July 27th, 2012
Websites are the reputation barometers of a company. Audiences gather more information about a company or make a purchase or contact a company through its website. A poorly designed website loses impression with the audiences. It’s also highly likely that audiences share their negative feedback on social channels, which cab further affect your brand image. It always pays well to steer clear of common website development mistakes.
Mistake # 1 – Creativity Overdose
The primary aspect of importance in website development is ease of use for users. The creative aspect must not be a hindrance to this objective.
Do not use colors and contrasts that are harsh on the eye. Such elements affect the appearance as well as the readability of the website. Avoid unreadable fonts that some website development specialists use just for the sake of novelty or to give a rich appearance to the website. While the objective may be noble, the result must not make the website unreadable for visitors. Small fonts too affect the readability, and hence are best avoided.
Avoid excessive use of Flash components for they slow down page-loading painfully. Heavy use of audio components such as background music is a strict no. If the nature of your business demands audio integration, do so by giving the control to your users. Allow them to switch audio segments on or off according to their will. Refrain from placing too many images on a single page for they create a cluttered and unprofessional look.
Use free online tools to sample different color contrasts and study their effects on website readability and appearance. Visit popular websites within your industry and study how they’ve achieved design and usability balance.
Mistake # 2 – Disorganized Content
As important as the quality of content is the way it is presented. Avoid giving chunks and chunks of text. Prevent errors such as bad grammar, spelling and punctuation mistakes.
Audiences just want the information in a simple and concise manner. They do not have the time or inclination to read pages and pages of content. So, give it to them in a way they can skim through to get the summary of your most important messages. Headers, sub-headers, bold text, bullet points and paragraphs are some elements that help you prioritize content for easy scanning.
Organize content ergonomically. Avoid placing lines too close to each other for they make scanning and reading difficult for users. Have your in-house editors proofread the copy before making it live.
Mistake # 3- Losing Out on Navigation
Audiences visiting your website need to know their way in and way out. If you make this difficult, they are most likely not to return, affecting visitor stay time, and bounce rate, which sways search engine rankings.
Avoid confusing webpage names and paths. Give a clear meaningful name to every page on your website so that users can deduce logically the type of information they can find on each page. Implement bread crumb navigation technique to tell users where they are and track back to required pages.
Contact nvision Solutions to learn more about website development mistakes you can avoid.
