By rick
via jamiesgalacticblog.com
Published: May 26 2008 / 20:58
There are several lists of web design mistakes around the Internet. Most of them, however, are the “Most common” or “Top 10” mistakes. Every time I crossed one of those lists I would think to myself: “Come on, there must be more than 10 mistakes…”. Then I decided to write down all the web design mistakes that would come into my head; within half an hour I had over thirty of them listed. Afterwards I did some research around the web and the list grew to 43 points.
Comments
rick replied ago:
Maybe #44 should have been "Don't use 100% bold inverted text on a black background!"
jarekb replied ago:
I agree, good list overall, but I had to copy it into a text editor to read. Kinda goes along with points 3 and 4 about unreadable teaxt.
chromaticsites replied ago:
Unfortunately, I agree with this (I still gave you a Vote up, though).
In the past, our website used white text on black background and we soon discovered that that is considered to be one of the worst design/usability practices. Sure, it's nice to be different since most sites have dark text on a lighter colored background, but there are other ways to be different and stand out.
A fairly simply alternative that seems to work much better is to use a dark gray background instead of black. Even with white text, there isn't nearly as much contrast between the foreground and background and most importantly, it doesn't cause eye strain.
You know there is a problem when people are copying and pasting your website text into a text editor.
Altogether, great list.
amphi replied ago:
EYE CANCER!
It's even slightly worse that black on (aggressive) yellow. Black. Bleh! It's not 1995 anymore ffs.
BlackWasp replied ago:
Nice tips but I had to give up half way through because of the white on black and the bizarre background that seemed t shimmer in the corner of my vision.
,
Dan Dyer replied ago:
Here are some tips for Jamie ;)
28. Make sure your website is cross-browser compatible: not all browsers are created equal, and not all of them interpret CSS and other languages on the same way.
33. Make clicked links change color: this point is very important for the usability of your website.
36. Do not use harsh colors: if the user is getting a headache after visiting your site for 10 consecutive minutes, you probably should pick a better color scheme.
40. Avoid long pages: guess what, if the user needs to scroll down forever in order to read your content he will probably just skip it altogether.
42. No spelling or grammatical mistakes: this is not a web design mistake, but it is one of the most important factors affecting the overall quality of a website.
tgautier replied ago:
should have applied own advice to blog - its unreadable!!!
Voters For This Link (18)
Voters Against This Link (7)