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Examples of Poor Website Design

There's no such thing as a perfectly designed website - or a finished website. However, there are common sense guidelines that should be followed in every web page design. Here are some common mistakes:

• Execrable Content:
  This is the worst offence. Mission Statements, technical gobbledygook, buzzwords - how many designers actually think about their visitors? Courses in good grammar, plain English and general communication are what is needed in bucketfuls. Plus a qualification in page layout.
  
  We understand this and take care that your copy is informative and persuasive.
  
  
• Search and Ye Shall Find:
  Not likely. Many websites do not have a single item of code that would help a search engine.
  
  ALL our website designs incorporate on-page search optimization free of charge.
  
  
• Flash Animation:
  Flash animations may impress clients but serve to frustrate (splash pages) and irritate (internal pages) visitors. They are search engine UNfriendly. Why bother to put a huge Flash animation as the home page and then add 'Skip Flash'? Using a Flash animation as the home page is like slamming the door on your visitor - neglecting to put a 'Skip' link is kicking him in the privates before you do it.
  
  
• GIF Animations:
  While we have to tolerate banner ads, the days of the rotating email and flapping flag are surely numbered, as are Hit counters.
  
  We use animations/slideshows only if they are an asset to the website design.
  
  
• Massive graphics:
  Almost full page in many instances. Again, impressive to clients but many visitors will not bother to see your second page!
  
  It's the words that are important silly!
  
  
• Poor Graphics Palette:
  Many websites still use huge swathes of lurid colour. Apart from being a strain on the eye after the fifth page, its difficult to focus the eye on your items of real interest.
  
  We use subtle colours on our websites and small amounts of vivid colour to draw your visitor's eye to the items of interest.
  
  
• Poor Navigation:
  Navigation is critical yet in the stampede to squeeze more and more into each page, navigation cues are becoming ambiguous and redundant. A visitor to a page he has already seen three times is not a happy camper.
  
  We only use CSS navigation - quick, search engine friendly and exceeds usability standards.
  
  
• Printing Woes:
  Most designers design for the popular 800 x 600 pixel screens which means that when printed, the visitor gets the full menu and half the content. We use CSS stylesheets that ensure that only the content you're interested in gets printed.
  
  
• Inkjet Cartridge Drainers:
  People complain about the price of cartridges but many websites still have thin, spidery text on dark backgrounds. Visitors don't want to run out of ink on the third page.
  
  We use a 'print only' page layout to avoid these woes.
  
  
• Liquid Pages:
  Basically left and right elements of fixed width with a middle - the content - that fills the gap. Fine and readable on 800 x 600 or 1024 x 768 screens but not on 1248 x 1024 screens or above. This obsession with the 'cinerama' page effect means that at high screen resolutions, paragraphs become single lines of text and almost illegible instead around 12 words wide.
  
  We fix our page width to the most popular browser size to maintain the most effective layout for your website
  
  
• Code Bloat:
  Designers still use WYSIWYG editors - largely because colleges love them to get students going quickly. They often produce huge amounts of extraneous code that confounds search engines and slows pages down.
  
  We only use text coding - the pages are faster, the content is ore visible to search engines, they are easier to administer and the latest advances can be easily incorporated if required.
  
  
• Frames:
  Have their uses but should be avoided if at all possible. Search engines hate them.