that require printing. So you should reserve its usage solely for those tasks, and convert any other information that you expect your visitors to browse and read through.

 

3. Website Takes Too Long to Load

If you have a website, but it takes far too long to load, then there are some aspects of it you may want to think about. The faster you’re able to get your site to load, the better experience you’re able to offer to your visitors. There is so much information you can find on making your website faster. So, for the sake of this article, we will only mention the most essential aspects of it – to get you started.

The first thing you want to look at, are you images. You want to ensure they are optimised, especially the most visible images. Nothing deters a web surfer more than a site with pictures and images that take an age to load, so resize your images and spend some time optimising your content.

Other things such as themes, plugins and modules are all capable of making your site load slower. Updating these things can, in most cases, help speed up your system, especially if it hasn’t been updated in a long while.

Remember to test things out first, before you make any of your chances live, just in case it breaks something on your site or the plugin stops working altogether. This way you can ensure your site has full functionality when you do eventually update it – after testing.

 

4. Poor CTA

Your CTA will make or break your website. As it’s the thing that dictates to your visitors, exactly what it is you want them to do. Whether it’s to click on a coupon, learn more about a specific product. Thus, it’s important that any CTA you go with, is simple and clear, instructing visitors exactly to what it is, and what you want them to do. You should provide the visitor with enough information so that they have a general idea of what they will get for carrying out said action, along with any additional information they may be expected to provide.

One thing to note is that, helpful content can become annoying, if not properly implemented. Make sure you have a CTA that is concise, instructing visitors to what they should do. Keep any filling of forms to a minimum, and give a couple of minutes on your page, before they come to your CTA.

 

5. Non-Mobile Friendly Website

If you have a website, but it’s not mobile friendly, not responsive to smaller screens, then there’s a large amount of potential traffic you’re missing out on. This is because mobile viewers will not take the time to navigate through your site if it doesn’t adapt to the size of the screen they are viewing it on.

Many statistics have shown, time and time again, that most web surfers access the internet through their mobile devices.

That means, you should expect 50+% of all visitors to your site to arrive via a mobile device. So you should take the time and effort to make their experience as fulfilling as possible. If you want this massive share of web traffic then a mobile friendly website is something you should aspire to.

 

6. Hidden Navigation

If you have a website but it has navigation issues, then that could potentially lead to its demise. We live in a new world, where people are able to access whatever they want, whenever they want. Making it difficult to identify your sites navigation is a web design mistake you want to avoid. 

Have you visited a website where you were unable to locate its menu or its search bar? It can be very annoying. Make sure, any navigation aspects of your site are easy for your web surfers to follow and understand.

 

AUTHOR INFO

Uchenna Ani-Okoye is a former IT Manager who now runs his own computer support website

Author

reverbtime-magazine

Poland Web Designer (Wispaz Technologies) is a leading technology solutions provider dedicated to creating innovative applications that address the needs of corporate businesses and individuals.

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