| ave a website, and you want to make it user | | | | you visit a site and the whole thing is full of pop ups, |
| friendly. But you don’t have a great deal of | | | | your first instinct is that the owners of the site want |
| knowledge in this area so you entrust your design to | | | | to sell you something you most probably do not |
| a small outfit that doesn’t cost too much and | | | | need. In addition, pop-ups look cheap and nasty, like |
| seems to have a few examples of their work out | | | | the site was created on a shoestring budget and |
| there, taking up space on the Internet. | | | | needs to jump out at you to grab your attention. |
| After a few weeks of your new site being up and | | | | They don’t work, and they are a sure-fire |
| running you take a visit, and your jaw drops. | | | | way to lose visitors. Pop-ups basically tell visitors that |
| Overnight, seemingly, the site has undergone a | | | | they are not respected, that they are not intelligent |
| massive transformation, and rather than being the | | | | enough to know what to focus their attention on. |
| beautiful, almost minimalist work of art you paid for, | | | | Another killer is the use of background images. These |
| is now a clunky, garish beast that is probably turning | | | | are so old school it hurts. People do not want to see |
| away customers in droves. | | | | something that actually looks like it was created on |
| This happens. And to help you stop the rot before it | | | | PowerPoint. This stuff also destroys any hope of |
| gets any worse, here are a few warning signs that | | | | having a quick loading time, so avoid it like the plague. |
| your site is taking a nosedive. Whether you design | | | | The final really, really bad thing you can do with your |
| your own site or get someone to do it for you, if | | | | website is to include page lengths that go beyond |
| any of this stuff is going on, you need to step in and | | | | the single screen. To prove this point, there are |
| change it. | | | | thousands of spam marketers out there who, once |
| The first bad idea is scrolling text or blinking text. | | | | they have you through a link, subject you to a four |
| Just, for a moment, try and remember the last time | | | | screen length web page that takes you through |
| you saw a successful website that had lime green | | | | every single small detail of their |
| scrolling text running across the middle of the screen. | | | | ‘offering’, before hitting you with a |
| It doesn’t look good and it turns people off. | | | | price. If you respect your customers, you need to |
| It basically takes visitors back to the 1990s, which | | | | make sure you don’t look like you are selling |
| was not the best decade for web design. If you see | | | | an eBook on how to train dogs. |
| this kind of thing happening, do the decent thing and | | | | So those are just a few of the web design howlers |
| pull the plug. | | | | that, if you want to be successful online, you will |
| Pop ups are another mistake. No one likes them. If | | | | avoid at all costs. |