1. Poor graphic design - I say it loud … this could be first reason your website sucks. One of my clients told me that more than 50% of his visitors remained on his website after he redesigned his 90's website. Awesome effect. Use a good color scheme and a proper contrast between the background color and the text color. Please take a look at this stone-age website ( www.tuiasi.ro ) , good navigation and that's all. This is the university where I study :)
2. Too much flash on your website – Too much flash is not good for your SEO and also slow down alot your website for most of users. It also takes some badwidth use it wisely !
3. Bad navigation – Your website must be very friendly to all the users. Make sure all your visitors could see all the sections easy without spending hours ; Try to see all types of menus you can use and see what fits the best. Avoid flash menus from the first time, it is waste of money. Don't forget also about a “Site map” link on your website, google will love it.
4. Audio & videos which auto start – this scared me one time when I visited a website ( they add a radio link which started without my click – rock music ). Visitors will get pissed off and will never visit your website. Hey wait a minute… if you hired a nice model to represent your company, a video&audio welcome message is more than welcome.
5. Site intros – I've never agreed with this. Why should I wait 30 second or more to get in a website I want to see. You really want a intro? ... then make sure you have a "skip intro" button because when I'll land on your webpage I will use it for sure.
6. Excessive advertisements – My uncle is new to Internet and what he hates the most are the aggressive pop ups, banners, flash ads which sometimes takes the whole page for few seconds. Avoid aggressive advertisements and you will get more visitors on your side.
7. Browser compatibility : Check twice your website in all major browsers and apply for 1024 x 768 & 1280 x 1024 before you publish it. Browsers understand in different ways html/css code. A short time ago I visited a website and I couldn't read a single word with firefox and with IE was perfect. You don't want that I'm sure !
8. Orphan pages ( back button is missing ) – make sure your visitor could easily leave a page but remain in your website. Make your logo ( header ) link to the homepage, show your visitors where he is located , keep a default menu for all pages.
9. Slow loading sites – Either you use too much flash or heavy backgrounds and images , too much youtube videos or audio files auto started your website will take forever to load. If you insist using a sophisticated flash presentation make 2 versions for your website, think at the visitors with a slow connection.
10. Outdated information – If I'll enter a website and I see in latest news “Britney is still virgin!” and I open the tv and I found out that she has 2 kids I'll never visit that website again. Updates are very important, you should consider that.
Comments
It happends all the time, very interesting article . Thanks
February 29, 2008
I agree with you on every point. From just a quick look to my website i think to myself that i need some help ...
March 01, 2008
Very very interesting critique of websites Stoian, good job with this article
March 02, 2008
I agree with all your points , but i think there are things to add there
March 04, 2008
"Creativity is an inborn capacity for thinking differently than most" someone said , very interesting article !
March 06, 2008
Hell yeah , damn straight! You're right i'm 100% on your side !
March 08, 2008
Why don't you post more articles, please email me . thanks
March 11, 2008
I think that you should write something else. Very interesting point of view.
June 24, 2008
Hey guys,
Could you please take a look at this site and tell me if we suffer from the problem of bad design, cause i sure as hell love it !
http://www.iexplorehere.com
Vandan
July 15, 2008
i agree with your 10 reasons
July 25, 2008
Hahaha. Each time we have to hire new staff, one of the questions the candidate have to deal with is about user interaction and dynamic content. When the candidate proposes something with Flash, he never gets a job offer!
January 03, 2009
Excellent job with putting together this easy to follow list for web designers just getting started...
Keep up the great work with keeping us all informed
Anyways,
2008 was a wonderful year for web design and technology in general. I hope to see some excellent designs this coming new year.
Check out Adamssite for some eye popping web templates, web page templates, and html templates.
Happy New Year,
Adam
January 29, 2009
99% of all websites suck pretty bad. Each of your reasons scream the truth and in my book, pretty dang funny!
March 30, 2009
Having read your article, I recalled one good book. I have http://www.pdfqueen.com found at pdf ebooks search engine, it was written in the style of a blog, where each article was finished with the discussion and other people's opinions.
December 13, 2009
very very nice post!Thanks a lot for sharing it!!
August 13, 2010
