Top 10 Worst Things to Do When Designing a Website
 

Here is my top 10 list of things that annoy the hell out of me when I visit a website. Please add to it because I think alot of designers are either brain dead or truly dont know what pisses users off. Some of these websites I see these days I have to stop and say to myself "And they think I am going to BUY something here!?"

1. Use of scrolling marquee or blink tags. You deserve death for this. And yes, this includes using another technology like flash to overcome the lack of browser support for these tags.

2. Background sounds that load as soon as you open the page. There

3. Backgrounds that blink or flash on the screen as you scoll. Huge annoyance. Also applies to those little things that float in a column as you scoll and blink.

4. Intro or landing pages with some big, fancy flash animation and a skip intro button. Who the fuck cares? Show me your product or whatever it is I came to the site for in the first place.

5. Flash navigation bars that make noise. Yes, these suck.

6. Making me register when there is no reason for it. You shouldnt need my e-mail to let me do a search or perform most aspects of a website.

7. Making phone number fields mandatory. Very few businesses that I deal with have a need for my phone number. As such, they are going to find it filled with gibberish.

8. Sounds anywhere on the page that cannot be turned off with a single click and stay off. When I go to the next page, I shouldnt have to turn them off again.

9. Ads that 'strobe'. This is annoying as all fuck, those who allow this type of advertising deserve to be kicked in the head very hard.

10. Links to PDF files that arent directly to a PDF file. I have extensions that intercept those clicks and ask me to download it so my whole system dosent have to freeze up while the Acrobat tries to load inside of a browser window, thereby taking my browser down with it. There is NO FUCKING REASON why you need to open a new window when I click the link and then from that new window call the PDF. Just make a link to the PDF file. And there should be a 'warning' that its a PDF file, usually a little PDF icon is enough.

This thread makes to much sense to be read by the average GFYer..










:thumbsup

Where have you been surfing? I have never seen most of the things you've mentionned.

I'm sure there are alot of those types of things on personnal pages for 16 year old girls and really old web pages... but in professional websites, I've never noticed half the stuff you talk about

nice list you got there :thumbsup

Crap, ok time to start over again on my new site. You went and killed all 10 key elements. Yet alas you did not kill number 11, my super complex drop down navigation menu that makes noise, scrolls over in hard to read colors and that opens up additional windows inside of the main frame so that you will now have additional navigation windows above your current frame.

Oh yeah, how could I forget:

10.1: Frames. All kinds, every kind. Frames.

6, 7, 8, 10 and 3 are the most often found violations. Espically number 10 and 6. And alot of people still violate 4 too.

sig graphic looks great - what font is that? gonna design a site in those colors i think.

I'm a noob and I love frames. Can someone explain to me why frames are so bad? I see people saying that all the time, but no-one has explained it to me :helpme

It's bad luck to put you Enter button on the left.

Without fail, I always end up on some random site that has a talking ad. At 3 am. Never fails to scare the shit out of me while I'm half asleep trying to finish work. I gave up and just muted my sound when I need to go do research :(

Glad I'm not the only one annoyed by links to PDF files when they don't warn you that's what it will be. I detest that.

Because they arent supported across browsers and they can, depending on how the site is setup, cause alot of problems with navigation. I.e. when you hit back and then try to go forward again, now you have two pages stacked inside of one another... its just a piss poor way to layout a site. If you are doing it to make updates easier, you are better off using SSI (Server Side Includes) or creating static pages that are updated by a robot.

Thats a damn good one, I really should have put that in there. Yes, Yes, Yes. Enter/Submit on the RIGHT, clear/reset on the LEFT.

If you use Firefox and dont already have this extension, give it a try:

https://addons.mozilla.org/firefox/636/

It dosent work when they cloak the fact that its a PDF file, which really pisses me off. For some reason, government sites do it an awful lot.

bebbbbbbbbbbbo!

Thank you! Makes perfect sense now. I love people who take the time to explain things to noobs :)

Ahh... better fix that too :thumbsup
I'm backwards... I instinctively click on the button on the left to enter and end up confused for a second or two: "Hey, why does this site look like google/yahoo..."

Yah, I'm blonde :upsidedow

True dat bawla. Some VERY good points for the designers, and webby's out there.

:thumbsup

Thank you for #4. I hate flash landing pages.

im completely with #9