4heroes.co.uk

There are endless amounts of things you should and should not do when Designing a Website.  There are also many, many lists on the Internet telling you what you should do and what you should not do.  I like to think I’ve created below, a definitive list to help anyone who fancies giving DIY webdesign a go.

Remember, webdesign takes time and experience.  It does not come over night and this is by no means a guide on how to create websites.  Some of the points below are so obvious, they might insult you but please, take them into account as I have found hundreds of websites that do the little things wrong and those little things lead to big problems in the long-run.  Website Design should not be taken lightly and if your unsure about anything, contact a Professional Website Design company.  All the better if they are local to you I.E  – Hartlepool Web Design Company

Now, for the Definitive list of 40 Tips on how NOT to Design Websites:

1. Do NOT use intricate fonts that are hard to read: You may think that using fancy fonts on your website adds a good look and while you may be right, they also might be hard to read and therefore make your readers lose interest.  Fonts should be clear and easy to read and should match website designs on a constant theme throughout the website.
2. Make your text paragraphs easy to Skim Read: you will find that most of your readers will scan through the text on your website before committing to read it.  This means you should make text easy to skim and easy for your readers to pick out important articles by laying it out well.  Using short paragraphs, clear fonts and bullet points are a must.  People love lists and reading  a list is much easier and more interesting than reading long paragraphs.
3. Let the audience know what the website is EARLY: People paying attention to your website is the key factor of getting any real hits. Using Keywords allows you to get points across simply and quickly.  If users cannot figure out what your site represents in a couple of seconds, you will probably end up losing them!  Your website should say on the first page exactly what it is about and carry that message through right up until the last page.
4. Do not use pop ups: this goes without saying really. You will never find an advertising popup on our websites.  I personally, hate them as they get in the way and I don’t think anyone actually ever clicks on them! It’s a wonder they get any business through them (that is if they do).
5. Do not use animated GIFs: unless you have advertising banners that require animation, avoid animated GIFs. They make a site look unprofessional and detract the attention from the content.
6. Do not use small fonts:  This goes without saying, really.  Small fonts can be hard to read for people with sight problems.  This means that your website’s accessibility is down-hill from the start.
7. Do not ignore complaints / suggestions: allowing your customers a survey page or something similar means that if there any suggestions to better your website, you can take them on board.  Just make sure you ARE taking them on board and implementing any changes as you see fit.
8. Do not resize the user’s browser windows: allow the user to size the window as they see fit.  You might mess up your design.
9. Never subscribe the visitorwithout their allowance: do not automatically subscribe a visitor to newsletters or other promotions without first getting consent from them by means of a tick box etc.
10. Do not make people register if there is no need: This is a very important point I feel.   I come across countless websites that try to make me register just to access information that I could access from elsewhere without registering first.
11. Do not play embedded HTML music: This was a popular feature in the start of webdesign but is an absolute disgrace nowerdays! If you want music on your website, use an embeded player so your users have the option of listening to it or not.
12. Do not overuse Flash: Now, Flash is a great tool but unfortunately, at this moment in time, it is not indexed by Search Engines and therefore your site might not rank very well if it is entirely Flash based.  Professional Flash websites available in our Affordable Website Package.
13. If you MUST play an audio file let the user start it: some situations might require an audio file. You might need to deliver a speech to the user or your guided tour might have an audio component. That is fine. Just make sure that the user is in control by using a smart, media plugin / embeded player.
14. Do not clutter your website with badges: first of all, badges of networks and communities make a site look very unprofessional. Even if we are talking about awards and recognition badges you should place them on the “About Us” page.
15. Do not use a homepage that just launches the “real” website: these pages are POINTLESS! The less pages the user has to go through to get to your content, the better.
16. Do not use blinking / rave text:  the last time I saw this, it was when I was 13 and I put it on a wannabe website I started up using Freewebs!
17. Make sure to include contact details:  include correct, concise contact details allowing the visitor to clearly get in touch with you if they want to.  This may also lead to more sales.  I have seen websites that have nothing but an 0870 number on and this puts me right off!
18. Do not break the “Back” button: disabling the use of the back button by opening up everything in new windows can be annoying to users. If they close the wrong window too, they might lose your website and then lose interest before they bring it back up! Using Search Engine Optimisation (SEO) friendly URLs means the robots can understand them a lot better.
19. Avoid complex URL structures: if your website uses complex / dynamic URLs, the chances are your customers won’t be able to tell which page they’re going onto and also Google and other such search engines may find it hard to display the page.
20. Make sure users can search your website: having a built in search function means visitors can search for specific articles within your website meaning they can find exactly what they want without having to read anything they don’t.  Perhaps even leading to more sales.
