Five Website Design Errors to Avoid Before Launch
This month on the other side of the 'Pond', the new healthcare.
gov website for the US administration's controversial 'Obamacare' has come under fire for having glitches following its launch.
This in turn has given ammunition to critics of the health reforms, and illustrates the importance of getting your website right before launching it.
With that in mind, here are five web design errors you can easily avoid when launching a new website.
#1 - Having unclear/ inefficient navigation Your website is undoubtedly made up of lots of different pages, therefore you want to make sure that it's as easy as possible for users to get from one to another quickly and to find exactly what they're looking for.
Your navigation buttons should be clear and easy to understand, and they should remain the same throughout your website.
#2 - Unreadable text Fancy fonts, busy backgrounds, colour clashes; these are all things to avoid.
If people can't read your website easily they're unlikely to stay there.
It's also important to remember that not everyone has perfect eyesight, so don't use a font so small that some people will struggle.
#3 - Cluttering the page Simplicity is everything.
People will like and recommend your website because it's easy to use and does what it's supposed to, not because it's got lots of fancy but unnecessary features.
#4 - Long load times Connection speeds are a lot faster than they used to be, but it's still a good idea to check how long your pages take to load, and to test them on a number of different connections and operating systems.
It's important to remember that images (particularly large ones), music, video and other multimedia will lead to longer load times, and an increased risk of browser bounce.
#5 - Burying information or navigation options far down the page It's a well known fact of web usability that people don't always scroll to the bottom of a webpage.
With that in mind you should ensure that anything you really want your visitors to see is placed above the fold - that is, the portion of the page that is visible when before any scrolling takes place.
Web design doesn't have to be rocket science.
Applying some common sense and following the above basic design rules should ensure that your new website delivers a great user experience and quickly starts to earn it's keep.
gov website for the US administration's controversial 'Obamacare' has come under fire for having glitches following its launch.
This in turn has given ammunition to critics of the health reforms, and illustrates the importance of getting your website right before launching it.
With that in mind, here are five web design errors you can easily avoid when launching a new website.
#1 - Having unclear/ inefficient navigation Your website is undoubtedly made up of lots of different pages, therefore you want to make sure that it's as easy as possible for users to get from one to another quickly and to find exactly what they're looking for.
Your navigation buttons should be clear and easy to understand, and they should remain the same throughout your website.
#2 - Unreadable text Fancy fonts, busy backgrounds, colour clashes; these are all things to avoid.
If people can't read your website easily they're unlikely to stay there.
It's also important to remember that not everyone has perfect eyesight, so don't use a font so small that some people will struggle.
#3 - Cluttering the page Simplicity is everything.
People will like and recommend your website because it's easy to use and does what it's supposed to, not because it's got lots of fancy but unnecessary features.
#4 - Long load times Connection speeds are a lot faster than they used to be, but it's still a good idea to check how long your pages take to load, and to test them on a number of different connections and operating systems.
It's important to remember that images (particularly large ones), music, video and other multimedia will lead to longer load times, and an increased risk of browser bounce.
#5 - Burying information or navigation options far down the page It's a well known fact of web usability that people don't always scroll to the bottom of a webpage.
With that in mind you should ensure that anything you really want your visitors to see is placed above the fold - that is, the portion of the page that is visible when before any scrolling takes place.
Web design doesn't have to be rocket science.
Applying some common sense and following the above basic design rules should ensure that your new website delivers a great user experience and quickly starts to earn it's keep.
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