10 Website Design Mistakes You Can't Afford

Can You Afford Mistakes In Your Web Design?

Your website's design is the most important variable in your web project.

A lot of people often forget that any web project starts with planning and design. These two steps are crucial and will dictate how any website and functionality is developed, especially on eCommerce and content managed websites.

Design will affect the user experience, the flow of the website and ultimately whether the site even works properly. Some say web design is not about making your site look pretty, but about whether it works to generate results.

We say that this is false advisement, without first addressing how your site will look and whether your potential visitors will like it, you cannot say it will generate results.

It is true, that all visitors to your website will on a subconscious level have an emotional connection with your website's design, and will make critical decisions based on it - this is a proven fact and is a result of testing how different visitors react to different design stimuli.

So What Does This All Mean For My Website's Design?

A good website design should give you the potential to draw back your visitors continually. They will want to return because they had a good experience, the design related to them and they easily got what they needed.

Implement this simple advice from the start of your web project and you will see positive results. All the information presented here is industry standard facts and proven methods for successful website design.



Take good note of these common design mistakes which could be causing your site to under-perform.

10 Common Mistakes You Could Be Making On Your Website's Design.

1. Poor Navigation
Poor user interface and navigation will make it hard for your visitors to browse your website. Stick to industry standard and proven navigation methods.

2. Layout consistency
Make sure your page layout is as consistent as possible.

Forcing people to change their reading or browsing method halfway into your website will affect how long people spend on your site.

3. Functionality
Functionality that is custom developed or bolted on should always be skinned and designed to ensure consistency and user friendliness.

4. Search
Ensure there is easy and effective site search on your website. This will help users find relative content quickly.

More applicable to ecommerce and large content websites.

5. Too much or too little content.
This is a tricky one and has a fine balance, make sure your web design is as simple and uncluttered as possible for content.

If you do have a lot of content however and cannot avoid clutter, make sure your design is clean and simple so attention is on the content and readability is maximised.

6. Graphical and Content calls to action.
All web designs should have objectives that are designed into the web interface and content.

Use graphical buttons for calls to action and also text based calls to action.

7. Web Safe Fonts.
Major issues with using unique fonts in a web design will always arise when trying to get cross browser and platform compatibility.

Use web safe fonts in your design to avoid compatibility headaches.

8. Colour Scheme and Styling.
All good web design starts with a customer's logo and colour scheme.

Always base a good colour scheme and styling off the customers brand/logo.

9. Search Engine optimisation.
Implement simple SEO techniques in your design to allow smoother content delivery for search robots.

The more search engine friendly your site design is, the better it will perform with search engines.

10. Logo and Contact details positioning
Always place your logo in the standard web place, which is the top left hand side.

Always place your contact link/details on the right hand side of the page, either top right hand corner, or far right on the menu bar.

The last pieces of advice we can impart is that dealing with a professional web design specialist or company is always going to be the best option.

Don't do template websites unless you are on a strict budget, and always choose the option that gives you the most freedom and control.

Use the above list to critique any company's design portfolio this will help you choose your supplier more wisely.

Ben Davis is the sales and project manager for MediaCore a Specialist Web Company based in Auckland, New Zealand. He has had 6+ years of experience managing web design and development projects for his clients. He is also the author of '5 Tips To Search Optimize Your Business'.

MediaCore is Auckland New Zealand's Leading Specialists for Web Design and Web Development.

We provide professional and high quality web design and web development services that will meet all your online business needs.

We are specialist Magento eCommerce and Joomla CMS web designers and developers.

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