Avoid Making Your Website Design an Annoying One

Copyright 2006 Mark Nenadic

Have you ever thought about the fact that even though you
think your website might be cute, entertaining, or funny,
it may be extremely annoying to the people who are visiting
it. When you are a webmaster or web designer, it is very
important that you familiarize yourself with the things
that visitors find irritating, unless it is your goal to
have them leave, and then never visit your site again.

It is strange how easy it is to develop an annoying
website. This could be because when you are designing a
website, you are concentrating so intently on the smaller
details that you forget to step back and look at the big
picture. What may have started as a flash heading with a
few moving parts can soon become a site filled with
flashing graphics, sounds, bright colors, and other
elements that are enough to be overwhelming and
simply…well, annoying!

The important thing is to remember that there is a major
difference between catching someone’s attention and
blinding them. You must keep in mind that your website
design is supposed to send your visitor a message about you
and your topic, and not about how adept your programmer is
at developing animated graphics.

It is actually much easier to be annoying than it is not
to, so it is best to test your own site to make sure that
you are not in that dreaded annoying category. The
following are the top five ways to know that your site is
annoying. While these are not the only ways, they are the
major ones that will usually send a visitor away, and cause
them never to return, no matter how great your content, or
what a great deal you have to offer.

- Background music – unless you have an online radio site,
or you’re selling music CD’s or files, having sound in your
background can be very irritating. For one thing, you
don’t know on what volume level the user’s speakers may be.
For another thing, your user may not be visiting the site
in the comfort of his or her own home; what if this person
is at work? And lastly…it’s annoying!

- Enormous font sizes - if your target market is people
with vision disabilities, then by all means, use a large
font size, as it will serve your purpose well. However, if
you are simply building a standard website, a font size
that is far to large simply looks as though you are
shouting. No visitor wants to be shouted at.

- Tiny font size – if your font size is too small, it is as
though you’re sitting in the crowd at a hockey game,
whispering to the person next to you. Your message simply
cannot be heard.

- Overlapping layers – when designing your website, layers
can be quite useful. However, when you are slamming
advertising or unsolicited messages in your user’s face,
blocking what they really want to read, it is very
irritating. Don’t try to force anything in front of your
visitor. Persuasion works much more pleasantly.

- Pop-ups – Many browsers and add-on tools now block
pop-ups, but still some web designers insist on using them.
This is annoying not only when we don’t have anti-pop-up
tools, because new browsers keep opening, but also when we
do have the tools because we miss messages. When you have
a message, keep it all in the same browser window.

Though everybody does have their own list of things that
they just can’t stand from websites they visit on the
internet, this covers the most annoying ones that are
agreed upon by the largest number of people. However,
don’t limit your annoying-proofing efforts to only these
five things. Have a look at your website from a very picky
perspective, and take away everything else that is even
slightly irritating. After all, if your visitor is put off
by your website in any way, the odds are that he or she
will leave without a second thought.

It is not a matter of good taste and bad taste. In
reality, it is simply about being polite to your visitors,
and making sure that they are as comfortable as possible
while they are navigating your site.

About the Author:

Mark Nenadic
Mark is the director and face behind 15Degrees-North
http://www.15dn.com where you will find articles and
resources to help with Search Engine Optimisation, Internet
Marketing and Web Design.