Web design crimes – what to look out for and how to avoid them

Web usability guru Jakob Nielsen knows a thing or two about web design. He’s been around since the year dot (that’s 1994 in web speak) studying the good, the bad and the Myspace of Internet design. Many graphic designers can’t stand the guy, believing that his functional approach to web use fails to take into account the artistic side of website design. Nielsen is singularly unapologetic focusing his efforts solely on ease of use. Businessweek rates him as one of the world’s most influential web designers.

Here is his list of the top 10 web design fails.

1. Bad Search

Sites should have a simple search facility that takes into account typos, plurals, hyphens, and other variants of the query terms. Most don’t.

2. PDF Files for Online Reading

Displaying information as a PDF roadblocks the user experience. Different page layouts, sizes and navigation menus are suddenly thrust on the user, which can make life difficult.

3. Not Changing the Colour of Visited Links

Clearly identifying where you’ve been stops you wasting time revisiting a page, stops disorientation and improves user experience.

4. Non-Scannable Text

A slab of text turns people off. Make your copy scannable by using

• subheaders
• bullet points
• highlighted keywords
• short paragraphs
• the inverted pyramid
• a simple writing style using plain English, not copy full of complicated words.

5. Fixed Font Size

Specify font sizes in relative terms and remember that not everyone has 20:20 vision