Posts Tagged ‘no’

A website can make or break your company’s brand or image, and so it is important that your web designer uses cutting edge and fashionable design techniques, without being too gimmicky.

Outdated web design techniques can make a website look old-fashioned, implying that the company itself is out of touch with its target market, and although we were joking about the flaming logos, we’re still seeing many outdated bits and bobs on the websites we come across every day.

Here’s a list of the worst offenders:

Scrolling text is an old-fashioned technique that tries to catch users’ attentions and sneak as much information onto any one page as possible. With plenty of opportunity to add side bars and boxes, there really is no need to have scrolling text.

Animated or blinking logos were introduced at the dawn of website design, which, as well as implying lack of imagination, unnecessarily take up space which could be put to better use. If they take time to load, this could put off website users, they’re distracting, and in a lot of cases, downright ugly.

Patterned backgrounds not only make viewers’ eyes hurt, but also make it much harder to read important page text. When thinking of successful website design, the ‘less is more’ motto is definitely something to remember. Keep it clean and easy to read.

No one likes pop ups, and it’s not just advertisers that use them. Some websites use pop ups for opinion polls and announcements, but pops ups are almost always ‘closed’ before the user even reads them.

Banner ads, again like pop ups, imply advertisement, which the user will automatically ignore. If too many banner ads appear on a single webpage, this also makes it look like a classified section, cheapening the overall look and usability of the website.

Comic Sans: No, no, no, no, no, no a no. End of

Other ‘old school’ web design techniques to avoid include bordered text boxes, the over-use of colour, Flash intros, splash pages and music. Ultimately, any one of these outdated website techniques could prevent users from using the website at the time, as well as in the future.

If you want to be taken seriously in this age of Social Media and Online Marketing, watch out for a future blog when we’ll tell you the things you SHOULD be including on your website to make it stand out.

What other outdated web design techniques have you seen on your web travels?

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photo credit: Steve Keys