Web design don'ts
Less is more! As a musician I heard this phrase a lot, and the same is true for web design. Here are some don'ts of web design. You may have seen these before and yes, most of them are common sense...
An introduction “enter this site” image / animation.If people (re)visit your side because they expect interesting content (that's the aim of most websites anyway), they are not interested in any obstacles to get there.
Shouting
LOOK NO FURTHER!!!!
YOU HAVE COME TO THE RIGHT PLACE!!!!!!!
Need I say more? Remember you are presenting your self on the web, not selling fish on the local village market.
Standards in web design make the user expect certain things. E.g. underlined phrases suggest links, don't underline phrases for any other reason.
Embedded background musicSound links can be very useful (e.g. artists' websites), but background music on a home page is not only useless (it does not serve any purpose), it is also disturbing. Why? Very simple, people like to control themselves what they want to listen to!
FramesPopular in the nineties, but now framed pages are out. Even if you like this old school method, consider that search engines don't like them. Other sites can only link to your home page (or only to the relevant contents page, without the header and the navigation menu...).
Horizontal scrollingOK, if your computer screen resolution settings are 1024 X 768, does it say that your target audience uses the same? And if they do, are you sure they do not have their favourites, media or history toolbar open?
Anonymous testimonialsThe most wonderful phrases, they all smell like fresh roses, but who are they from? Your mother in law? Your little brother?
Spelling errors, no spaces between words.You would think that with the many available sophisticated spell checkers errors are a rarity on the web. There are still many sites though with surch errors, would potential customers be confident about your product if you can't get this right?
