Common Traits of Bad Web Design

Graphic Design
09/28
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31 Responses to “Common Traits of Bad Web Design”

  1. target ict

    good article, agreed that pointless flash intros get overused

  2. Richard, Peacock Carter

    Similar to #3, I’ve noticed quite a few designers who will set a background image in a div, and a fore-colour, but not bother with a background colour, meaning text often has no contrast if the image doesn’t load.

  3. Phil Thompson

    Agreed on all points.

    #2 drives me insane.

  4. Harry Roberts

    My current #1 ‘bad trait’ is sites that can be reached though http://www.site.com, but not through site.com. I *never* type http://www. before a URL because you shouldn’t need to.

  5. elcodigodebarras

    Agreed with your post completly.
    Now in the internet 2.0 you got 15 seconds for keeping the visitor interest…15 seconds…
    Splash pages, typographic with no contrast colors, long inneccesary scrolls, No 404 error pages…

  6. 60Four

    Number 7 is somewhat suspect. Those “plain submit buttons” are what users typically expect to see. Customizing form controls (esp. buttons) is fine, so long as it’s very clear that they ARE those controls. Otherwise you have a usability problem.

  7. Tim

    Agree we 60Four. Also - Did you notice that you are using a “plain” submit button for your comments?

  8. Murphy

    I agree with all of them except #9. I was initially skeptical of its use in practice until I tried it on my employers’s corporate site, and saw the click-maps. LOTS of people used them. I’d call that worth having. Furthermore, it’s not much different than the links you’ve got listed below. They’re simply more contextual.

  9. Zinni

    Tim,

    I have a long list of updates I have been collecting for this site, and believe me changing the styles of the submit buttons is one of them. I originally thought that they were close enough to the color palette of the site to use, but I have since changed my mind.

    I think it is possible to change the appearance of form buttons, but agree that care should be taken to make sure they still appear as buttons.

    Thanks for all your great comments guys!

  10. Sizzle Creative Manchester

    Long flash intro’s drive me crazy.

  11. Drahony

    I agree, Typography is so often forgotten about in web design. So few take notice of its impact on their visitors and the experience it provide. Reading is ment to be a pleasure not a nightmare.

  12. Integritylance - Freelance

    If people are using flash, I think it should be used like Salt.. a little goes a long way.

  13. Jin

    Flash has its place. There are online user experiences can’t be achieved by mere html/css.

    As for flash intro, I think it’s appropriate for artists’ site to set a tone and mood. Of course a “skip intro” link should be available.

    Jin’s latest post: Findings 9.26.08

  14. Sam

    it’s debatable, but using tables?

  15. Andrew Kelsall

    Like Jin said, I suppose flash DOES have its place, but personally, I detest flash sites. If I see some suped-up flash intro, I just close the tab, Period.

    Over the years searching the web, I’ve developed quite an aversion to flash sites. Many flash developers insist on including animations where they’re not needed, and slow, sluggish navigaion-nightmare sites…

  16. Matt

    Nice little list, and I agree with almost all of them, except really #7. If form styles are the sites only concern then they are doing good by me. I would say it is much more important to have valid content than anything else. You can have the neatest looking design going, but if it doesn’t validate…what is the point?

    Matt’s latest post: Web Standards can make you rich!

  17. Doug S.

    Most of these I agree with to some degree, even though I think some of them have exceptions.

    But #9 is one I completely disagree with. Apple’s website has one that is fantastic and extremely useful, for instance. It’s a practice that is actually growing more and more prevalent as time goes on because more than just helping site crawlers it helps users quickly navigate a large website.

  18. Richard

    A good list, but I completely disagree with 7 and 6.

    7: Form input controls are UI specific, if you’re using windows they should look like windows input, mac likewise. I’ve seen too many websites that yes look good, but are completely unusable for the majority of visitors because they dont know what to do, or how to do it.

    6: If a font isnt widespread whats wrong with using a [h2] and display: none; background: …;

  19. Zinni

    Richard,

    in #6 I am referring to paragraphs of text, not headings. What you are describing is an acceptable practice, however I would not use display: none; it is considered better practice to use a negative text-indent to hide the text. Some screen reader technologies cannot interpret the display: none; text…

  20. Bill Biwer

    Wonderful post. Gotta love the clients who’s pushing the 60 second movie intro to their website.

  21. Sam

    I saw a few examples of these things on suckdesign.com.

  22. Svetainiu kurimas

    Over the years searching the web, I’ve developed quite an aversion to flash sites. Many flash developers insist on including animations where they’re not needed, and slow, sluggish navigaion-nightmare sites…

    br

    svetainiu kurimas

  23. shawn

    this site made me hate my citizenship http://www.pinoyexchange.com/

    can someone enumerate the bad design practices used in this site?

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