Creating the perfect website can be as simple as you want it to be. Graphics, videos and other visual content is great, but should be used sparingly. Sites should be as user-friendly as possible, with simple navigation and nothing too complicated for the average user, especially if you are selling products or services on your site. It is very easy for users to become frustrated, and they will leave the site and never return. In this article, we will take a look at the top 5 mistakes web designers should avoid.
Intensive Splash Page
While a high-intensity Flash splash page is aesthetically-pleasing and impressive, it also has many negative aspects. A splash screen can cause users to become frustrated with the site, and we all know that first impressions can make or break a deal. If a visitor to the site clicks out and doesn’t return because of an annoying splash screen, this can result in the loss of sales or other visitor actions on the site.
Splash pages often result in reduced search engine rankings, as those pages do not often have enough text or keywords to receive a high page rank.
Studies have shown that the majority of users click out of splash screens as quickly as possible. To ensure that visitors have the option to bypass the splash screen and still visit your site, you should implement a “Skip Intro” link that allows the visitor to skip the splash screen, and get directly to the content they are expecting to see.
While splash pages are a welcome addition to specific genres (gaming sites, music sites, etc.), on the majority of sites, they should most likely be avoided.
Frames (New Windows)
Many web designers use frames to open new content in a different window. This does have some benefits, as it allows the website visitor to stay on the main page while viewing the new content. However, there are numerous drawbacks to using frames as well.
Some browsers have issues displaying frames in the proper format that they are supposed to be shown in. If a search engine shows a direct link to a framed page, there will be issues with the display as well.
As noted above, search engines do not play well with frames, especially with direct linking. Because of the issues, many search engines will not index frames, while others choose to implement the “noframes” feature.
Frames can be useful on specific pages, but should be avoided on most sites. If users wish to see content in a separate window, they can simply open the new page in a tab, which will end up with the same result.
Complicated Navigation
When people come to your site, they don’t expect to have to go through a maze of navigational clicks to reach the content they are searching for. Visitors can quickly become frustrated if content is hard to find. A navigational bar should be implemented to each page to ensure that a visitor can get everywhere on the site within one or two clicks. Otherwise they may click out of the site and search for a more user-friendly site with simple site navigation.
Omitting Feedback Features
While not every page on a website needs to have a comment box, blog posts and other community pages should always have a section for users to leave comments or ask questions. Additionally each page on your site should have a “Contact” link to allow visitors to contact the owner or administrators of the site directly. If users can’t contact site managers, they may become frustrated if they have questions or issues, and will most likely click out and never return.
Dead-End Pages
Pages that don’t have any outbound links are known as dead-end pages (sometimes known as orphan pages). These pages are called dead ends for a reason. If a user cannot navigate from one page on your site to another page on your site, they will most likely just click out and never return. Every page on your site should have links to additional pages on your site to ensure they don’t reach a “dead end” and decide to click out of the site entirely.
Some web designers disable the back button on specific pages. This is one of the quickest ways to ensure that users click out of your site entirely. There are some pages that you may not wish to include a complete navigational map, but all pages should, at the very least, include a link to the home page. Some sites use this for redirects and popups, but this will only make your visitors think that they have visited a spam site, and they will most likely click out and visit your competition’s page.
