When I bring up good design, I’m not just talking about the graphical layout. A professional web design includes accessibility, interface, layout, and user experience.
With this in mind I have put together some elements of bad design I have come across over the years. As a designer these elements should be steered away from, as they can cause the end user to click the back button just as quickly as clicking the link into your site.
Background Music
At one time this was the rave of the internet. No longer. Forcing the end user to listen to the noise you think sounds wonderful is like asking the diseased politician to stop its sorcery. It might sound pleasant at first, but imagine if you ran a huge site with hundreds of pages. The second the end user clicks the button to move on to the next page, the music starts to play through it’s an endless loop. Now I love music, I am a musician myself… but we live in a very secular society, and with good reason, try not to burden the end user with your idea of good sound. I have been to quite a few websites that pull this off, but that is because I enjoy the sound of what they are portraying, try to make the site pleasing to every visitor it comes across.
Pop Up Windows
Where to begin…
I have a very fast computer. By the time the pop-up window appears, I click the x before it even has a chance to tell it’s story. They are advertisement’s, nothing more than that. Whether it be a survey some multi-billion (trillion?) dollar company wants you to take or a piece of software that will stop all the horrible viruses and malware from infecting your PC, that is all they are… pointless pieces of code. The only time you should use a pop-up window is when you are trying to portray something like a privacy policy or an image… and even then you should be using lightbox. If you want to send a survey to the end user, or an advertisement for that matter, start a database of e-mails that allow the end user to actually ask for it, don’t forcefully press it upon them.
Bad Fonts
User accessibility and graphic design are huge parts of the end user experience. No matter how good the content of your website design, or the sales copy, if it’s illegible you won’t be getting your message across or sale made. You have to design the text on your website to be legible in all cases. Keep the site to a reasonable font size for both parties, those that have 60/60 vision (like myself) and those that have to wear glasses to see everything clearly. It is not enough to make the website visually appealing to your 1920 x 1200 resolution 24-inch monitor. Try and design your site with the end user in mind. I always view my websites in different resolutions to see the outcome of the end product.
To conclude. As a webmaster… try and make the website you create do what it is meant to do effectively, intelligently, and with user accessibility. Try and create the end product with the end user in mind.
