As Featured On Ezine Articles Expert Article

The HTML Writers Guild

Link to Web Wiz Developers Association

Design Tips

The top ten ways to tell if you have a great web design.

  1. Your customers can navigate the site with ease finding the information they want within three clicks.
  2. Search engines can easily index the pages you want people to find.
  3. You do not have a splash page!
  4. You have a consistent style through out the website
  5. Your contact information is front and center.
  6. There are not more then 3 at most 4 different colours within your site... and they are easy on the eyes.
  7. Your name and logo appear on every page.
  8. A link to your home page is always at the top of every page... even your logo can be a link home.
  9. Your web site achieves your business goals and objectives.
  10. Your web site impacts your bottom line in a positive way!

Ten Common Web Design Mistakes

Many small business owners design and build their own websites, or have a relative or friend do it. Unfortunately, mistakes get made that can cause them to lose customers, and prompt poor word of mouth. These are ten common mistakes and some ways to fix them.

  1. Mixed Messages
    Why do you have a website? What do you want your site to do ...perhaps it is to sell something? If you answered yes then you should put your best page forward so to speak! Your home page is where your focus should be... make people want to explore your site. Show potential customers a sample of what you have to offer. Very large logos and too much text detract from that purpose.
  2. Unclear Navigation
    Where is your MENU? Can you tell what it says or does it blend into the background? Navigation is your tool to get users to view your site. If you make it difficult, they won't bother.
  3. Too Many Clicks
    How many clicks does it take the user before they find what they are looking for on your site? Their patience may run out before they get there.
  4. Poor Graphic/Image Quality
    Be careful of the animation mistake. Putting moving graphics are ok if you don't over do it ... more then one is more then enough. Beware of images that are pixilated, too dark, and blurry? Remember everything on your site reflects on you. Be sure to include the width and height of your images in your image tags - this allows the browser to account for the dimensions of the image and load the page as intended.
  5. Too Much Text
    Most users don't read web pages, they scan. A marketing tool is to remember that the more white space around your text the more likely the public is to read what you have to say. Having too much text turns them off.. Of course, sites that are informational only are expected to have lots of text. Just try to break it up as stated above.
  6. Never Updating Your Site
    If you don't update your site regularly why would anyone return? When you update put the date somewhere on the first page so people will know that there is new content for them to see.
  7. Spelling/Grammar Mistakes
    I am guilty of this. Spelling and Grammar mistakes cause your site to look unprofessional. Have someone else proof your site.
  8. Using the Wrong Fonts
    If the font you have specified for your text is not installed on the user's computer, they won't see it. That is why it is necessary to specify a font that is available on both Windows and Mac.
    They are:
    • Arial
    • Comic Sans
    • Courier New
    • Georgia
    • Times New Roman
    • Trebuchet
    • Verdana

    9. When you create graphics, you can use any font you think looks good because it doesn't need to be on the user's computer.

  9. No Privacy Policy
     In this day and age this is a no brainier... You need to assure people the data you collect where it is email address, IP address or any thing to do with their visit to your site... that you will not sell the information to a third party.
  10. Didn't Test Site/Don't Know Stats
     Did you check to see what your site looked like in multiple browsers? What looks good on your computer in one browser can look like a mess in another browser; e.g... text overlapping images, alignment out of whack, things breaking out of their designated areas. Familiarize yourself with the current web statistics for browsers. The current trend is that most computers are using a screen size of 1024x768 pixels or more.

    January 2009

    • Higher 57%
    • 1024x768 36%
    • 800x600 4%
    • 640x480 0%
    • unknown 3%
  11. Bonus
    Remember that all those cool scripts and features don't necessary run on all browsers. What will work on IE may not work on FireFox and visa versa. Below are some Browser Statistics. (May 2009)
    • IE7 21.3%
    • IE6 14.5%
    • IE8 5.2%
    • Firefox 47.7%
    • Chrome 5.5%
    • Safari 3.0%
    • Opera 2.2%
Back to the top