What Not To Do On Your Web Site
Peter Cooper
Logging onto the Internet is usually a daily experience for me. It has been for over three years, and in this time I have probably visited several thousand individual Web sites, a small percentage of what the net has to offer. However, in all this time I have spotted several mistakes that some sites make time and time again. These are the types of mistakes that may make your popular site unpopular, or you may start to lose online business. I hope that you’ll use the words of wisdom in this article to help you continue to develop your web site in the most positive way possible. Don’t make your site needlessly complicated to navigate
Many new-media designers argue that information on a site shouldn’t be more than 3 clicks away from any other document on a site. And in a way, I agree with them. The more clicks between pages, then the longer it takes, and the more annoyance builds up while waiting for the pages. If you can implement a clever navigational system to ease mouse clicks, then you’re one step further down the road to site success. Useless Pages
Every page within your site should be designed to do a job. If it doesn’t, then it’s basically wasting space on your site. Each page on your site should affirm your site’s/company’s message, and lead visitors to the information they’re looking for. This is especially important for the index page of your site, it shouldn’t be so busy that users cannot work out where to go, but it shouldn’t be so bare that users become bored. Use the index page to lead users in a number of directions, allowing them to take their own routes. No Contact Information
The Net is an invaluable tool for obtaining information, it is rare that I refer to the Yellow Pages for phone numbers anymore. So why is it that so many corporate sites insist on making it hard to get in touch with them. Phone numbers are buried deep into the site (if present at all), and addresses are hard to obtain. Make sure contact is quite easily obtainable. Believe me, it’s very important. Don’t mass-copy between media
Many sites seem to have caught the ‘Office97 Syndrome’. This refers to the art of taking existing sales literature and using ‘Save to HTML’ to produce hideous fixed pages, often with fonts that many site-visitors don’t have. There are also simple things that you can do to make material look and function better on the Web. Just because your sales brochure contains twenty pictures of every product, is it wise for your website to be the same? Giant Graphics
Giant graphics can relate to large sized graphics, or graphics which take an age to download. Graphics which take up tons of screen ‘real-estate’ can cause problems for browsers using palm-top machines or even a 640x480 resolution. If you’re going to use large pictures, offer a smaller version first with the option to download a large version. I for one, would appreciate it. Stick to the Standards
For many designers who aren’t totally net-literate, the impulse to build a Web site that’s exactly like their company brochures or print design is sometimes too much. Every part of the site is then developed to look exactly like the original, forcing us to use a specific browser to get the right effect. You know this is the case when you see a site with ‘Best viewed with….’ at the bottom. Part of successful web-design is realising that you have constraints over a sites appearance, and then designing accordingly. If you want to put your brochures online, use Adobe Acrobat. Name That Tune
If you live with teenagers or are a teenager yourself you will realise that parents will continually complain about the noise coming through the walls. This noise isn’t actually the music but a ‘wup wup wup’ bass noise. Well, background music on a website is nearly as bad. If you’re going to use music, at least let someone have the option to turn it off. As my father always used to say: ‘The only thing I like about your stereo is the off button’.
This article first appeared in September 14th, 1999.
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