| As a web designer, you should design your | | | | were your visitor, I'd just turn off my |
| websites to give your visitors the greatest | | | | speakers or leave your site. Moreover, they |
| ease of use, the best impression and most | | | | just add to the visitor's burden when viewing |
| important of all a welcoming experience. It | | | | your site -- users on dial up connections |
| doesn't matter if you had the greatest | | | | will have to wait longer just to view your |
| product in the whole world -- if your website | | | | site as it is meant to be viewed. |
| is poorly done you won't be able to sell even | | | | |
| one copy of it because visitors will be | | | | 2) Extra large/small text size |
| driven off your website by the lousy design. | | | | |
| | | | As I said, there is more to web design than |
| When I'm talking about a "good design", I'm | | | | purely graphics -- user accessibility is one |
| not only talking about a good graphical | | | | big part of it too! You should design the |
| design. A professional web design will be | | | | text on your site to be legible and |
| able to point out that there are many | | | | reasonably sized to enable your visitors to |
| components which contribute to a good website | | | | read it without straining their eyes. No |
| design -- accessibility design, interface or | | | | matter how good the content of your website |
| layout design, user experience design and of | | | | or your sales copy is, if it's illegible you |
| course the most straightforward, which is | | | | won't be selling anything! |
| graphic design. | | | | |
| | | | 3) Popup windows |
| Hence, I have highlighted some features of | | | | |
| the worst web designs I've come across. | | | | Popup windows are so blatantly used to |
| Hopefully, you will be able to compare that | | | | display advertisements that in my mind, 90% |
| against your own site as a checklist and if | | | | of popup windows are not worth my attention |
| anything on your site fits the criteria, you | | | | so I just close them on instinct every time |
| should know it's high time to take serious | | | | each one manages to pass through my popup |
| action! | | | | blocker (yes, I do have one like many users |
| | | | out there!) and, well, pops up on my screen. |
| 1) Background music | | | | Imagine if you had a very important message |
| | | | to convey and you put it in a popup window |
| Unless you are running a site which promotes | | | | that gets killed most of the time it appears |
| a band, a CD or anything related to music, I | | | | on a visitor's screen. Your website loses its |
| would really advise you to stay away from | | | | function immediately! |
| putting looping background music onto your | | | | |
| site. It might sound pleasant to you at | | | | In concluding this article, let me remind you |
| first, but imagine if you ran a big site with | | | | that as a webmaster your job is to make sure |
| hundreds of pages and every time a visitor | | | | your website does what it's meant to do |
| browses to another page on your site, the | | | | effectively. Don't let some minor mistakes |
| background music starts playing again. If I | | | | stop your site from functioning optimally! |