In this digital era, the way you design your website is extremely important. Mistakes while creating Website Design can either make or break your brand and company. Hence, it is essential to get everything in design right the first time.
Web design should not only be limited to the general appearance of the website but also the website’s functionality and ease of navigation by the users. Although web design has come a long way, some mistakes in web design have been persistent with many users over a long time.
Although the aesthetics and the design patterns have substantially changed over time, the truth is that the needs of the underlying user have remained the same.
Common web design mistakes
The most common web design mistakes worldwide and especially in Singapore are as below;
- Not updating your website
Whereas updating your website on a regular will cost you a lot of money and time, your site should never at any point be stagnant.
The digital era has so many amazing technological advances. On the flip side, it also comes with a lot of cybersecurity risks that may not have been there initially.
As such, it is essential to make sure that all your themes and plugins are at any given time fully updated. This ensures that your domain is at all times fully protected from any possible entry point.
- Unexpected location for content
One of the common mistakes most sites have is poor category names. The category names in most cases are not enough to let the customers know what content is within them.
Some companies do not do enough research to know how the users’ minds work. They arrange the categories based on how the said company thinks rather than try and research how the clients think.
The site structure used should by all means match its users’ mental models. Users must be able to understand the content that is fed on the website. Organize the content and place it where users can quickly locate it.
The best way to achieve this is by actively involving the potential users when you are creating the site structure.
- Poor Search Results
For most of the users, they will search for the precise item they are looking for or what they prefer to see. Therefore, sites always have to provide strong search links for users to use. The disturbing news is that site search is a big problem and weakness for many websites even up to now.
Search engines like Google that are too literal tend to reduce usability by users. This is mainly because they cannot manage plurals, typos, hyphens, and other variants. This makes it very complicated for everyone, especially for the old folks.
- Not responding to users questions
Users usually visit your website with a specific goal in mind. They needs facts of what you are offering to make the ultimate buying decision.
The ultimate undoing of any business company is not answering or responding to questions on the website. This negligence will ultimately leads to its downfall.
If you fail to let the users know the facts they are actively looking for, then they will automatically assume that the products or services you are offering are simply not meeting their needs and they will move on to find better alternatives.
The question most people always ask is about the price. Listing the price of all produces and services is therefore critical as this will without a doubt be a repeat question.
Failure to have the price listed or inability to answer that question will more often than not leave the customers very confused. User engagement is very critical especially if you are looking to have loyal clients.
- Not having top quality content
Needless to say, content is crucial on all websites. Whereas this is the case, most domain owners tend to treat this as an afterthought. They focus more on building a sleek site and forget about the writing element.
The reason why quality content is important is that it is an important ranking criteria for all search engines. Additionally, it is also the number one way of increasing conversion rates and actively engaging the users.
If you want to know if you are putting up content that is high quality, check out the bounce and click through the rates for visitors. That will definitely tell you if people are leaving your site quickly or if they are looking at multiple pages and then taking the necessary actions. If you want improvement in your website, start by checking for signs that you have low quality content in your website.
- Too much registration
Whereas requiring visitors to register is not a bad idea, making them register too many times becomes a problem ultimately. Most websites put so much content behind the registration shield that it becomes an inconvenience for the user. Some websites even go to the extent of restricting 100% of their functionality to users who have registered.
This is not prudent because users should ideally use your website without feeling the need to identify themselves constantly. It is important to note that user participation will be significantly affected by the numbers of barriers put up on your website.
- Advertisements
Advertisements are good, but most website owners take it overboard. Having too many ads on your webpage is a big red flag for the user. This is especially the case when less content and more advertising is going on in the website. Use the space to add more navigation tools on your site as opposed to concentrating on advertisements.
Many web users have mastered the art of selective attention. This is especially the case on ads hence if you have to do it ensure you strike a balance throughout the site. It is also not surprising that users have been noted to ignore design elements that could be legit but looks like an advertisement. Some of the things web owners should remember to avoid that give advertisement illusion is through, animation avoidance, banner blindness, and pop-up purges.
- Non-Scannable text
Most web users mind a website that they struggle to read. Web owners often forget to pay attention to details like the texts. A non- scannable text is not only tough to read but also does not enhance an interactive experience.
Users will get so bored so fast if they have to strain to read your content. To avoid this, you can try using short paragraphs, subheadings, highlighted words, bullet lists among other simple tricks.
- Poorly optimized or broken Pages
There could a massive impact on your business if you are constantly having broken pages or poorly optimized pages . It is very frustrating for the user to click on a link and be notified that the page cannot be found. This is at times caused by a broken plugin or a site conflict in which case the page exists but cannot be appropriately displayed.
As a web owner, you can avoid this from happening. You can do this by hiring a specialist. Alternatively, actively monitor your website at all times for any errors.
- Orphan pages
A prevalent mistake in web design is sometimes all pages do not include or indicate what site the page belongs to. This is a great problem because users may want to access a specific page directly without necessarily having to go through the website’s homepage.
To avoid this, during design you have to ensure that all pages are successfully linked up to your home page. The pages should also indicate where they fit in the structure of the information space.
Conclusion
Pay attention to details when designing your website. Even if the details are considered trivial, they will ultimately either make or break your brand.
While it is important to focus on how the website appears visually, taking your time to focus on other functionalities and ease of use will also go a long way to make your clients happy. View our web design services here.
