Web Design Mistakes and Suggestions by Dreamco

Many common web site design mistakes can have a negative impact on a visitor’s user experience. If the goal for your web site is to attract users who will stay long enough to make a purchase or inquire about your services, you need to deliver impressive results as soon as a user lands on your web pages.
Greg Loumeau from Dreamco offers his top web design recommendations.

Top Five Web Design Mistakes

1. Long Download Times
   The average user will wait about eight seconds for a web page to load before moving on to another site. Don’t overload your pages with graphics and text.
2. Not Providing Answers to Common Questions
   A visitor to a web site should be able to quickly determine the purpose of the site, what differentiates it from other sites, and where to find the information they need.
3. Unnecessary Bells and Whistles
   Animations, music, blinking graphics and scrolling text should be used only if they support, and don’t distract from, the main purpose of the web page.
4. Poor Content
   Images should be crisp and quick to download, text should be brief, well written, pertinent and properly edited, and graphics should be clean and attractive.
5. Inadequate Testing
   Web sites should be previewed on both PC’s and Macs and in all the major web browsers before being launched to avoid inconsistencies and embarrassing errors.

Top Five Web Design Suggestions

1. Define Your Site’s Purpose
   For your business -­ what are the goals for the web site?
   For your audience -­ what can your business do for them?
2. Create Clear Page Hierarchies
   Utilize graphics, color, text, page placement and other design elements to draw the user’s eye to the most important item on a page, then to the next most important item, etcetera.
3. Respect Your Audience
   Clear, uncluttered web sites that answer users’ questions and load quickly will be rewarded with praise and a high volume of traffic.
4. Build Functional Navigation
   Users should not feel lost on your site. They should be able to move easily from one section to another in a few clicks.
5. Design for the Lowest Common Denominator
   Create web pages that look good at a screen resolution of 800 x 600 pixels, utilize style sheets, and develop your site in accordance with accepted coding standards.