Biggest Mistakes In Web Design

Reading the Biggest Mistakes In Web Design was interesting to me because I had previously attended and graduated from MATC’s Commercial Art program, so I have a bit of history in regards to design and have seen how websites have evolved in years. One of the mistakes mentioned was the use of Flash. When I took my web design class back in either 1997 or 1998, Flash was all the rage in web design. Unfortunately, in a time where people were still slowly starting to get high speed internet access, Flash was a bane. In this era of HTML 5, I feel Flash is a dinosaur in web design (though it can still have a place in animation and game design).

As a former design student, I can understand how someone wants to make their site pretty and seem important to the visitors. This can be done if you serve the purpose that the user is looking for. The example was in Nobody Cares About You or Your Website. The user doesn't care that the person who designed the site graduated from college with straight A’s and now works for the swankiest design firm in the city. They don’t care if you used your design skills to make the site look artistic. What the user cares the most about is if your website has what they are looking for. If you do, then they may start to appreciate the work you put into the site.

This doesn't mean good design shouldn't be used. Obviously, you want to make sure the user can actually read the site. Using good contrast can go a long ways towards that. It doesn't help your case if you have a black website with dark purple text, or a white website with yellow text. At the same time, look at other sites out there that may be similar to what you’re doing. See how they have it laid out. What works and what doesn't work? The Accept Jesus website looks was designed by someone on a bad acid trip while listening to too much Grateful Dead and was tasting colors and hearing smells when they designed it (if you haven’t looked at it personally, please do. http://www.dokimos.org/ajff/).

Of course another aspect of good design is making sure the user knows where they are and how to get where they want to be. Making the site easy to navigate is important. If the user can’t find what they want, they will eventually just leave and go elsewhere. This means making it clear to the user where things are, helping them find what they need and not getting in their way with either a confusing navigation system or annoying pop-ups. This also includes using text for text, and not pictures for text (as the article said, a search engine will not be able to read a picture).

Finally, it’s important to make sure you give the user a reason to return to your site in the future. The article referred to this as heroin. While the comparison may be a bit crude, it is accurate. The sites I visit the most are the ones that update their information pretty regularly. This can be a news site that keeps it’s stories fresh, a store that updates its homepage with new items or deals/specials, or an art site that keeps the art that it features new and different (especially if I want to discover something new). Give the user a good taste of what you offer and make sure you keep them coming back for more.