Have you ever visited a website that pushed you away? No, it’s not about content, you didn’t even read it. The design of the site was so unattractive and disturbing that you closed it and looked for a better place to order or buy something. We all bump into deadly navigation websites sometimes, they are visually disturbing and make us leave them as soon as possible, even though there can be very useful information to read and learn. The design is a huge part of a website and if it’s done nicely, users want to spend hours on such a site. The main purpose of a design is to turn visitors into customers, therefore, we decided to dedicate this article to the most common mistakes that web designers make.

If you want to become a web designer and help people to sell stuff via their websites, you need to know what attracts visitors and what pushes them away. When you have to prepare a piece of dissertation proposal writing on web design topic, you have to explain how to meet the client’s expectations and how to solve your client’s problem with the help of the latest tools. In your dissertation, you can describe the problems such as impractical gallery, the absence of CMS, low bounce rate of a landing page and list the solutions that you can offer your client. What you don’t want to do is to provide the wrong solutions and get a low grade from your professor. To avoid this and help you with writing a decent proposal, keep reading our article.

10 Deadly Sins That You Can Commit as a Web Designer

1. Complicated Navigation

The first rule is to keep navigation simple. Remember that the users can be the people who use the Internet sometimes and don’t visit dozens of websites every day as you do. Such an audience can get easily confused and frustrated. It’s recommended to create a menu with short descriptive tags. There also should be a clearly visible search box, so the users can type the name of the product and quickly find what they came for.

2. Fonts are Too Small

Do you enjoy reading small fonts online? No, this is very disturbing and makes you ask “Who was this written for?” Forget about an old-school website with font 12 that is really hard to read. It’s not so bad when someone is using a tablet but what if someone is using a computer with 24 inches screen, are they supposed to zoom? Important information should be written clearly. The statistic shows that you have only 8 seconds to make an impression, therefore, use headline fonts to grab users’ attention.

3. A Lack of Call to Action

There are plenty of websites that provide interesting information but make someone doubt what to do next. Call to action wording such as “Sign up today”, “Contact us” or “Add to cart” will make users’ experience so much easier and much more effective for the business. A custom writing service Paperial and the professional authors with good knowledge in web design topic will help you to write more ideas in your dissertation on useful tools and mistakes in designing websites.

4. Moving Sliders

Moving banners often distract users from searching for the necessary items on the website. In some cases, such moving sliders are absolutely useless. The recent statistic showed that only 1% of website visitors click the sliders. When poorly designed websites need help, web designers recommend creating a page with important information and pictures that will be clearly found and understood by the visitors.

5. Popups

Google has recently warned the websites to use pop up adverts because they hurt SEO and make users’ experience negative especially for those who use mobile devices. Reconsider pop up adverts on the website. Mobile users will tell you that some pop-ups really annoy especially when you can’t close them.

6. The Absence of Bullets

The practice shows that using bullets help users to find necessary information quicker. For example, sections pros and cons should be organized in bullets. By listing advantages of the service that the company offers instead of putting this information in the text, you will highlight what is important and direct the users. Bullet lists will improve the document’s readability and help users not to get confused by looking for important information through texts.

7. Too Large Images

Using picture and photos on a website is great but when their size is too large, it will take a long time for a site to load. Reconsider the size of graphics that you are using on the website and whether they are needed after all. Average users don’t wait for a site to load if it takes longer than 5 seconds. You wouldn’t like to lose a customer because of those beautiful pictures on the site, would you?

8. Hidden Contact Information

Contact information is the link between you and your customers. Often contact information is hidden or it’s really difficult to find it on the site. Such details as phone number, email address, and mailing addresses with the map should be visible on the front page. Add “Contact us” section where users can be guided to see all contact information or fill the online form with questions and send their inquiry.

9. The Absence of Social Media Links

Believe us or not but modern users want to find your business on social media to read more information, see photos and read what others say about the company. Popular social media accounts dedicated to the business will create a better relationship with the customers. It will help to drive big traffic to the site within a short time.

10. Free Software

If you are just learning how to design websites, using free software is acceptable but if you are working as a web designer already, forget about free programs. The downsides of using free apps for building site are lots of errors, long loading time and poor performance in general. If you want to create unique, excellently-performing and attractive websites that will make users’ experience positive, pay for the app to build a fantastic website and recommend yourself as a professional web designer.

So, now you know what mistakes to avoid in order to create and keep the website in the perfect condition. Make it attractive yet convenient for users and the website will bring the desired result.

About the Author

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Mirko Humbert

Mirko Humbert is the editor-in-chief and main author of Designer Daily and Typography Daily. He is also a graphic designer and the founder of WP Expert.