21. Avoid “drop down” menus: drop-down menus are a good space saving technique but they hide links. If the user cannot see the links straight away and are not computer literate, you might end up with them not being able to find the page at all.
22. Use text navigation:  using buttons in your navigation bar has become a thing of the past, not only does it slow the page load time down, but text links are more optimisable and easier to read.
23. Do not confuse the visitor with many versions: avoid confusing the visitor with too many versions of your website. What bandwidth do I prefer? 56Kbps? 128Kbps? Flash or HTML?  Just give them the content that they have come to see on the first page, and leave them alternate versions on the homepage in the footer if necessary.
24. Use CSS over HTML tables: HTML tables were used to create page layouts. With the advent of CSS, however, there is no reason to stick to them. CSS is faster, more reliable and it offers many more features. Using the DIV tag is a much more popular way of doing things now.
25. Do not blend advertising inside the content:  Blending advertisement links into your text is a good way to trick users into creating you revenue, but too many can be annoying.  If you are going to do it, DO NOT do it in the middle of sentences and try and keep it to a minimum.
26. Use a simple navigation system: use a navigation system everyone can use.  Keep the navigation the same every page it features on so people can always get where they want to go.
27. If you are linking to a file that will open with an explorer addon: For instance, if you link directly to a PDF document, Internet Explorer freezes while Adobe reader loads up.  This could fase some web users if they are not familiar and not expecting it.  Always give a warning either in the link of before that it will not open in a straight forward explorer window.
28. Avoid “intros”: do not force the visitor to sit through a flash intro.  If you insist on using one, ensure it has a skip button!
29. Do not use FrontPage or cheap Website Editing software: this point extends to other cheap HTML editors. While they appear to make web design easier, the output will be a poorly crafted code, incompatible with different browsers and with several bugs.  I used Frontpage for all of 6 months when I was about 14.  I would honestly rather use Wordpad and would probably come put with better content if i did!
30. Make sure your website is cross-browser compatible: not all browsers are created equal, and not all of them interpret CSS and other languages on the same way. Like it or not, you will need to make your website compatible with the most used browsers on the market, else you will lose readers over the long term.  People use a huge range of web browsers and testing a website with just Internet Explorer is not enough.
31. Do not cloak links: your side will lose credibility both with Search Engines and with people if you try and hide link locations on your site.  Always allow the user to see where the link is taking them in the status bar.
32. Make sure to include anchor text on links: As you will see, I have linked multiple words throughout this blog to pages of our website.  This is for Search Engine Optimisation (SEO) purposes.  I also use strategic text for the links when posting on outside websites.
33. Let the visitor know where a link is: make links stand out to ensure easy navigation for visitors.  If links blend in with the text, the only way the visitor will find it is if they roll over it and it has either some sort of roll-over formatting or a link title.  Making them stand out lets a visitor know exactly where they can go.
34. Make clicked links change color: this point, I feel is not that important but is still one worth mentioning.  Some people say this is imporant to stop visitors going round in circles, but if your navigation is simple and your links clearly tell you where yo are going, you should not ever have that problem.
35. Make sure to use the ALT and TITLE attributes for images: apart from having SEO benefits the ALT and TITLE attributes for images will play an important role for blind users and users with sight difficulties.
36. Avoid Javascript links:  Javascript can be quite “Buggy” if not coded right and quite often causes problems for users.  Many web browsers do not like javascript and bring errors up more often.
37. Include functional links on your footer: people are used to scrolling down to the footer of a website if they are not finding a specific information. At the very least you want to include a link to the Homepage and possibly a link to the “Contact Us” page.  If you navigate to Hartlepool Webdesign, you can see we use our Footer effectively to display any links we cannot get in the main navigation.
38. Avoid overly-lengthy pages: pages on your website that require lots of scrolling become tedious to visitors.  I do not like scrolling lots to find information and I’m sure you do not either.  This article is about as long as it gets for me.  Try and break pages down into multiple pages if you feel them getting too long.
39. Do not rush or limit the number of design revisions: if you are not happy with your initial design, or your client is not happy, do not try and throw together another one instantly.  Take constructive feedback onboard and draw out a mind map.  Use these comments to help you design your next revision.  If you rush a design, you will find you make mistakes and will probably make your clients unhappy.  Make that first impression count by taking time when designing and doing a good job!
40. If you use CAPTCHA make sure it is easy to understand and not faulty.  I have been in charge of an online community of over 2000 people.  I know how many phone calls I got regarding registration errors due to the CAPTCHA box dissalowing things.  Check that visualy impaired users can read it fine and also check to see if it is working well. Ask your customers, do a survey and make any changes necessary with the answers.

I can finally say that the main website is finished, the blog is fully functional, our Twitter page is up (although noone following us!) and our facebook page / group is steadily growing.  I am very happy with this venture and think it is the perfect branch-out for an already exciting company to run.  A little bit about 4Heroes: