7 Fatal Design Mistakes that Can Destroy Your Website Content

Website design and content create an inseparable union. They both have to be of high-quality and complement each other for maximum results.

So what happens when you make poor design decisions? Your design mistakes will lead to an imbalance in the union.

Consequently, your content will suffer. How users perceive content depends on how website design presents it.

You’ll be surprised how seemingly irrelevant and small mistakes can completely ruin your website content. The best way to deal with it is to get to know those deadly mistakes and stay away from them.

Pay attention not to make the following design mistakes.

1. Going Overboard with the Design

The point of website design is to accentuate the content. Creating a flashy website will overshadow the key role – content.

Website visitors come to your website to find relevant information. A complicated design can only lead to confusion and distract users from their initial goal.

The elements of the design that can overpower content are:

• Experimenting with multiple fonts (both themes and sizes)
• Mixing too many colors
• Adding too many details
• Including excessive animation

Always aim for simplicity and mix it with your brand’s personality. That is a winning combination.

2. Using a Design that is Not Mobile Friendly

Mobile internet has grown 504% in daily media consumption since 2011. Not thinking about mobile users can be a HUGE mistake.

Mobile-responsive design is a must. You can spend all the time in the world to create the perfect design but if you don’t make it mobile friendly you will lose a lot of users.

The design needs to be responsive to all screens. Whether the users access your website through a mobile phone, tablet, or computer, they should have the same overlook at your website.

3. Lack of Structure

According to research, most web users first skim the page before they decide if they’ll stick on it. That’s how they eliminate options and decide on web pages that are relevant to them.

Having too much text on your web pages without a clear structure will instantly repel users.

The structure highlights the key notions and helps users identify what they are looking for. With proper structure, your design will quickly lead users to the right information.

The elements that will help you structure your content are:

• short and concise paragraphs
• short sentences
• headlines and subheadings
• bullet points and numbers
• bold text and italics
• scannable content form

All the best writers know the importance of structure and website designers mustn’t overlook it. You can turn to writing experts at TrustMyPaper and Studicus for some valuable advice.

If you wish to check the readability you can head to Readable, online readability score checker.

4. Not Including CTAs

Do you know why digital marketers talk so much about CTAs (Call to Action)? It’s because they work!

Their effectiveness is proven and forgetting about them will decrease the number of conversions.

CTAs allow you to intrigue users and direct them where you want. They serve as guidelines to users and get them to perform the desired action.

Besides not including CTAs what can also be a notable mistake is if you don’t incorporate them well into your design. CTAs should blend in and naturally point the users to their next step.

5. Too Many Visuals

Visuals are an important addition to any website. They make the website more attractive and add life to content.

Carried by the idea that visuals are the protagonist of your website, you may add heavy visuals. That can cause several problems.

First of all, they will slow down the website. “Pages that load slowly have a high bounce rate. Such a mistake can be deadly for business websites,” advises Neightan White, a blogger and writer at SupremeDissertations.

Even if you compress the image files to improve the speed, you will still be left with a design that is dominated by visuals. Remember that design needs to attract the users but the content is the one who has to retain their attention.

The website’s purpose is to provide information. We have social media for sharing visuals.

6. Lack of Visuals

We all know that balance is golden. The same applies to visuals. Just as you shouldn’t use too many visuals, you also shouldn’t underestimate them.

The design that consists solely of text can seem dull to most website visitors. That image can reflect on how they perceive your business.

The lack of visuals can seem like you didn’t put much effort into the design. A few blocks of texts here and there won’t show a lot of commitment.

The moderate in your use of visuals but do include a few high-quality ones that will make your website more presentable and interesting. And thus more marketable, too.

7. Overcrowding the Website

The empty space between content – better known as white space – provides segmentation in your content presentation. Disregarding the whitespace can make your design look messy and overcrowded.

The way whitespace helps your website design is:

• It highlights CTAs
• It makes the design look more clean and elegant
• It eliminates distractions and thus increases engagement
• It improves legibility
• It separates website elements

All these reasons support the importance of using whitespace in your web design. Just think of them whenever you feel like whitespace is unnecessary.

Number 8. (so we can’t count) Disregarding the Navigation

The users won’t even get to evaluate content if navigation is misleading. The path to content is through navigation so the correlation is quite obvious.

Users deserve a good experience when they come across your website and navigation is elementary for that purpose.

Without direct and clear navigation, users can get lost among your pages and give up on their pursuit. Misleading users isn’t the best way to present your brand, do you agree?

Before you get your website up and running test out the navigation. Find a few volunteers, give them a task to find something on your website, and watch how they cope with it.

If it takes them too much time to find what you asked, you need to make some changes. Fast.

Conclusion

Your website is a presentation of your business. It is the place where users turn to in order to get to know your business better and determine its credibility.

By avoiding these design mistakes, you’ll ensure that your content presents you in the best light. Once you have the design that perfectly enhances content, your website will be ready to win over all visitors and passersby.

Tags: Design Flaws Website Design Website Structure