Mistakes in Web Design Avoid These Design Mistakes
Mistakes in Web Design Avoid These Design Mistakes That Will Shy Viewers Away
When creating your Website there are many things to think about, but lets not forget the basics. This includes your primary design plan or rather the first colors, background and words the visitor sees. Discussed below are ways to successfully execute those three components.
Color Scheme
If you already have a company logo with designated colors, use those and continue the theme. Otherwise choose two to three colors for use on your Website. Stick with these colors and use them on every page. Once you assign a pattern to those colors stay consistent on each page. Example: White background, blue writing and orange bordering. Pull out or download a color wheel. This will help you choose colors that naturally accent one another. You want to catch your viewers’ eye so shy away from dark colors on top of dark colors.
Most commonly used color schemes:
~Red, yellow and white
~Blue and white
~Red, grey and white
~Blue, orange and white
~Yellow, grey and white
~Onion shade, Tan, white
Page Background
The most common mistake here is having a dark background with dark writing or white background with yellow or light pink writing. This is very strenuous to the viewers’ eyes. White backgrounds are used most often and are safe with darker writing. If you have a pattern as your page background, make sure the colors stand out from all the background patterns colors, if not done in black and white. Be sure that your hyperlink doesn’t blend before or after it has been clicked. Links most commonly appear blue before clicked and burgundy after.
Grammar and Spelling
We’re all aware of the spelling and grammar tool on our computers, but sometimes they don’t catch everything. It’s helpful to print the page out and review it from a hard copy. The eye sometimes catches mistakes it may not have seen on the computer screen. Have a peer look over your work – this will help in finding mistakes. Watch out for grammatical and punctuation mistakes your computer may not pick up on. Ex: your, you’re, there, their, its, it’s, viewers’, viewer’s and some time, sometimes.
Think simple with these three components. Complex colors, backgrounds, or words will lead your viewer away. Be inviting to your audience by making your site ‘easy on the eyes.’ Don’t forget to proofread – and remember that two heads are better than one.
Fixed Font Size
CSS style sheets unfortunately give websites the power to disable a Web browser’s “change font size” button and specify a fixed font size. About 95% of the time, this fixed size is tiny , reducing readability significantly for most people over the age of 40.
Respect the user’s preferences and let them resize text as needed. Also, specify font sizes in relative terms — not as an absolute number of pixels
Violating Design Conventions
Consistency is one of the most powerful usability principles: when things always behave the same, users don’t have to worry about what will happen. Instead, they know what will happen based on earlier experience. Every time you release an apple over Sir Isaac Newton, it will drop on his head. That’s good.
The more users’ expectations prove right, the more they will feel in control of the system and the more they will like it. And the more the system breaks users’ expectations, the more they will feel insecure. Oops, maybe if I let go of this apple, it will turn into a tomato and jump a mile into the sky.
