What drives me nuts about some websites

Posted on April 13, 2011 by Gary Chow | No Comments » | Trackback URL

I love the Internet and use it as much as the next person. I hop on the web to research, get direction, be informed, buy stuff, be entertained, check movie schedules, read blogs, find out how to cook beef rendang; in fact, for any number of things.

What appeals to me about a website? It usually boils down to a combination of ease of use, engaging content and visual design.

Then there are things that really bug me, force me to click away almost immediately – like looking at the sun, quick glance and then look away.

Some of these pet peeves are so obvious you wonder why website designers and owners persist with them.

Gratuitous music

Top of my list of gripes. If you must have music on your website – and I can’t think of one good reason why – at least give the viewer a chance to turn it off. Frankly, the only people that should have music on their websites are musicians and firms that sell music.

The same applies to videos. I can’t get to the mouse quick enough when I open a website and the first thing that assaults my eyes and ears is someone spruiking their business and raving about their ‘core values’. Don’t get me wrong, putting videos on your website is a great idea, just don’t have it come on automatically. News sites do this and it drives me spare, even more so when the video is preceded by a 30 second commercial – which you can’t fast forward!

Over-design

A website should be easy to use: intuitive, logical and seamless. You should be able to go from one section to another without having to pause and figure out what to do.

Yet, I’ve seen over-designed sites where the designer seems to have gone to great pains to complicate matters. They use whizzy navigation bars, cutsie labels, flashy home pages, and present images in an overly fancy way. They do so to be ‘unique’ but in the end the site just ends up being harder to use and annoying.

Over-design is not worth the effort or price. Don’t let those ‘artistic’, ‘award-winning’ web designers convince you otherwise. You would do better investing money and energy on making your site functional and populated with good up-to-date content.

Tiny point size

Is this a trendy thing?  I mean – what’s with the tiny text? I see this on some law firm websites, for instance. As far as I’m concerned, if you need to squint to read the copy, your point size is too small. And while I’m on the subject of text, the white-text-on-black background is not a very smart move, simply because it’s harder to read, especially over long periods.

Garish colours

Your website should not look like a Mambo t-shirt. I’m no colour expert but common sense would dictate that an understated and matching colour scheme is more elegant. By all means use bold colours; it’s okay to be loud and proud – but only if it suits your business and brand. If you favour bold colours, and here’s an example (warning: don sunglasses) of a website that has gone wild with colour, try sticking to no more than a couple. Too many mismatched colours cause eye fatigue and looks as if your website was designed by a ten-year old.

Outdated content

Ever go to a site and see content that hasn’t changed since the site was first built? Doesn’t create a good impression, does it? There are many ways you can add content to your site. Just about any business has news to tell – so an announcement page or media page would be an easy way to add new content. How about a blog? And if you don’t have time to write content, outsource that job to an external copywriter.

Jargon

How many websites spout nonsense like this: ‘we are at the cutting edge…’ or ‘we are best of breed’ or ‘we leverage synergies’?

How about ones that claim ‘end to end solutions’? Mmmm…

And I’m always wary of those that reckon they can ‘shift your paradigm’.

I read one recently that proudly proclaimed they are ‘at the nexus of two expanding spaces’. What the!

These are examples of jargon: corporate gobbledygook and meaningless gibberish. Try and avoid at all cost. Communicate your messages in plain English and your readers will reward you for it.