Small business owner, graphic designer, article writer & blogger. Marnie lives on the Central Coast of New South Wales and spends most of her day doodling in Illustrator, liasing with clients and trying to keep from having 'just one more' bottle of delicious but addictive V. 
7 big beefs with web design
Thursday, October 16th, 2008Common Design Mistakes, Part 2
In Part 1 of my Common Design Mistakes series I talked about some basic mistakes amateur designers and small business owners sometimes make when designing their own flyers and promotional items. In Part 2, I’m going to talk about some common design mistakes made in that place that is either loved or feared: the world wide web.
I mentioned that small business owners can’t always afford to hire a professional to design their flyers, letters, posters, etc. It’s no wonder then that a website would be seen as even less affordable. They cost more, take longer and it can be hard to find the right designer to get the job done.
I would urge anyone thinking about doing their own website to stop and consider the benefits of having it done professionally, but for those who simply can’t or don’t want to pay a professional, here are a few tips to get you going and some pitfalls to avoid.
splash and intro pages
My biggest beef with websites these days is intro pages. Now, for the moment at least, I’m not talking about splash pages – a pretty page with your logo and a link that says ‘enter here’. No, not those. I’m talking about those pages that just keep scrolling and scrolling and trying to convince you that the product or service being offered is what you need and that you should enter your email address or credit card details right this second so that you don’t miss out. Oh, and so that they’ll actually let you get to their real website.
It’s true that your website is there to ultimately sell your product or service, but this approach seems pushy and desperate and can often come across as one of those scam websites we all love – give me $50 and I’ll make your wildest dreams come true.
Unless you run an online store and your home page has products listed on it, you shouldn’t instantly be trying to shove your products down your visitors’ throats. While a lot of your website visitors will be typing your URL into their address bar because they’ve heard about you and are ready to buy, there are a hell of a lot more that are visiting your site because they want to know about your business. When the first thing they see is an ugly intro page full of text that takes them 10 minutes just to scroll through, let alone the 30 minutes to actually read it, your business can come across looking desperate, unprofessional, and with ‘hard sell’ written all over it. A professional website should not include an intro page. Take a look at the big names. I guarantee you won’t find an intro page in sight.
Splash pages are another huge concern. While they don’t appear gimmicky like intro pages, they can be a huge annoyance to your visitors, particularly if it’s a long-loading flash intro that doesn’t have the option to ’skip intro’. Whilst you may have a fast internet connection, many of your visitors may not and they will become mighty frustrated if they have to wait 60 seconds or more just for an intro to load. Let’s face it – internet users are impatient. Chances are that if you have not already established a relationship with one of these slow connection visitors, they’re going to become aggravated and close your site.
Aside from not wanting to annoy your visitors, you should consider the effect a splash page will have on your search engine rankings. Even if you’re not using flash for an intro page, it’s probably going to be a huge version of your logo or an awesome image coupled with the words ‘enter website’. When search engines look at your home page and see this, it’s not going to do much for your rankings.
According to Web Resource Center, ‘the skip intro link is often the most clicked link on sites which have intro pages.’ You wouldn’t make a customer stand out the front of your store or office and read a sign before they were allowed to enter, so why do it with your website?
is this the same business?
I often see websites that look nothing like the brand they’re meant to represent. There’ll be a logo present, sure, but not much else that tells you it’s even the same business. It’s quite simple: you need to keep your brand consistent and there is more to this than just having your logo on something. You should have specific colours you use that relate to you and your business as well as supporting elements that you put on your marketing material. Your website is no different – if you use a cluster of dots in the corner of your business cards and letterhead, incorporate this into your website. Use these dots next to page headings or titles or even as the dots on bullet points.
What you shouldn’t do is place your elegant red and brown logo on a site with a blue background and white text – these aren’t your colours and they’re not going to do a thing to reinforce your brand to your website visitors. The same goes for having a different style on every page of your site. Do this and your visitors will wonder if they’re even still on the same website.
stock photography
Stock photography isn’t necessarily a mistake, but overusing generic stock photos, such as the call centre woman with the headset, the smiling businessman, the computer mouse or a globe of the world, is never a good idea. These sorts of images are overused on the web and do not look genuine. They come across as impersonal and staged and really don’t lend any creativity to your website’s design.
If possible, have some photos professionally taken. Side note: if you’re having photos of yourself taken and you’re trying to convince people you can help them, you should try to look like you want to help them.
If you can’t afford to pay a photographer and need to use stock, make sure you pay for it – there is a huge difference between the quality of paid stock and the quality of free stock – and don’t just grab the first stock image you see. Dig deep. Don’t use one that will just ‘do’ but find one that fits perfectly with your image and the message you’re trying to get across. It can take hours to find the right stock photo, but the result is worth it.
not enough white space
In my last article, I spoke about the importance of white space in your advertisements and promotional material. The same goes for your website.
It can be tempting to fill up blank spaces with random images (see stock photo section above) or even banners and badges of affiliates and communities you’re involved with. But the catch with temptation is that you shouldn’t always give in to it. If you’re a business, you want to come across as professional. Filling up every inch of space on your site with images, text, videos, etc. will make your site seem cluttered. Cluttered equals disorganized and messy which equals unprofessional.
If you really need to put up banners, random images or blocks of text, have a separate page for them and lay them out in a structured, organized manner. Don’t try and cram them into the side bar of your site because it seems like they might just squeeze in. These aren’t things that need to be on your home page (half of them probably don’t need to even be on your site) so give them their own space and avoid ruining the layout of your site.
too much text / not enough text / ugly text
While we’re revisiting points made in the last article, we may as well revisit this point as well. Text – there are so many ways it can go wrong.
You need to strike a good balance with the text on your site. You need enough to inform the reader and tell them everything they’ve come to your site to find out, but you don’t want so much text that they start to skim over it and don’t really take anything in.
When I was at uni, I was told something that stuck (even if I don’t make use of it very often). ‘Make every word count.’ Do this with your website. Read over what you’ve written and if it seems like you’re going on a bit or you’re unsure if the reader really needs to read that paragraph, chances are they don’t. Get rid of it.
In the same instance, you shouldn’t have a page on your website with 1 tiny paragraph and a huge blank space underneath it. If this is what you’ve got, you probably don’t need a whole page for that information. Try putting it in your About Us page or similar.
Your best bet? Hire a copywriter that knows what works on the web.
When styling your text, avoid having 10 different typefaces and sizes. Pick one or two and work with that. You should never have a whole paragraph in 8pt and another directly underneath in 14pt. Don’t constantly alternate between sizes, colours and fonts for the sake of it. Use a larger size for your headings and a smaller one for the text underneath it to keep your pages clean and consistent in style.
images resized in code
In short, if you have a large image that you want to appear smaller on your site, resize it using an image editing program and use the smaller version. Whatever you do, don’t resize it in the code. Doing this can cause your images to appear distorted and can also be a pain as far as loading time goes. A 1mb image that has been resized in the code may appear smaller, but it’s still a 1mb image and its loading time will reflect this.
getting it over and done with
It’s important to remember that your website isn’t just one of those things that’s fun to have. It’s an important marketing vehicle and can bring in a lot of business, so it isn’t something that should ever be rushed. A good web design takes time and should be well thought out and planned down to the smallest detail.
Your website is something that will evolve over time and is never really ‘finished’. Treat it as an ongoing project and you will not only have fun watching it grow and change, but will have more luck with search engines and will, over time, work out what works best for your business on the web.
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