Signs your website is seriously dated.
Saturday, April 17th, 2010Most of my clients, I’ll guesstimate nearly 85 – 90%, come to me for a web site redesign. I love redesigns because the client has already had some web experience and kind of knows what they like and don’t like. Also, it lets me see what they were thinking the first time around and really help direct where they need to be going.
Here are some common mistakes I come across time and again with failed web sites. I’ve taken the time to listed here the telltale signs that your site is dated or simply poorly designed. Why? Because, like Tim Gunn is to fashion, I care what you guys look like out there and believe that every business deserves a proper web site.
1. A hit counter: A hit counter is a no-no for any business web site. The only people interested in how may visitors your site has had should be you and your web designer. if advertisers are interested they will ask you.
2. Too many flashy animations or animated gifs on the same page. A very bad idea. You won’t be winning any clients if your web site looks seizure provoking.
3. Scrolling text: Almost the only text worthy of scrolling on a web site are ticker symbols. So unless your business deals with the stock market, seriously rethink you use of scrolling text. Having said that, vertically scrolling headlines are perfectly acceptable for news stories. So long as they are done tastefully.
4. Too many links in one spot: some sites feature a laundry list of links. Web site navigation should be simple but not exhaustive. A long list of links gets confusing to the end user. Well designed sites have several menus and sub-menus that make navigation a snap.
5. Were not in Kansas anymore. Ever find a site that looks like you’ve come to the end of the Internet? It’s almost as though you can hear the cyber tumbleweed a blowin? I have and it is a bad feeling. No one ever won any clients with a creepy web site. While there is something to be said for clean design, there is a whole lot more to be said for terrible design. If your site is out of commission for the time being, at the very least put up a nice graphic and your contact information. Your visitors will respect you for it.
6. The killer flash intro – Skip it. They are horrible and outrageously irritating to end users. Even more irritating – the “skip intro” button. Here’s an idea, if you think users might like to skip it then do them a favor and skip it yourself.
7. Too many fonts OR inappropriate font usage. Both are equally as bad but if forced to choose, I say the latter is far worse a web design, or any design, crime. But… let’s start from the very beginning. Too may fonts – a common eyesore of poorly designed web sites. As a rule, if you don’t know what you are doing stick with non-designer fonts, either a good old fashioned sans-serif like Ariel or Helvetica or a serif font like Times New Roman. Moving on to the far greater offense of inappropriate font usage – I wish I could just point you in the direction of last weeks top news story about the movement to ban Comic Sans (seriously, thank you) but I fear many of you might skip the article so I will say it right here. Most painter, handwritten and crayon fonts have no business being on professional web sites, corporate material, business literature or heaven for bid corporate branding. That is not to say that there have not been some good handwritten logos – of course there have been, but they were designed by some good designers, not with comic sans.
8. This site is best seen in… Save it. Any good web site should and needs to be tested and suited for all web browsers. PERIOD.
9. Phone number on every page. Not necessary. When I was dating I didn’t sew my phone number on the front of my shirts. Need I say more? If someone is interested in contacting you, they will go through the trouble of clicking on the “contact us” page.
10. Posting your email. It’s a bad idea to post your email on your site. Trust me, if you do, it won’t be long before you are receiving tons of spam mail. Any business site should contain a contact form and leave the company contact email hidden.
11. Wallpaper. Wallpaper is officially a web dinosaur. And not a cool dinosaur that kids today still marvel over like the T -Rex. Leave the wallpaper off your site. Yes, even the ones that look like stucco.
12. Content: Both too much of it or not enough can hurt a site. With content, get back to the basics and start with an outline. Brainstorm a bit and think about what needs to be said. Then clump that information together into logical categories (they will become the sections of your site). Once you have a solid outline you can start serving up the content, neat.
13. Unprofessional photos: A big mistake, particularly if you are in a business where looks really matter. With the cost of stock photography these days there is just no excuse for poor quality photography. Even worse are businesses that shoot their own product. That’s a big no-no. Just think for a minute what that says to your customers and potential customers. Professional photography pays back in the long run.
14. Just because you like it don’t make it pretty. Sorry. There are certain rules. Some colors don’t look good on the web, some colors don’t work well with food, some fonts don’t work well with certain industries. You get where I’m going, I hope. If not let me say that just because you like to decorate your house in pink does not mean your web wite should be that color. Your web site needs strike a balance between your company’s style and your end users expectations.
15. All Caps. Never, NEVER, type you site content in all caps. First of all it is hard to read, and secondly it makes people feel like you are shouting. Sure a word every now and then is OK but whole sentences, entire paragraphs… Come on. You know better.
I hope you found these tips helpful. If you fear you site suffers from one or more of the undesirables listed here, take action. It’s never to late to get right with technology.
