7 Deadly Web Design Sins You Should Be Aware Of

Web design is tricky than web development. People mostly have different perspectives for the good design and the bad design. Some people think that the design of the site does not matter at all; there should be good functionality on the site. Others believe that the design of the site is everything and the functionality can compensate with the design of the site. Both the perspectives depend on the type of website being created.

It might happen that the design you are following for your website is not attracting many users and failing for most of the users. Yes, this is true. It is a common mistake most of the web designers make while designing the website.

Let’s have a look at the 7 deadly designs that you should not use in your site.

#1. Rotating sliders

Rotating slider is a poor way of representing the home page of a site. Rotating banners never look good on a page and they should be removed immediately.

The main problem with using the sliders on the page is that the users do not find time to read the content on the sliders as they change frequently. One slide takes less than 3 seconds to display the content and immediately change to the next one. This is bad for the site. The user will go to the next page immediately and would not wait for all the sliders to appear for them.

It is better to avoid and not use the moving sliders unless there is a solid reason to do so.

#2. A messy homepage

The awesome design of the homepage will not make the users to stay on the page for longer. Most of the homepages of the site are completely overwhelming. There is so much on the homepage as people want to communicate a lot to their users. But it cannot be compensated with the real and relevant content on the page. The boggling design of the homepage is a disaster for the user.

The homepage is the most important page and the page should tell the user in 2 to 5 seconds about the brand or the product or the information the user is looking for.

Cleanliness and simplicity are the two most important aspects to be followed for a homepage of a site. The more the page is clean and simple, the more is the traffic on the site.

#3. Fonts with low contrast

The font of the content on a page is very important. Font colors play a key role in making the site, one of the favorites among the users.

Many designers keep the font colors with low contrast against the other font colors on the page. Sometimes, this happens with the most important content on the page. This makes the relevant text unreadable by the user.

The content or the text on the site is solely for the users to read. If the users are not able to read the text, then it is of no use for the site. Users will definitely avoid sites with such bad font colors.

It is necessary to use high contrast fonts and always think twice before using the low contrast fonts on the site, especially for the most important content.

#4. Small size of fonts

The small size of the fonts is the most common mistake by the web designers.

The font size of the main content on the page should always be large, so that the user reads that text first before reading anything else on the page.

In the past, the font size used to be 12px and everyone used to follow this size on their websites. But nowadays, this font size is rarely being used as this size font is quite hard to read and understand by most of the users.

The target of every website is to make the users stay longer and this is possible only when the designers focus on the look and feel of the content on the page. The headlines on the page should be great enough to grab user’s attention on the first visit. Headline font should also be bigger than the other content’s font size on the page. The headline can be kept around 35px on a normal page.

#5. No focus on user’s needs

The user is very important for every website and it is important to keep the user on the site for longer and make him or her visit the site again.

There are many sites that do not organize the relevant information on the site properly. They stay focused on their internal categories, rather than the main content. Everything on the page needs to be covered by the user and it is only possible when the information on the page is properly organized, may be by using bullets or any other means. It is very important to make the user know who you are and what your services are, rather than focusing on the irrelevant information on the site.

#6. No more flash

Flash is an old talk now. It is true that flash sites were used to be the top most sites in the past, but now we have come a long way.

Search Engine Optimization is what is needed on the site. So flash is a big no for the sites nowadays. The content matters more than the flashy design on the website. Gone are the days when flash used to be for everyone, but now this is opposite. And if you are looking for better SEO and good search engine rankings, then it is better to avoid flash sites.

#7. No space for popup ads and dead links

The most annoying thing for the users is the popup ads that keep popping up on the screen until the users close the site. This is bad for your site.

Popup ads are a big no for your site. This is the time of SEO and popup ads on the page make it irrelevant for the search engines. Search engines just avoid the pages with too many popup on them.

There should be no dead links on the page. It is important to bury them. A link-checker should be run at least once a month to check for any dead links on the page. There are many different link checkers available on the web that can help you with this process.

Bottom Line

Some of the sins made in the web design are legitimate. The popup windows are sometimes important for a website. They are effective when you want your users to sign up for a weekly newsletter or provide your users with some special offers.

Everything on the page should be so compelling that the user overlook the annoyance. The users should be excited to visit your page and this should be the top most priority while designing the website. There should be top quality information on the site, so as to make the users return to the site in future. The sins should be deployed with delicacy in order to make the users comfortable visiting the site. They need to be used whenever necessary as unwanted sins will surely make your users annoyed.

Keval Padia is a Founder & CEO of Nimblechapps, a fast-growing website design and smart watch app development company. The current innovation and updates of the field lures him to express his views and thoughts on certain topics.