Survey Reveals What People Hate About Websites
When landing at a website, what makes you say ‘yikes’ and click the back button? For me, it is tasteless music with no way to turn it off.
Signs of Webmaster Newbies
All of us have been “newbies” at one point in our webmastering lives.We spent hours at dhtml, javscript and graphics sites looking for copy-and-paste stuff that we thought would make our sites look impressive.
You can easily spot a first timer’s website because of the smorgasboard of javascripts, animations and other copy-and-paste components. Unfortunately, this only makes a site look amateur.
Creating an Amateur Image
You might have a brick and mortar business that’s been around for the last decade, with tons of satisfied customers.On the Internet, however, your visitors do not know your reputation.To establish trust, you want to have a professional image. When designing your website, here are some things to avoid so that your business does not look amateur or like a fly-by-night operation:
- Dark, heavy backgrounds with hard-to-read fonts - For a business website, it’s best to use a plain white background and black text so that your visitors can read it easily. Some first timers are tempted to have “artistic” backgrounds with different colored text fonts. Not only is this hard to read, but if you have a product line, it is difficult to make pictures of your product line blend in with the background.
- Pages that are larger than the browser screen - There’s nothing more irritating that trying to read a web page that scrolls across the screen. The majority of web users use 1024 x 768 as their desktop resolution. Try to stay within those confines.
- Sound effects - Everyone has different tastes when it comes to music, but even if you discovered music that appeals to every single person alive, don’t make it automatically load on your site. Wtih a music site, there are scripts that you can use that will give your visitor the option to click play. The same goes with audio advertisements or other background sound effects — have a pause or “off” button.
- “Cool” effects - About 8 or 9 years ago, it was real “cool” to have a flash presentation on the index page. Almost everyone was doing this. This does nothing to establish your online reputation. Flash introductions involve a lot of effort to create and when it is all said and done, many look silly. These introductions can take a long time to load and generally, people will not view them. Page fading effects, animated images and scrolling text are things that beginners seem to think are cool. I added these types of things when I first started out, thinking it made me look talented. However, the harsh reality is that these effects are a turnoff. I’ve seen some sites, designed by supposed design specialists, where the links scroll by really fast and you have to “aim and shoot” just to be able to click a link. Do not bother including these effects. People visiting your site are looking for specific information or products and are generally not looking to be impressed with the scripts you have embedded.
- No clear navigation scheme - Many people enter a website by the interior pages, not at the home page. You need to provide them a way to easily navigate through your site. Menus that are positioned on either the left or the top of the web page are the most popular and will be most familiar for your visitors. Regardless of where you place your menu, make sure it’s consistent throughout your entire site. A surefire indicator of an amateur web design is the absense of a navigation menu.
- No search feature - Particularly if you have a large product line that you are selling or if you have a content rich site, always include a search box to help your visitors. If you do not know how to do this, there are quality free services such as Google search. This makes your site “user friendly” and shows that you care about your visitor’s experience on your site.
- “Secret” prices - If you’re selling products, include the price. Don’t force your visitor to click through the shopping cart just to find out what the cost will be — many of them will not do it, anyway.
- Policies - An amateur site will not include privacy policies, terms of use and, when selling products or services, returns and shipping policies. If you are selling products or services, you should also provide contact information.
- Under construction pages - “Under construction” or “coming soon” pages are a surefire way to announce that you’re an amateur. Do not bother linking to pages under construction. Once the page is completed and uploaded, then you can add a link to your menu and sitemap.
- No online shopping cart - If you are selling a product, provide a way for people to purchase your product online. If a web surfer is beyond the ‘research mode’ and ready to buy something online, he or she wants to be able to buy it immediately. Chances are, they don’t want to mail a check or money order. Paypal is a good option if you don’t have a merchant account and if you’re selling digital products, services like Clickbank are worth considering.There are free shopping carts available for people who already have a merchant account, such as Mals-e.com, which also provides an affiliate program option.
What’s Your Beef?
Newbie or pro, you can voice your opinion about what makes a stinking website at the NotGuru’s survey about poor website design.The NotGuru blog offers plenty of simple resources and tips, as well as software, giveaways and other offerings.If you have a couple of seconds to spare, take the site design survey and feel free to comment - the results are interesting.
Tags: javascript, newbies, sound, survey, Web Design, website design