Designing your own website – common mistakes people make

This is by no means a definitive list, and you have to bear in mind that what one person finds annoying, another finds really useful. But here is a list of common mistakes that I think some people make when setting up their own site.

1. Download times
People do not like to be kept waiting, and will very often close a web page if it is not loading fast enough for them. If you keep your pages simple and low-tech, so to speak, they will load much faster and your visitor is likely to stay on your site for longer.

2. Inaccessible content
One of the things I know I personally find frustrating, is getting on a site and finding that I cannot access a lot of the information because it I have an old version of a certain programme that allows me to see the whole of the content of a page. I am sure a lot of visitors to your site wouldn’t be too impressed either. So try to avoid relying on the latest applications in order for people to download the content of your site.

3. Complicated and irrelevant Information
You understand every word on your website, great for you! But is every average Joe Bloggs also going to understand what you’re going on about? Make sure you check! If the subject matter is complex, make it as simple and to the point as you can. Split up huge blocks of text into smaller chunks with headings, and spread out on different pages if possible. Imagine if you bought a broadsheet newspaper, and the whole of the front page was one article, with text from left to right, top to bottom of the whole of the page! No headings, banners, titles etc. Some of us wouldn’t even attempt to try to read that, and very few would read the whole thing!

4. Horizontal Scrolling
Try to avoid this as much as possible. It gets too complicated trying to follow the line that you were reading across a moving screen, and then trying to find the beginning of the next line when you are done. People’s patience levels vary. Some people will not mind having to keep finding where they were in an article...too much. But more often than not, people will get frustrated and bored quickly and will find another site to find the information from.

5. Graphics and images
First of all, I will stress again the relevancy issue. If pictures/graphics are not needed, don’t have them! They just slow down your download speed for no reason. If you are trying to promote something, or explain something visually, then pictures and graphics are fine and useful, but if you just have them for the sake of it, is it really worth it?
Also, blinking/flashing graphics! I think I am among the majority when I say they are annoying and distracting and avoid them as much as humanly possible!

6. Broken Links
There is nothing worse than seeing something like ‘for more information, click here’ and clicking on that link...and nothing happens! Keep on top of the maintenance of your site to try to ensure this doesn’t happen to your visitors

7. Pages that open new windows
This prevents people using the back button. Also, if they find several pages of interest that they want to come back to, having separate pages clutters up their toolbar and slows down their computers. If you really want to use them, probably best to give people the option of whether or not they want them.

8. ‘Show-off’ features
Having fancy little cursors and background music is funny for the first few seconds of playing around with your funny little cursor...then it just gets annoying because it distracts your attention and gets in the way of what you’re trying to read. This would probably also not look very professional, if this is the look you are trying to achieve. They also take extra time to download, so probably best to forget about them.

9. Bad backgrounds, text sizes and fonts
Small text tires people’s eyes as they try to read it and means they don’t pick up very much of the important information that you have spent all this time compiling and they are more likely to look elsewhere. Also, try to stick to fonts that most people’s computers have, to help your visitors! As for backgrounds, they are great...but they also take a while to upload more often than not. Particularly if the background is dark, and therefore you have light text, it can get a little frustrating trying to start reading the page before the background has finished loading.

10. Pop-ups
Definitely try to avoid these at all costs! Another thing that I think the general populous finds annoying, and usually associated with advertising. Better to link to a new page and provide a ‘previous page’ link.

As I say, this is just my personal opinion of things that annoy me, and annoy some of the people that I know, when it comes to websites. You may disagree with some of what I have said, or have other pet hates that you think should be on my list. But I think if you avoid most of these things, you should be on your way to a better, more successful site.

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