What To Avoid To Make Your Website Design Effective

The most effective design is the one that
is the simplest possible and that meets your users’ needs, because the needs and expectations of the visitors to your
website are your main concern.

It is the one that announces, simply and clearly, what your website is about. It is the one that quickly offers users exactly
what they are expecting to see on your pages, without troubling them with insignificant information.

The biggest mistake of lots of web designers is to design according to their own point of view, without considering what the users want and need.

Factors damaging website design effectiveness

• Long download times
• Badly written content
• Complex design with too many elements
• Difficult navigation, incomprehensible for the user
• Poorly written, unvalidated code that generates errors

Long download times

Your pages’ download time is extremely important. Your users will simply leave your website without viewing it, if you exhaust their patience waiting for your pages to download, and users are
known to have low thresholds when waiting to view web pages.
Remember, the other sites are only a mouse click away from them.

The download time is important no matter what type of element is
under consideration: graphics, multimedia, scripts, or applets
that are necessary for you to project your site’s message effectively; and to this end, you need to be cautious about where on your site you place such elements.

Don't put them in without thinking about the best place for them, and don’t include them just because you or your designer had an idea about it. Design them small-sized, as well.

Badly written content

Text prepared for print has nothing to do with text for the Web. According to Jacob Nielsen, the Web usability guru, users have more difficulties in reading the information on computers than in
printed editions. They scan it, rather than read it carefully. Huge text blocks cannot be scanned and will not fit on a computer
screen, and hence are unreadable by your users.

The following means can be used to make text more readable and
effective:

• separate paragraphs
• titles
• subtitles
• indentations
• bullets
• bold type
• hyperlinks
• different fonts and sizes

Complex design with too many elements

Don't complicate users’ work by complex design with many elements, which makes the website unclear in terms of its downloading and its appearance on the screen.

Avoid frames. They could seriously damage your website usability.

Avoid having a site made exclusively in FLASH, because just to
download a Flash site, before your users can see anything of your
site at all, will take several minutes, so you won’t be able to
explain to your users in a fast and clear way, what your site is
about, who it would be useful for, or what your users could gain
by using your services.

If you insist, however, on including FLASH elements, a much
better option is to insert them into a regular html page as a
small, separate file, but even in this case, you should have a
clear purpose in including it, a purpose that contributes to the
overall effect of your website.

Always include a comprehensible title tag, which explains clearly
what is your page about (the title tag is the page title you see
on the top of the browser).

Always include text on your homepage that explains to your users
who you are and what you are talking about on your site.

Difficult navigation, incomprehensible for the user

Don't upset the user by poor navigation; it will make him feel
lost. A visitor could enter your site by any one of its pages,
not only by the home page. If he enters by a different page, it
must be immediately evident to him where he is on your site, and
where he can go by clicking on the links provided.

Don't leave your site without a site map. The site map gives the
user the opportunity to orient himself quickly and easily.

Always put on each of your pages a link to the home page plus the
firm's name and logo, and make them a link to the home page, as
well.

Avoid orphaned pages, where a user could get lost.

Don't change the default color of the hyperlinks, because users
expect to see them exactly that way. When a text is blue, the
user is used to thinking it is a link, and if it is purple, that
it is a visited link. Colors different from the default ones will
confuse them.

Don't make blue a text that is not a hyperlink. That will also
confuse them.

Don't place a link that leads to the same page, except those that
go to other sections on the page.

Poorly written, unvalidated code that generates errors

The code your site is written in is validated according to
browsers from different types and versions.

Incorrectly written program code will make your site users close
it immediately due to its poor appearance in their browsers.

Correctly written code is the best way to ensure the proper
appearance of your pages on the greatest possible variety of
browsers. This includes both old and future versions.

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Veselin Andreev is one of the founders of Svilaves, which offers
website design and promotion services, the quality and effect of
which are aimed at the successful development of their clients’
business. Read the exact details of their services at
http://www.svilaves.com
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Author Name: Veselin Andreev
Author Email: veselin@svilaves.com
Author Website: http://www.svilaves.com