Website Design
Goofs: 3 Mistakes that Drive Visitors Away
In this article, I list what I feel, and what other surfers
have shared with me, are the mistakes that not only drive
visitors away, but also drive them "crazy."
#1. An incredibly long download time. We are all
impatient when surfing the Internet. There are still many
computer users without high speed connections, so avoid the
following factors that contribute to slowness:
- Flash Intros -- I love Flash. It is an amazing
program that helps a designer/developer do exciting movies
and animations. The main problem, however, is that many of
the intros don't enhance the experience and take so long to
open, the visitor has clicked away.
- Graphics that are large and/or not optimized --
I also love graphics. The problem is that designers resize
the graphic after it is placed on a webpage. This means the
visitor has to wait for the large graphic to load and then
be resized. Resize graphics before adding to the page and
also optimize for quick loading by lowering the resolution
(quality).
- Bloated code -- Several authoring software
programs produce more code that is necessary. FrontPage
2003 is better than the earlier versions, but my authoring
program of choice for clean, non-bloated and web compliant
code is Macromedia's Dreamweaver.
#2. Lack of clarity -- Visiting a website, we expect
to find our way around easily, to realize the purpose of the
website, to know what the site has to offer, and how to find
it. For the sake of clarity, avoid the following:
- Mystery meat -- Vincent Flanders and Dean Peters
in their Web Pages that Suck books compare websites
that are confusing -- you don't know what they are about or
where they are going -- to mystery meat. Be obvious -- most
users are not into guessing what it's all about.
- Difficult navigation -- It is another mystery
when finding a page or the information you want. If
visitors must click more than three times to find what they
are looking for, they will click away. Solutions are
providing a search feature or a straightforward site map
made up of obvious text links.
- Hidden or incomplete contact information -- It
is frustrating if there isn't a clear way to contact the
company or owner of the website. Personally, I don't advise
having only one contact page. I prefer to include the
information or at least a link to the e-mail address on
every page of the site. It is also my bias that the full
address and phone number be posted for credibility.
Little substance, professionalism or attention to
important details -- I am sure that you have visited
websites that proceed to tell you how they are the "best” and
yet shout out the opposite message. To avoid giving the wrong
message, pay attention to the following:
- Content must be informative, well developed and
complete -- How often have you visited a site for
useful content and found a bunch of photos with a few short
bullets and no true substance? We need to make our content
strong enough that the visitor wants to read it and then
come back for more.
- Typos and grammatical errors scream
non-professional -- Yes, I know that we all make
errors, especially if we are writing many articles,
descriptions and e-newsletters. But, if our copy is loaded
with poor grammar, misspellings, terrible punctuation and
malapropisms, we will be sending the wrong message along
with sending our visitors away forever.
Chris King is a professional website creator /
designer, storyteller, writer, free agent, and fitness
instructor. You will find her business website at http://www.creativekeys.biz and her
information website at http://www.creativekeys.net | Article
Source: http://EzineArticles.com
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