Thinking of launching a new website or redoing your old one?
Either way, you face challenges when it comes to making your site appealing to visitors. The last thing you want to do is make major web design mistakes, which can alienate your existing audience. But if you aren’t well-versed in web development and design, you might need assistance from a web design company in Brampton.
Don’t get discouraged just yet.
Follow the trends and continue to innovate. The good news is that we’ve gathered up a list of the worst website design blunders around. Keep reading so you can avoid them and improve your website design practices.
1. Miniscule Fonts
The worst website design is one where you can’t read anything.
The first mistake most designers make is making a website with fonts too small. Most websites in past years had smaller fonts. The standard was around 12px, and almost every web designer followed this rule.
But, as time passed, people realized that 12px fonts aren’t as legible as they thought. When people put their monitors 24” away from their faces, this font size is too small. That led to people squinting their eyes, straining themselves unnecessarily.
Another thing to consider is your visitors’ attention span. Most visitors to your site will only have 8 seconds before losing concentration. This is a sad side-effect of the increasing digitized lifestyle of our brains.
These are a couple of reasons why most experts believe that the minimum font size for websites should now be 16px. If your website has walls of text on it, 18px is your minimum. Also, use headline fonts that demand attention to their size.
2. Moving Sliders
One of the biggest website mistakes we still see is the use of moving sliders. They’re ineffective and most experts point out that they cause “banner blindness.” Most visitors ignore them since they behave like sidebar ads.
With users getting a constant bombardment of irrelevant ads, they have simply developed a tendency to ignore them. This theory applies to rotating sliders too, making this website feature useless. It matters not whether it looks cool or futuristic, your goal for a website is to keep your customer experience seamless.
To prevent falling into the slider pit, ask yourself about the best method of presenting your content. Don’t pick a website you like and use it as a model for your own. If you want to make good use of your homepage’s prime spot, pick the most important content you want to promote instead.
3. Low Contrast Fonts
Low contrast is when you use lighter fonts on a light background or darker fonts on a darker background. Like in printed material, this design never looks good, especially on a website. Your aim is to make your content as readable as possible and use color psychology to your advantage.
The good news is that it’s easy to remedy since high contrast fonts aren’t scarce. For example, if you’re using a dark background, use light fonts, and vice versa. You can take this to the next level by only sticking to either white or black fonts.
Reverse type is when you use white text on a black or colored background instead of the other way around. Use this sparingly since it can affect retention and readability. Use it only when it’s in parts of your website where reading isn’t a priority.
4. Poor Text Line Height
This mistake often gets a pass since most designers only focus on font face and size. In most cases, they pick a random line height and move on. However, line height has a significant impact on your website’s appeal.
If you pick the wrong line height, the fonts will end up looking crowded. If you’re unsure about it, it’s time to ask talented web designers. They often have an eye for this detail, and will tell you the best height for your web page design.
5. Long Line Lengths
Creating excessive lines of text can turn off your audience for good. The optimal length for a website is between 50 and 60 characters per line. You can push this further up to a maximum of 75 characters before it becomes unbearable.
Limiting line length is necessary since most users online feel intimidated with long lines of texts. Most people will skip reading your content because it doesn’t look enjoyable. Going below the recommended length means readers get annoyed by starting and stopping lines more frequently.
This is more problematic in responsive design. If you don’t specify the maximum width for your content section, the line length for your website might be too long. For responsive websites, the upper ceiling for the text width is 516 pixels, allowing 65 characters per line even at 18px font size.
6. No Accent Color for CTA’s
For key calls to action (CTAs), a good accent color helps draw more attention. That’s why, when asking your audience to “Buy Now,” the button color should be attention-grabbing. It increases their likelihood of clicking and taking the action you desire.
It’s a simple concept, but most designers don’t reserve accent colors for important CTA’s. They often choose colors already used for another purpose within the site. To avoid this mistake, pick bright accent colors to draw attention while making it complementary to your website’s color scheme.
7. Violating Common Design Principles
One of the greatest website design mistakes is to ditch common design principles. It’s fairly simple since it revolves around visitors finding features in certain areas of the website. For example, logos and taglines often appear at the top left of the page while the menus stay at the top right.
Problems happen when website owners get too creative. Sometimes, these new approaches can work, but it often doesn’t. It’s better to innovate while maintaining intuitiveness. That way, your website won’t confuse visitors.
Avoid the Worst Website Design Blunders Today!
These are the worst website design mistakes around. Keep them in mind when designing your website. This ensures you don’t discourage your potential visitors and lose business.
Do you need help with digital marketing? We’re here to give you a helping hand. Don’t hesitate to contact us today and we can help you out.
