Website design has come a long way in the last decade or so. But there are still designers who refuse to change. You feel like tearing your hair when you see the following design mistakes:
Mistake 1
Use of videos that play on their own: Nothing is more irritating than visiting a site where the video is programmed to play the moment the page downloads. You have to scramble to find the stop button, especially if you are browsing the net in the office. Most users prefer to close the page than to find a way to stop the sound.
Mistake 2
Use of unnecessary animation: Animation is useful on sites designed for children. Animated buttons, pictures etc catch their attention. But on serious sites animation is a distraction. It disturbs eye movement. So, keep animation to a minimum on serious sites.
Mistake 3
Use of loud image backgrounds: You should never allow background image to overshadow the text. It reduces legibility, and makes reading difficult. Even watermarks should be avoided as they affect reading.
Mistake 4
Use of long articles: Designers now use bigger fonts to display text. This has made reading easier but the space needed to display text has gone up. The reader is now forced to scroll several screens to read the article. You must make sure that you keep your articles short. They should not go beyond three screens.
Mistake 5
Use of high resolution images: Today, even mobile phones come with 5 MP cameras or more. When these photographs are published on the site they take a painfully long time to download. You should use a compression software to reduce the weight of pictures before uploading them. Fortunately, most picture editing software like Adobe Photoshop or Microsoft Office Picture Manager have an option to compress photographs. Use it.
Mistake 6
Use of wide lines: You should not run text across the entire width of the page nor should you break your page in multiple columns. The best line width is 600 pixels. It is easiest to read.
Mistake 7
Opening of story links in external windows: It is very tempting to programme stories to open in a new window. But when you do so you clutter the user’s screen with scores of windows. This can be very annoying for the user. An external link can be opened in a new window. This way you ensure that the user stays on your site. Internal links must open in the same window.
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