A website’s design impacts its credibility by 75%. If there are many design mistakes, visitors may see the company as less trustworthy. Whether building a new site or updating an existing one, avoiding these mistakes helps the business stand out online for the right reasons. Through this informative content journey, you may come to know the website design mistakes that you can avoid.
1. Missing or Inappropriate Alt Text
People who use screen readers need alt text to understand images. Without good alt text, these visitors miss out on important information. Alt text should describe what the image shows. Kelly says, “Images are part of your website’s content. Think of them like regular text. What information does the image provide? Make sure the alt text gives that same meaning.”
Visual focus indicators help visitors fully experience your site. These indicators usually appear as outlines around links and buttons. Kelly explains, “It’s crucial to have clear visual cues showing which part of the page is currently focused on. This helps users navigating with a keyboard know where they are on the page and what will happen when interacting with the focused element.
2. Ensuring Accessible Names or Labels| Website Design
When a website uses visuals to convey information, it’s important to consider people using assistive technologies. Kelly explains that any visual information should also be available through accessible labels.
For instance, many websites use card components with a “Read More” button at the bottom of each card. The design shows which item each button is for, but for people using screen readers, these buttons are hard to tell apart if they don’t have accessible labels like “Read More About Marketing Hub.
3. Ignoring the Need for Mobile-Friendly Design
If our content looks poorly on any of them, visitors will lose trust and click/tap away from the site,” shares Juan Manuel Devia Pinzon, Associate Design Lead at HubSpot. “The age of breakpoints is now!”
According to Sean Landry, Principal Product Designer at HubSpot, this problem happens because websites are often built using tools in a desktop web browser. One common mistake is to assume customers will view the site in desktop format and need to consider mobile users.
4. Compromising User Experience for Looks
A common mistake in website design is focusing too much on looks and needing more on function. As more websites appear, making yours stand out is important. But, this has led to using too many design and graphic elements that look nice but don’t help the website’s purpose. Sergio Martinez, Design Experience Manager at HubSpot, explains that this can mean using design trends that weaken the brand’s message or adding too many animations and graphics that look good but could be more useful. The key is to find a balance where the design supports the website’s function.
5. Not Investing in Customization| Website Design
Imagine walking downtown and seeing two clothing stores. One has a creative and eye-catching window display with various clothes and a story backdrop. The other store has only a few mannequins with clothes and nothing interesting.
Your website is like your store’s online window display. It should show your brand and be unique. A big mistake in website design is using a common template and not customizing it. For example, using the usual full-width image with text and a button under the navigation bar can be boring and not help your website stand out. Lindsay Derby, Senior Product Designer at HubSpot, highlights this issue and suggests that customization is key to making a website look special and aligned with your brand.
Final Notes on Website Design Mistakes:
Now that the most frequent website design mistakes have been discussed, it’s time to learn how to fix them. Don’t worry: being aware of these mistakes is a big step forward. Knowing what to avoid allows for creating a site that follows website design best practices.
