Web designing can be interesting yet tricky for newbies and shockingly some professionals. Have you ever wondered why some webpages feel homey, looks simple yet appealing? Such webpages deliver more than others with complex and artistic designs. The secret? Well, those exotic webpages have certain errors; while developers of others pages go overboard with many page elements (more on this later).
Why do errors occur?
Mistakes occur in web development because of the mindset of the developer. Developers usually get carried away thinking they are the users. They hold the erroneous belief that if they like the site, then users would too.
Also, they sacrifice usability and usefulness on the altar of creativity. They focus on creating dashing websites by giving priority to looks over performance. They should rather create pages visitors (no matter their level of education) can surf seamlessly without assistance.
What Are the Common Web Design Mistakes and How Do You Avoid Them?
Here we have ten common web mistakes that novices and some professional alike commit and how to avoid them. Do read on for more Web design for beginners’ hints that will offer you some easy remedies.
1.Neglecting the Business Goals
It is common for a novice developer to get overtaken by the zeal of creating a ‘fantastic’ webpage while neglecting the goal of the business itself. What is the purpose of a good-looking page that cannot deliver the needed traffic? A page must be able to draw maximum online traffic and in turn, increase the sales of that business. It must provide visitors with awesome user experience (UX).
2. Sacrificing Site Typography on the altar of design
It’s a common error for a beginner to focus on creating a stunning site at the detriment of quality contents. “Content is king,” therefore presenting the content of a webpage is more important than its design. Content must draw visitors, otherwise the page will soon start losing traffic.
3. Adding frequent pop-ups and modals
Newbies and even some pros have the knack for overwhelming visitors with pop-ups and models once they get to their page. Getting blasted with pop-ups as one browses can be annoying. It prevents flow and seamless browsing. For instance, having the pop-up “who can write my essay now” blast the screen while visitors are on a writing page should not be done with ease, else it will reek desperation.
4. Readability issues
Many novices are guilty of creating websites that look awesome but not legible enough. They should pay attention to colours, highlights, font types, font colours, background, patterns and so on. If after creation, the presentation elements of the page do not compliment one another to make reading easy and fun, then the entire process is wrong.
5. Overuse of Whitespace remover
Whitespaces improve the readability and appearance of webpages. However, whitespaces must not be too much. That is why the Whitespace remover tool is used. If the designer uses too much Whitespace remover, the page will appear dense and jumbled all over with texts, buttons, checkboxes, tabs, etc. Optimum use of Whitespaces to improve the user experience.
6. Overuse of images and animations
While images and animations attract the attention of visitors to pages, too much use of them can be upsetting. As it with anything, the use of images and animations must be done optimally. Images must be relevant and used where necessary while the animations should have ‘Skip’ button for the optional view.
7. Neglecting mobile device optimization
Welcome to the age of smartphones and other mobile devices. The mistake of creating webpages and ignoring mobile device optimization is rampant. Today, the majority of online traffic comes from mobile devices and smartphones hence the need to optimize webpages for mobile device usage. A mobile optimized webpage will be easy to view on screens of those devices and images, texts, etc will load fast on them.
8. Crowding up the site with too much information
Trying your best to fit an entire college football team into a Ferrari will look awkward in every way. Likewise fitting too much information to a webpage will have the same effect on viewers. Bombarding visitors with too much text is sure of losing them fast. Only essential information need be on the webpage, and these must be concise and short.
9. Throwing the web standard out of the window
Websites have standards that aid the creation of usable pages and applications. Novice developers commit the following blunders:
- Using the wrong DOCTYPEs
- Using old-fashioned HTML
- Neglecting adequate formatting or intricacies of inline or block elements such as adequate us of h2 headings etc
- Forgetting to validate code or ignoring the result of the validation
10. Using More Than 3 Fonts
When developing a webpage, the rule is to use at least two types of fonts and at most three. More than three font type produces an overwhelming effect on visitors. An adequate number of font types has a way of increasing readability level and traffic to the websites. For best result use simple and easy to read fonts against fancy fonts for that clean and professional look.
Conclusion
Recall that the key to successful web design is simplicity! The simpler the design, the more user-friendly it becomes. If you manage a web design blog, let me know other common errors in the comment box.
