While starting up a website has become an increasingly easy task these days, many webmasters still struggle with the basic concepts of web design and user interface. And this happens even after hiring web designers at a fair price. Perhaps, it would make sense to review what are the common mistakes that websites make repeatedly.
Burying the message
One of the most common mistake that I have encountered is the burial of the message of the website. If your website is for a company that sells flowers, then you need to ensure that the central message is conveyed at first glance to the visitor who is coming to your site for the first time. A site needs to convey in an instant what it is about and what they do, if not the very purpose of having a web property goes in vain.
Tip: A clear and concise statement, preferably in a H1 tag to let visitors know what the website is about.
Overuse of technology
Agreed that today you can embed videos, play music, having banners flying around and cool widgets on the site. However, more often than not, these end up making the website extremely noisy and put off the visitor to an extent where your bounce rate would shoot up. Too many webmasters get too excited at the wide array of customizations possible and end up overdoing it.
Tip: Your website should be clean with legible, standard fonts and minimal distraction to a visitor.
Poor navigation
A site should be easily navigable, if a visitor wants to learn more about your website, then it should not take him more than 5 seconds to figure out where to go and how to go about it. Using a complicated page structure or just placing the links at the wrong place can become a serious pain point for your site. If you are someone who is usually clueless about how an ideal UI should be, then rely on free services available on the internet. Website builders are a great way to avoid a lot of your work and it is much cheaper, there is a free website builder from Webeden that you can make use of.
Tip: Your critical pages should be clearly visible and intuitive enough for the visitor to find.
Color Scheme
Another weakness is the aesthetic appeal of some websites because of a poor color scheme used by them. If you notice, you would find that loud colors are usually never used by the best websites; this is because loud colors pull the visitors attention away from the content and call to actions. Hence, it is important to use the most widely accepted color schemes. There have been many A/B tests to find out which color scheme is usually best received by visitors.
Tip: Do the research to figure out the best color scheme for your website, aligning with your brand.
Additionally, you would also find it useful to go through various resources on website user interface, there are many dedicated sites that can offer you detailed information in lucid terms on how you can make the best possible website for your organization or yourself.
