Easy Design

Survey Reveals What People Hate About Websites

What makes you want to click out of a website before you read the first sentence? For me, it is tasteless music with no way to turn it off.

Signs of Webmaster Newbies

All of us have been “newbies” at one point in our webmastering lives.To make what we thought were impressive sites, we spent hours searching the free javascript sites, dhtml sites and so on for copy-and-paste scripts.

You can generally spot a first timer’s website right off the bat because the webmaster adds a smorgasboard of javascripts, animated gifs and other components to the site, thinking it makes the site look technologically advanced. The problem is, this makes a site look amateur.

Creating an Amateur Image

You might have a brick and mortar business that’s been around for the last decade, with tons of satisfied customers.  On the Internet, however, your visitors do not know who you are.To inspire trust, you want a professional image.  When designing your website, here are some things to avoid so that your business does not look amateur or like a fly-by-night operation:

• Dark, heavy backgrounds with hard-to-read fonts – For a business website, it’s best to use a plain white background and black text so that your visitors can read it easily. Some first timers are tempted to have patterned or colorful backgrounds, with different text colors. Not only is this hard to read, but if you have a product line, it is difficult to make pictures of your product line blend in with the background.
• Pages that are larger than the browser screen – There’s nothing more irritating that trying to read a web page that scrolls across the screen. Generally, web users use 1024 x 768 as their desktop resolution. Try to stay within those confines.
• Sound effects – Everyone has different tastes when it comes to music, but even if you discovered music that appeals to every single person alive, don’t make it automatically load on your site. With a music site, there are scripts that will allow the user to click “play” at his or her option. This goes with audio advertisements or other background sound effects — provide a way to pause the sound or shut it off.
• “Cool” effects – About 8 or 9 years ago, it was real “cool” to have a flash presentation on the index page. Most everyone was doing this. This does not establish your online reputation. Flash introductions require a lot of effort to create and when they are done, do not offer anything substantive for the viewer. These intros can take a long time to load and most people will not wait around to view them. Other components that beginners think are flashy include scrolling text, animated images and page fading effects. When I first started out, I was guilty of adding these things because I thought it made me look like I knew what I was doing. However, the cold reality is that these effects are a waste of time and a turnoff. I have seen some sites designed by alleged website design specialists, where the links quickly scroll across the screen and you have to “aim and shoot” just to be able to click a link. Don’t bother adding these effects. People visiting your site are looking for specific information or products and are generally not looking to be impressed with the scripts you have embedded.
• No clear navigation scheme – Many people enter a website by the interior pages, not at the home page. You need to provide them a way to easily navigate through your site. Menus that are on the left side of the page or on the top of the page are the most popular. Regardless of where you place your menu, make sure it’s consistent throughout your entire site. A missing or confusing navigation menu is a sign of amateur web design.
• No search feature – Particularly if you have a large product line that you are selling or if you have a content rich site, always include a search box to help your visitors. If you don’t know how to do this, try Google’s free search box or another quality free service.This makes your site “user friendly” and demonstrates that you care about your visit’rs experience.
• “Secret” prices - If you’re selling products, include the price. Don’t try to force your potential customer into the shopping cart just to find out what the price is — it’s rude and many will not do it.
• Policies – An amateur site will not include privacy policies, terms of use and, when selling products or services, returns and shipping policies. If you are selling products or services, you should also provide contact information.
• Under construction pages – “Under construction” or “coming soon” pages are a surefire way to announce that you’re an amateur. If you are not done with a page yet, do not link to it. Add a link to your menu or sitemap at such time as the page is completed.
• No online shopping cart – If you are selling a product, provide a way for people to purchase your product online. If people are online to buy something, they want to be able to buy it immediately. Chances are, they do not want to send you a fax with their credit card information or mail in a check or money order. If you don’t have a merchant account, consider Paypal or, in the case of digital products, consider using a service such as Clickbank.  There are other quality shopping carts available for people who already have a merchant account, such as Mals-e.com, which also givesyou the ability to offer an affiliate program.

What’s Your Gripe?

Newbie or pro, you can voice your opinion about what makes a stinking website at the NotGuru’s survey about poor website design.If you’re looking for giveaways, software and tips to help your fledgling online business, the Not Guru blog delivers plenty of resources every day.Take the site design survey and feel free to voice your pet peeve in the comments – the results are quite interesting.

Design Idol -Google Lively Video Music Playlist of The Room