| a lot of surfing on the Internet. I’m always | | | | stay there long. |
| Googling something. Sometimes I’m doing | | | | 5. Web page that is too long or too big. |
| business research. Other times I might be shopping, | | | | Long web pages are too hard to follow. These are |
| looking for fun stuff, free stuff, product reviews, or | | | | the web sites where the first page goes on and on |
| news. The Internet is a wonderful thing when | | | | with no discernable structure. It’s like trying to |
| it’s done right. When websites are designed | | | | read a 400 page book on 1 very long sheet of paper |
| poorly, it can be very annoying. | | | | with no chapter breaks. |
| My top ten pet peeves about the design of web | | | | Web pages with huge pictures are a problem, |
| pages: | | | | especially for Internet surfers on a dial-up connection. |
| 10. Websites with nothing on the home page to identify | | | | Pictures should be resized to no more than 50k-100k |
| itself. | | | | and/or compressed. When someone is on a dial-up |
| You’ve seen them. Nice graphics, artistic, | | | | connection, it can literally take 5 or 10 minutes for a |
| elegant looking home pages with no information. It | | | | bunch of large pictures to be displayed. |
| might say “ BXY Inc.”, with a link for | | | | Couple a bunch of large pictures with a web page that |
| ‘Contact’ and a list of clients. You click | | | | never ends and you might as well go watch your |
| on every link, but you still don’t know what the | | | | favorite movie while the page is loading. People on a |
| company does. Hmmm - must be top secret … | | | | slow connection will just give up and go to someone |
| or they are spies … nobody knows. | | | | else’s website. |
| 9. Flashy, sparkly, swirling intro pages. | | | | 4. Totally invalid search results. |
| You click on a link, expecting to get someone’s | | | | If you spend a significant amount of time researching |
| home page with the information you’re after. | | | | on the Internet you have probably run into this. You |
| What you get is a page with pretty pictures flashing or | | | | enter ‘cat jewelry’ in the search engine |
| blinking or swirling around. It does this for several | | | | and you get a page that is selling a bunch of stuff, but |
| seconds, or longer if you’re not lucky. | | | | it has nothing to do with cats or jewelry – and |
| Website programmers enjoy playing with these fancy | | | | it’s not a rock group called Cat Jewelry either. |
| features (ooh, aah!). They look cool, but they waste | | | | This happened because the keeper of that website is |
| the reader’s time. They serve no useful | | | | using the search keyword phrase ‘cat |
| purpose, unless you’re selling flashy, sparkly | | | | jewelry’ for their website because they found |
| things. | | | | out it is a popular keyword. This is known as keyword |
| Another kind of intro page that is slightly amusing | | | | spamming. |
| … you click on the link to a website and you get | | | | What are these people thinking? I guess they think if |
| another page that just says “click here to | | | | you throw enough spam against the wall, some if it will |
| enter”. | | | | stick. |
| 8. Music, or any other sound, that starts up when you | | | | If Google catches you keyword spamming they send |
| click on the home page and you can’t turn it | | | | a burly guy named Bruno out to stomp on your |
| off. | | | | keyboard. No, seriously, they drop you from their |
| In the first place, I resent it when people assume I want | | | | ‘lists’ and act like you don’t exist. |
| to listen to their choice of music. There should at least | | | | 3. Websites that look like they were shot out of a |
| be the option to turn it off. | | | | shotgun. |
| I find a website that has some good content that | | | | These websites often have the #5 problem also |
| I’m interested in, so I go to their home page and | | | | – going on and on with no structure. They have |
| the music starts playing some sentimental, mushy song | | | | tons of obnoxious banner graphics with no common |
| like “Feelings”. So I hit the | | | | theme. ‘Save the Orphan Rats’, |
| ‘stop’ button on my browser, but the | | | | ‘Best Long Distance Rates’, ‘Are |
| music goes on … and on. | | | | you a good kisser?’, ‘Free Insurance |
| OK, fine, I click on one of their interesting links and | | | | Quotes’. They have all kinds of unrelated text |
| thank you God, the music stops. When I’m | | | | links in different text sizes and colors, with no |
