Biggest Mistakes in Web Design

This reading relates to the concept of user-focused design because it discusses at length ways that websites can be better for consumers and visitors to the websites. In the first section of the article, the author tells the reader to remember two key points while reading the article, one of them being: “the only reason my website exists is to solve my customers’ problems.” This point is alluded to many times throughout the article. The author stresses user-friendliness as the key design aspect of websites. Of course, web designers should try to make their websites visually appealing, but more than anything, they need to make sure that visitors to the website can easily accomplish what they came to do. For example, text should contrast page backgrounds so that it is easy to read everything on the website. Users should not have to squint to read text that is designed in a less contrasting but more artistic design. Another user-friendliness issue that was raised was flash page introductions. These frequently do not present any further information to the user, and can be very frustrating. If a website needs to have a flash introduction, there should be an apparent “skip” button so that web-users do not need to waste their time. Web design is just another medium that the design concepts we learned in class can be applied to. This class has focused largely on designing things in ways that are easy for consumers to use and understand, as opposed to designing to win art contests. In other words, we have stressed the priority of behavioral design over visceral design. This article is an extension of these principles. Although we have barely touched on web design so far in the class, it is interesting to learn how similar the guidelines for design are.

The most important point in this article, as discussed in the above paragraph, was user-focused design of websites. The author presented sixteen specific ways that websites can be well designed for user purposes. One of the headings in this article that I found particularly interesting was “Nobody cares about you or your site.” The author defended this point by saying that what people truly care about is solving their problems. Users come to websites for four purposes: to get information, to make a purchase or donation, to be entertained, or to be part of a community. Web design should allow users to accomplish these goals as easily as possible, without over the top design elements. It is all about solving the customers’ problems. Another interesting part of the article was the section about heroin content. Websites that have heroin content make their users willingly come back to the site to get new information and perspective. One requirement for a website to have heroin content is frequently updated information. Blogs, for example, can have heroin content if they have candor, urgency, timeliness, pithiness, and controversy. Under the right circumstances, heroin can outweigh design. This is because if the material on a website is interesting and useful enough, people do no notice or care if the site is designed poorly. One final important point of the article was mystery meat navigation. This occurs when the user needs to mouse over unmarked navigational buttons which are usually blank or don’t reveal their function. This is particularly common in art and fashion websites, but other web designers sometimes use mystery meat navigation in their websites. Mystery meat detracts from user-friendliness, and can be very confusing and unclear. Applying another previous aspect of design from this course, websites should give feedback to users so they know that they are accomplishing their goals in visiting the website. Although mystery meat navigation may seem like an innovative, creative technique, it is confusing and difficult.

In my opinion, one of the most important aspects of web design is color scheme and page organization. There are only a very limited number of websites that I use on a daily basis, and they are Facebook, Google, and the Kalamazoo portal and webmail pages. When I visit any other website, I am usually unsure of exactly what the content will be and how it will be presented. If the website opens and I see very bright, neon colors, with font that is cramped together in a jumble, I will go back and look for a new website. It is not so much that I expect websites to be visually appealing, but I expect them to be professional and appropriate for their designated purpose. Other elements, such as music or moving animation, instantly detract from the credibility of most websites. When I use a website to get information, I want to get my job done as quickly and efficiently as possible. Superfluous elements make it more difficult to make this happen. Another very important element of web design is having an appropriate amount of information on each page. Some websites are overwhelming in that they have an extremely large amount of information on each page. I like information to be logically broken up into simple headings and categories. Websites that are designed well have clearly visible links to the information that I need to access.