How many times have you stumbled upon a website and been frustrated with how to navigate through it or been turned off because the graphics are outdated? You would think in today's world that most websites would be up-to-date and relevant. Unfortunately, that's not the case.

Let's take a look at some of the most common cringe worthy website design mistakes we all make:

1. Cluttered homepage

Your homepage is the first thing your visitors see when they enter your website. If you want them to stay on your website and click around you need to make a lasting impression and a hook to draw them in.

But many times we design our site’s homepage with tons of unnecessary things. We make obstacles on our sites making it difficult to keep people engaged. When designing a website, less is really more. Do not use too many fonts, text or images to give your homepage a complete and chaotic look.

2. Confusing navigation

The purpose of your website is to provide a service or give information to your audience. Far too many times we confuse people with our navigation and people can't find out what they need to know. We do this when links are hard to find or buttons are not visible or may be placed in the wrong location. Such a situation can be extremely frustrating for your visitors when they come to your site to search for information they need.

Organizing your site’s navigation with a site map is critical, and simply just some plain old common sense. Make your visitors find everything they need with easy-to-use navigation links. Most importantly, don’t make your navigation too flashy by adding too many images and sounds to them. *Please never use sounds or automatic playing background music...please!

3. Pixelated pictures

I have come across several websites where the main picture is pixelated or cropped wrong. It was indeed annoying. This is a complete no-no in modern web design. Designers should develop websites that fit appropriately on every screen sizes. Your images are extremely important to your website design and when you use low quality images, the message you convey to your audience is that you are low quality. Spend extra time or extra money finding web quality pictures. 

4. Nauseating background wallpaper

There is nothing more nauseating when you find a website with a tile pattern wallpaper. Your background wallpaper should never draw your attention away from the content and product of your website. In the 90s people loved to have crazy tiled wallpapers, but today we want simple and clean websites. I know it might grind against some of you but it is okay to have white space and open areas throughout the website.

Your background should always give a subtle impression.

5. Too many moving parts

Moving images are distracting! There is no reason your website should have moving parts. I know it may seem like a cool idea (10 years ago...), but moving images create chaos and keeps your audience from connecting with what you offer. Remember we want to draw them in by clicking through our website and hopefully purchasing or requesting our service.

If you ever have a tendency to add moving parts, please stop and walk away!

CONCLUSION:

A website should be pleasing and instantly give you a feeling about what the site is providing or trying to accomplish. It should not make you wonder what the designer was thinking or constantly distract your eyes to look everywhere but where the important message is.

Remember, a website is a representation of you and/or your business. What type of message are you trying to send?