| finished with that page, I have to go back to the home | | | | organization or relationship. |
| page to get to the next link and guess what happens! | | | | Often these unorganized, unfocused websites use |
| That’s right – “Feelings, whoa, | | | | about 15 different fonts, sizes, and colors, giving it the |
| whoa, whoa, feelings….” So I quickly hit | | | | look of the work of a 10 year old. |
| the next link. They have several interesting links on | | | | Somewhere on this website there must be something |
| their homepage so I’m am going back and forth | | | | related to what I Googled to get there, but darned if I |
| 15 times and the music is going off and on 15 times. | | | | can find it! |
| Pretty soon, my husband says, “What the heck | | | | 2. Text size that is too small or too large. |
| are you doing over there?” So I either give up | | | | Have you ever seen a web page where the text size |
| on that website or mute my sound. | | | | is so large you have to scroll down to read 3 words? |
| 7. Excessive drop down menus. | | | | Does the author of that website think they will get their |
| Drop down menus have their place when you have an | | | | point across by shouting at the top of their lungs? How |
| option of 50 states or 100 countries, but I think they | | | | smart does that make the author of the 4 inch letters |
| should be avoided when there are only a few menu | | | | look? |
| options. This is another one of those cool features | | | | Sometimes the text size is way too small. It must be |
| programmers like to play with that isn’t | | | | wonderful to have such great eyesight that you can |
| necessarily productive for the user. | | | | comfortably read letters the size of the year on a |
| One problem I have with drop down menus is that too | | | | penny from 18 inches away. It’s ridiculous to go |
| often they are coded in text about the size of the | | | | to all the work of creating a website with great |
| width of my cat’s whiskers. You have to have | | | | content, but it’s too hard to read. I know |
| the dexterity of a Swiss watch maker to click on the | | | | sometimes you can change the text size in your |
| right option. | | | | browser, but sometimes you can’t. |
| If the drop down menus have several nested levels | | | | 1. Content is hard to read because of text and/or |
| – one wrong click on level 5 and you have to | | | | background colors. |
| start over! | | | | The purpose of having written content on your |
| If you have a drop down menu with 100 items, for | | | | website is so people can read it, right? So why make it |
| heaven’s sake, please have them in | | | | hard to read by having light pink text that you can |
| alphabetical order! I was filling out a form with a drop | | | | barely see on a pink background. Add to this scenario |
| down menu with about 100 countries listed in random | | | | text that is too small (see #2) above and have some |
| order. I had to read the whole list and I finally found my | | | | butterflies or fairies flittering across the screen, and |
| country near the bottom listed between China and | | | | you have a pretty picture that is impossible to read! |
| Transylvania! | | | | The easiest to read is a very dark text on a very light |
| 6. Too many moving parts. | | | | background. Even white text on a black background is |
| Too many moving graphics on every page make it | | | | harder to read. |
| hard to read the content. I know, it’s fun to | | | | When you create a website or web page, avoid |
| have cutesy animated graphics on personal web | | | | anything that wastes the reader’s time or |
| pages, but they shouldn’t get in the way of | | | | causes confusion. Too many fancy features slow |
| reading the content. A little animation is interesting and | | | | down the loading speed. If you want people to read |
| artistic – too much is annoying and cheesy. | | | | your content, make it easy to read. Your structure and |
| Oh, let’s not forget the most annoying graphics | | | | design should be straightforward and organized. When |
| of all – animated banner ads that talk to you! | | | | you are building a web site, you need to consider what |
| Excessive animated banners are distracting and | | | | is best for the readers and they are more likely to |
| annoying and they look unprofessional on business | | | | stay on your website longer. |
| pages. If a page has too many of them, I won’t | | | | |