Most Common Web Design Bloopers

Web page designing is an extremely simple procedure. But for this to hold true one must follow the proper guidelines whilst equipped with the proper tools. Unfortunately there are always the odd few who completely disregard all warnings, cautions and advice given to them by friends, family and of course the internet. Don’t be one of them. Web designing is not only a tech savvy term but is a form of art. Therefore incorporating an element of successive designing in to ones creation is a must in order to enjoy the success of your work.

To address an extremely common blooper that is committed whilst web designing would be the blatant misuse of Adobe Flash. Firstly it is important that one understands what Flash is meant for. The software is used to add relevant animation and advertisement on various websites. Flash can also manipulate vector and raster graphics and support bidirectional streaming of audio and video content. Do not use it for decoration, it has a purpose. Using Flash for intros and to give your page more ‘spunk’ does nothing but annoy people. Having constant movement on your page irrelevantly can be distracting rather than interesting. Focus more on your content and pictures. Many people also do not appreciate using Flash for navigation. Static menus and predictable navigation are more suitable for a majority.

Many web designers tend to not pay that much attention to the font and font size that they use. Legibility is a key factor of having a web page in the first place though some get carried away with frills and fancies. Many tend to use extremely small or frozen font sizes. Never ever do this as it will only generate hatred towards you from bystanders. If you prefer a small font size or absolutely want to use a frozen font size then make absolutely sure that you create a high contrast between the text and the background in order to increase legibility. Though this might seem obvious its funny how many people tend to ignore this and pay more attention to other less relevant matter within their webpage.

Never have a frozen layout with a fixed page width. This is because once you create a webpage you obviously want people from all over the world to view it. Therefore relate to the whole world not only with your content, but by making your page more user friendly.web sites are extremely difficult to use if they do not resize with the window on big monitors while one has to scroll horizontally if they have a small window. Everyone does not have the same monitor as you. Neither do they have the same paper. For example if you want to print out a frozen page, the rightmost part is cut off for many European and Asian countries who use A4 sized paper. Some even freeze both the width and height of the viewport when displaying information in a pop up window. If you must use pop ups (though it is not recommended) at least allow users the privilege of resizing new windows.
Minimize user confusion by enabling them to enlarge a picture that they would like to see by denoting it by a magnifying glass icon. Do not have this feature and then display the same photo in the exact same size in a different window. Do not also show this picture a fraction of an inch larger than the original photo. If you can’t do the feature right do nothing at all and minimize the clutter on your web page with no deceitful little icons. Also though this is a basic fundamental of web page designing many conveniently ignore this rule and post a link on the homepage that links to the homepage itself! Why? Don’t do that. It can get irritating for the user and no one will want to visit your website. Keep your website design user friendly, concise and pleasant and you will most definitely be a success.