There are a lot of things on the internet that annoy people or even make them furious. You don’t want your website to be one of them. Below are the top four complaints I see about websites. These don’t just annoy your customers or clients; they can actually drive people away from your site. Frustrating your website users can equal lost revenue. Resolve to fix these things this year:
- Not responsive. Like it or not, we are in the age of the phone. More and more people will look at your site on mobile devices as time goes on. It’s simply not acceptable anymore to have a site that doesn’t work properly or look good on a smaller screen. No one is going to scroll sideways to read every sentence of your content or struggle through making a purchase when they can’t see what’s going on. Your designer should be able to fix this without too much hassle (depending on the size of your site). If you have set up your own site on a CMS (WordPress, Wix, Squarespace, etc.), you can preview how your site looks and acts on different sized screens. If you have trouble navigating the technology, you should at least view your site on a variety of devices. If you don’t have the time or skillset to change things yourself on WordPress, consider changing your theme. You can use responsiveness as one of your theme search parameters. Once you choose a responsive theme, back up your site and apply the new theme. Your site content should all be preserved. Take a look through each page to make you still like the appearance.
- Too many pop-ups. Pop-up ads are a popular way to monetize websites, and we all want that passive income. However, you have to strike a balance. When the ads are repeated and intrusive, they interfere with the user’s experience and drive your customers away. You simply cannot expect people to work to get to your content, especially if it takes a long time.
- Poor navigation. Similarly, you can’t make people work too hard to find things on your site. Make it easy for people to find the information they need. Follow a familiar structure with a sensible arrangement of pages. Don’t hide your contact information.
- Too busy. As a designer, I say this all the time. I beg you to let there be white space. People cannot focus when there’s too much going on, especially if there is no clear design hierarchy leading people through what is most important. Clutter bothers us in the physical world; it can be even more frustrating on a screen when we spend so much time staring at screens these days. Please think about what is important and focus on that, even if you have to divide things onto several pages. People would rather click through than have to sift through.
Substance and Style 