8 most common mistakes made by web designers

When designing websites new ones web designers make plenty of mistakes. Every day, problems arising out of simple oversight and poor design cause problems for webpage design that could be avoided simply by steering clear of common mistakes. Here is a list of the 8 most common mistakes that web designers make.

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1. Crowded and busy pages

An incredibly important design element in any webpage is the negative or white space. This space simply shows the background design and is devoid of any other elements. Designers that fail to provide enough negative space between important elements into their web design create super busy, crowded and hard to load pages. Failing to add micro white space, i.e., white spaces between sub-elements, paragraphs and individual lines or macro white space, i.e., the white space between page elements and around columns could create a much cluttered overall design.

2. Pages that make it hard to find new content

Most WebPages today are designed to showcase fresh updates and addition right at the home page or at the updates page. An accepted practice also asks designers to code a webpage in a way that allows it to showcase new content and updates below content or in a side bar. Not remembering to put these codes in would dissuade visitors from returning.

3. Making it hard to find links

Linking is vital to the visibility of a webpage in search results. Web designers that make it hard to find back links make it hard for readers to follow links. A good example of bad linking practices would be using a color that is way too close to the rest of the text to mark a link. Think something like midnight blue text sitting in between black text!

4. Using the wrong image formats

For online graphics, the three most preferred and accepted image formats are PNG, GIF and JPEG. Using the wrong image format can lead to the final effect looking way out of sync with what was intended or in a file that is too large for a particular page. A web designer needs to know the pros and cons of each image format. For example, JPEG format offers 24 bit color but it loses image quality when compressed though they are definitely better for images and photos than PNG and GIF formats. A designer who doesn’t know such basics runs the risk of ruining the look of a page by using the wrong format for a particular layout.

5. Not changing the default page title

“Untitled Document” is the default page title in Dreamweaver. It takes just 2 seconds to change this though a lot of designers find it too much of a stretch. Leaving the title as it is will make it harder for crawlers to distinguish it from the 30 million other untitled documents in search results.

6. Not making the purpose of the site clear

Readers hate it when they click a particular link that is supposed to lead them to another part of the site and instead it looks like it’s taken them somewhere completely different. This is a common confusion that occurs when web designers fail to include headings, page titles, tag lines or other indications to let visitors know what a site is about.

7. Using callous colors

Harsh contrasting colors strain the viewers’ eyes. If you have visited any web pages that look like they were designed by amateurs in the mid-1990s, you’d know exactly what harsh contrasting colors mean and how unappealing they make a webpage look. The very reason why web pages like Amazon, YouTube, Facebook and Twitter etc. use such soft colors in combination with good old white backgrounds is because the white space makes the webpage look less cluttered and makes the logo and other content “pop” without giving users a headache.

8. Blending ads too much with content

Everyone absolutely hates it when simply hovering over an underlines word in the text of a webpage causes a pop up banner to obscure the webpage or when trying to move the cursor around a page leads to a gazillion pop up ads from taking over your web browser window. Designers need to be very careful when linking ads within text and within the design because a reader that is varies of trying to find where the content ends and where the ads begin will not like to return to a page like this.

About The Author – Claudia is a writer/blogger. She loves writing, traveling and reading books. She contributes on Michael Zammuto