One reason many website designers fail to create a successful design is that they give more priority to the aesthetic beauty of the website than on its functionality and usability. While it is a mere fact that the design of the website is one of the reasons that attracts the user, it does not, however, make them stay on a website.
Web design mistakes can really hurt your website. So, for this post, we will highlight 8 common web designs mistakes that even professionals still make. We also added a possible solution for every mistake.
Your website may be all that. The layout is arranged accordingly, the content is well-placed, and the interface is not complicated. Still, one thing is for sure—not all information you intended to provide is found on your present website page. Some of the information may be hidden, archived, or even placed on the previous pages. And if no search engine available on your website or blog, visitors might find it difficult to look for some information.
A search box is an essential tool for any website. Visitors of your site use the search box as a way for them to easily find or retrieve the information they are looking for on your website. Also, having a search box will make your website look helpful, friendly, and easy to access.
One of the most common mistakes committed by developers and designers is building a website that does not have a responsive design. With the emerging growth of mobile and smart devices, most people nowadays spend more time browsing the Internet on their smartphone browsers rather than on desktop. Without a responsive design, your website may not work well on all devices, which is a not really a good idea since you are aiming that your website will be accessible to all users and on all devices.
Designing a responsive website is now a requirement than a preference. If your website is still not yet responsive then it is time for you make some changes.
There’s nothing worse than an ultra-slow loading website page.
It is nice to have fancy JavasScript animation, cool technologies, and a little gimmick on your website. But if we are talking about your website’s performance and usability, those things that make your website look good will not help it to load faster and will only penalize your website.
If that’s the case, it will drive a large number of users away. No one wants to sit in front of their computer or devices just to wait for the website to finish loading.
The content of the website is what determines the success or failure of the website, at least. You see, most visitors today visit a website only to scan the content quickly to get the overview of the entirety. This will make them decide if the content is worth a time to read.
However, some of the designers forgot how important the content layout is. Layout sins include not using headings, sub-headings, or bullet points, and putting inaccurate, inaccessible, irrelevant, out-of-date content. A big chunk of text will not help at all and will only make things worse.
It is important to remember that the content layout is what drives the visitor to stay and actually read the content. Even if it is worth gold, if not properly arranged, most visitors will not bother to read.
A call-to-action button of a website is one of the most important elements of website design and the focal point of most websites. It moves the visitor towards a response, and will get visitors to focus on what their next step is. To put it simply, a call-to-action button of a website tells the visitor what to do, where to go, and how to do it.
However, for some reasons, many designers and developers forgot to include this essential tool, or at least they make it too hard to find. Some call-to-action buttons are placed at the bottom of the page, some are too hard to notice, and worst of all, there are too many calls to action in a website page, making it very confusing for the user to select which call to action should be answered and which button should be pressed.
Not good.
That’s not how a call-to-action button should be. Instead, it should be clear and visible enough to get the user to do a specific action and can make them easily understand the goal and objectives of your website and what they can get out of it.
For your website to reach a large number of people, it needs to be spread across the Web—most importantly on social media sites, where a large number of the user base is just sitting there waiting for some content to be shared.
You can’t achieve that by just promoting your website. What you need is a sharing option. Many people will visit a site only if it is shared to them by some of their friends or from their trusted pages. While many people copy and paste content, many others prefer a one-click option where they can instantly share their favorite article to their social media profiles.
And if you want your website to spread across the Web and reach your desired audience, then providing a sharing option is one of the best ways you can help it happen.
While there are no firm standards for a website’s navigation, it is important that no matter how developers design the navigation of the website, the visitor should be able to find their way around the website easily, or at least find it easy and seamless to navigate and get familiar with the website.
Why is this critical? The reason is simple: If the visitor finds the website too complicated to finish even one action, chances are they will leave the website immediately and never visit the site again. You don’t want to happen that on your website.
You may think that your website is performing at its highest since it functions well enough and it has few, if any, issues. But, one of the common mistakes committed by people maintaining a website is by not looking at the important data behind a website’s performance.
This is where we all get a little bit disappointed.
You think that your website is all that good but in reality, there are a hundred performance issues running behind your website and almost all of them you don’t even know existed. Yup, that’s what you get when your website doesn’t have analytics tools to help you.
But it is okay. It is one of the most common mistakes when building and maintaining a website, so we don’t blame you. However, we may have a solution for you.