Ten Annoying Website Design Mistakes

No matter how many web pros have put out good tutorials on web design, people (including businesses) still create annoying websites. I have spent many years on both the visitor side and the design side of web pages and have seen my share of annoying sites (and, in the beginning, probably created a few annoying ones too). The following are ten of the most annoying website design mistakes. If your goal is to really annoy your visitor, I suggest using all of these.

Annoying website design mistakes to avoid

Music in the background:

Unless your web page is a memorial page where a song dedicated to a loved one is appropriate, or some another website where music is appropriate, music is just annoying. Most people will just turn their sound off. Leave the background music off of your site.

Flash

Flash is busy, often takes too long to load, and is annoying. Leave it off unless it is absolutely necessary. Businesses, I am looking at you too. I don't need a flash presentation about your newest flavor of potato chip. Just let me into your site to retrieve the information I came for. Don't make me sit through a commercial.

Lack of "white" space

Verbiage on the page is fantastic but please, do remember to split it into small digestible chunks of information. One large page of text without any breaks is annoying. Make reading information easier on your website visitors: Separate text into small paragraphs separated by a line or two of empty space.

Fancy font.

Fancy fonts for titles or other such text is fine. However, your primary font should be something easily readable on the web (arial or verdana, for instance).

This covers flashing font too. Please don't give your visitor a headache (or seizure) by using unnecessary bells and whistles such as flashing font.

Tiny font (or ridiculously huge font)

Again, be kind to your readers' eyes. Do not use tiny font for your primary text.

Huge graphics

Huge graphics = longer loading time. Longer loading time = visitor loses patience and goes away. Avoid large, byte-heavy graphics.

Too many animated Gifs

One or two small animated gifs are not a problem. But remember that your website's purpose is probably not to show off how adept you are at finding cutesy or obnoxious animated gifs for your web page. Animated gifs can easily distract (annoy) your visitor.

Talking characters

These talking characters were cool the first time I saw them. After that they became annoying. If your page is aimed towards the visually impaired, then of course talking characters are appropriate. Otherwise, shut them up and leave them off your site.

Front doors

Front doors are those annoying pages that have little on them but act as a portal to the actual website. I don't like having to take an extra step just to visit your website. Front doors are unnecessary. I don't want to "click here" to enter. I want to enter when I click on the URL. Unless your website has restricted access (e.g. 18 and over and/or is password protected) or you are posting a warning about the content, there is no reason for a front door. Don't make your visitor have to jump through extra hoops just to view your web page.

Pop up windows

Why do so many people have pop up blockers enabled? Because everyone hates pop up windows!

Now that I've told you some design features to avoid, I'll give you some more positive ideas of what to do. To minimize the chance that your web page design will be annoying, always keep the following in mind:

Do:

Make your website as easy as possible to navigate.

Ask yourself if a graphic adds to or detracts from the purpose of your website.

If the dancing fish in the hula skirt does not add something to your reptile health care site, then leave it off. Please.

This article does not cover all annoying web design features. These are web design additions/features that just happen to be most annoying to me. If you keep in mind the last two rules, however, you will avoid many common design mistakes, including ones I've left out.