Did you know that 75% of a website’s credibility is attributed to its design? This means that if there are many problems with the website design, fewer visitors will trust it. As a result, if you are designing a website, or you want to redesign your website, you need to avoid making a series of common mistakes in website design.
In this article, we talk about common mistakes in website design as well as practical solutions to correct or prevent these mistakes.
Table of Contents
8 common mistakes in website design
1. Not paying attention to website accessibility
One of the biggest mistakes in website design is to ignore website accessibility. Accessibility means that the website can be easily used by any user with any restrictions and special conditions. This limitation may be disability and physical or environmental limitations. By following the principle of accessibility in website design, all audiences can use the website and its features equally, regardless of their conditions.
solution
Make accessibility a priority. Do not forget that if the website is not accessible, millions of people will be deprived of visiting and interacting with the website.
2. Forgetting the importance of responsive design
Another common mistake of site designers is that they assume that users use desktops and pay less attention to mobile users. The website design should be adjusted according to the needs of mobile users.
By 2023, over 58% of global website traffic will be mobile-only. Users now, more than ever, use multiple devices to display websites, including smartphones, tablets, laptops, and even televisions. If the website content is not displayed correctly on all these devices, the visitors will lose their trust and leave the website.
solution
With responsive web design, make sure your visitors have a great experience with whatever device they’re on. The good news is that designing a responsive website is not difficult at all.
After designing the site for mobile, the work is not finished yet. Be sure to test the website on mobile. Testing the site will reveal bugs and problems that you may not have noticed before.
3. Beautiful appearance at the cost of user experience
Another common mistake in website design that has increased in the last few years is that the beauty and attractive appearance of the website are so important that the real function and purpose of the website are lost. In other words, a large percentage of designers’ attention goes to the graphic design and appearance of the website, which may be separated from the main purpose of the website and lose the credibility of the visitors.
For example, excessive use of animation, heavy content, and graphics may enhance the beauty of the site but be functionally insignificant or unrelated to the main purpose of the website.
solution
First, improve the performance of the site, then the appearance of the site. In other words, the design should be in such a way that the website achieves its main purpose while being attractive. Achieving this goal requires effective communication and coordination of technical and design teams. Design teams should not sacrifice site functionality for site appearance.
4. Simple appearance and not customized
Let’s say that while walking in the city, you come to a clothing store with a creative and attractive window display. This showcase includes all kinds of clothes with attractive labels that display information such as price, material, and size attractively. Then, you pass by another store with only a few clothes on mannequins in the window, nothing attractive about it, and you pass it by easily.
A website is like a storefront. A store with an attractive and creative window will attract the attention of customers, but a store with a very simple and colorless window is less likely to be seen compared to other stores.
One of the biggest mistakes of website designers is using a simple and repetitive template for all websites and not customizing it.
solution
Beautiful and creative website design is very important. Try to never imitate the design of similar websites. Over 70% of businesses invest in website design to differentiate themselves from the competition, so do something no one else in the industry has done.
5. Excessive use of various features
One of the common mistakes in web design is using features that do not work on the website. The most important priority of any website is its optimal performance, so even if an element is attractive in terms of appearance, it should not be forgotten that the main goal is the website’s efficiency, and if that feature is not aligned with the website’s efficiency, it should not be used.
solution
If you know that using a feature does not add value to the user, don’t use it.
A website designer’s resources and time should be spent on features and components that add value to users and help improve their experience. If a feature has little effect on users or even confuses them, it is better not to use it.
6. Lack of content hierarchy on the site
Have you ever landed on a website and found yourself in a confused and uncertain situation where you don’t know where to look? If yes, you’ve probably come across a website that has no content hierarchy.
One of the common problems in web design is the lack of hierarchy. In simple terms, hierarchy refers to how the elements and content of a website page are organized and arranged. Just like the text of the newspaper, which uses the title and subtitle to show the importance of the text, the website also uses typography (type and size of font, light, and weight) and page structure to create a hierarchy.
Having a hierarchy on your website is not only visually appealing but also helps improve website performance. When the elements and content of the website are organized in a logical order, users can easily reach the content or section they want.
solution
Make sure the website has a hierarchical order. A website without hierarchy is confusing and complex. But despite the hierarchical order, visitors easily know where to find the content they want on the page.
Be sure to use HTML tags to let users know which lines of text are more important than others. Also, do not neglect the principles and rules of Gestalt in website design.
7. Ambiguous navigation
Site navigation is a system or method that guides users in finding various information. Obscure navigation causes problems for users.
With the increasing presence of businesses in the digital space, the volume and complexity of content on websites have increased. In such a situation, the presence of clear and integrated navigation is of great importance. Website navigation is like a road map, helping users to find the information they want easily.
solution
Make sure website navigation is easy to understand. If the website navigation is difficult, the bounce rate of users will increase.
To properly design website navigation, you must first have a reasonable hierarchical structure. This structure helps users to easily navigate the website and find the information they want. Determining navigation levels and using clear and appropriate labels and titles for each section is very important. Also, make sure each page has a link back to the previous page.
8. Failure to convey the brand message and the nature of the business
It is very important to create a clear and relevant image of the company’s activities on the website. When visitors land on a website, they expect to know what the company is and what it does. If the image is unclear, visitors will leave the website.
solution
Make sure that the website design is such that it communicates the business goals to the users. For this, use effective and attractive text and image elements. For this, first of all, ask yourself what is the main purpose of the website. Is the purpose of the website an online store? Or is it a notification about a specific service?
Then try to align every feature, text, and image you add to the website with these goals.