Between e-Consultancy and Smiley Cat, we have compiled a list of 12 reasons why most websites simply do not work:
- Poor navigation
People visit your website to find information or the product they are looking for. Navigation should be easy to find and use, and always located in the same spot on every page.
- Too many ‘Bookmark My Site’ buttons
If someone wants to bookmark your site, they will do it, no need to ask them. In addition, adding this button wastes valuable space on your web page.
- Site intros / interstitials
NOBODY wants to watch a 30 second advert before they get to the article they want to read.
- Excessive use of flash
Flash has its uses, but we don’t think there’s any reason for using it to power your website. When done badly, it can take up bandwidth, can confuse users with bizarre navigation and control mechanisms, providing plenty of accessibility issues.
- Overlay ads
Overlays are simply awful for the user experience. Advertisers shouldn’t be buying them. Publishers should disown them and sort out their ad strategies, rather than selling out.
- Disabled back button
Why make people stick around if they want to leave? Idiocy.
- Hidden contact details
If people want to speak to you then please let them. It’s not such a bad thing. Prominently displayed contact details can help engender trust. Hiding your email and phone numbers has the opposite effect.
- Automatic audio / video
If wanting to play a video or listen to something, you will click on it. Otherwise it is just annoying, and intrusive.
- Slow loading sites
Any more than a few seconds and many users may aim for the back button, assuming it works…
- Poor page layout
Only letting you read two lines of the story before having to scroll down for the rest, just to make sure you see all the ads is pathetic, really, and as for sites that automatically expand the browser window to use your full screen, well, they really suck, especially if you use two or three monitors!
- Poor site search
If the results number in the hundreds, are poorly presented, and lack relevance then you know that the site owner has not spent much time thinking about the website’s usability.
- Lousy typography
One of the easiest ways to improve the design and usability of your web site is to have good typography. That’s why it’s so frustrating when coming across sites that suffer from small text, cramped paragraphs and hard-to-read text & link colors.
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