The top three mistakes in website design.

I’ve been designing websites for a long time. And it never fails ... at least twice a year I’m approached by a new client asking for website features that I refuse to include. Even though I try to explain myself as politely and thoroughly as possible, I always suspect the client thinks I just don’t know how to do what they’re asking. (Believe me ... I know how.) And so, for your reading enjoyment, here are the top three website requests that I routinely refuse ... and the reasons why:

1. The Splash Page. In case you’re unfamiliar with the term, a splash page is a home page that makes you click to “enter” the site, but it serves absolutely no purpose other than to waste the visitor’s time. A website is not a building ... it doesn’t need a door. Jakob Nielsen, the most famous web usability expert in the world, said this back in 2000: “Splash pages were an early sin of abusive web design. Fortunately, almost all professional websites have removed this usability barrier.”
2. Blinking Graphics and/or Background Music. Simply put, both of these features are annoying and distracting ... like somebody poking you in the shoulder repeatedly while you’re trying to read the newspaper. Research shows that web visitors who are assaulted by music and blinking graphics are more likely to leave the site immediately without clicking on anything, and are far less likely to bookmark the site, return to it, link to it and recommend it.
3. Flash. Flash is slow to load, repels search engines, distracts your customers and may not even be viewable if your visitor doesn’t have the right version of Flash Player installed. One of the most basic rules of website design is this: just because you can do it doesn’t mean that you should! Do you really want the first impression of your website to be 30 seconds of “LOADING” with a progress bar? And on a more basic level, Flash is expensive to design and maintain; routine site updates and content changes take much longer and require more labor.
   

In my view, the true test of a successful website isn’t how well it pleases the owner, it’s how well it pleases the owner’s customers. Ovation Creative develops user-friendly, fast-loading HTML-based websites at affordable prices. Why not find out what we can do for your business? Feel free to give me a call at 800-961-2387 ... or complete our convenient Web Design Questionnaire and I’ll get back to you right away with a quote.