1. Designing your website for your needs, not your customers.
Mistake: Many businesses believe that a website is about opening a new marketing channel, promoting a brand, or increasing sales and revenue.
Why:
Most people visit a website to solve one or more of these four problems:
- They want/need information
- They want/need to make a purchase
- They want/need to be entertained
- They want/need to be part of a community
It’s just that simple, all visitors care about is solving their problems.
So, when designing a website, remind yourself:
- The only reason my website exists is to solve my customers’ problems.
- What problems do my webpage solve?
2. Visitors can’t figure out the purpose of your website in less than five seconds.
Mistake: After five seconds on your website, visitors are still wondering are you trying to sell something, what is your website about, etc.
Why:
Visitors are not going to stay around, dig around and find out. If your name or tag line does not tell them what your website is about, they will simply leave and go on to the next website.
3. Visitors can’t read the text on your website.
Mistake: Many web designers like to use light type on a white background.
Why:
Unfortunately, because you know your content so you can read it even if you can’t really see it. But, without proper contrast, visitors can’t see the text and if they can’t read it, they will leave.
Tools that can help you:
- Gray-bit.com – the best way to evaluate a website’s contracts is to examine the website in grayscale. Gray-bit.com will convert your websites to grayscale, so you can ask yourself: Can you read the text?
- Check My Colors – an easy-to-use contrast-analysis tool that will provide a thorough analysis of the website’s color combinations. It checks for contrast ratio, brightness difference and color difference.
- Color Scheme Designer – Not only can this tool help you choose a proper color palette, it can also simulate how people with colorblindness will interpret your color scheme.
- Coblis-Color Blindness Simulator – allows you to upload an image and view it as if you had different types of colorblindness.
4. Too much material on one page.
Mistake: You don’t know where to put most of the material so you’ve crammed them all on to one page.
Why:
With so much content vying for attention, it is difficult for the eyes to find the focal point. People get confused and they leave (and most likely find another site that is less confusing). A long web page also means you have failed to organize your website properly.