Home / Learn / UI/UX Design
Kujtim Aliu
Graphic Design Team Lead
Your website is the heart of your digital marketing presence, so proper design is crucial. With 1.13 million websites and growing competition, visitors have high standards. To succeed in this environment, stay updated on the latest web design trends and technologies.
Read on to discover common web design mistakes to avoid and how to fix them.
People who visit your website usually want to make a purchase, gather information about your product, read what you share in the blog section, sign up for a newsletter or apply for jobs. If they are having trouble doing any of these actions on the site, it is probably because the design of your website isn’t good.
Websites that are not user-friendly can cause much annoyance, often leading to quick departure.
The common elements among all poorly designed websites are: unconventional navigation, slow loading speed, non-responsive design (not adjusting to different devices), bad layout and organization of content; inconsistent branding with poor choice in colors; and lacking in SEO.
Average time on page and bounce rate are website engagement metrics that could provide insights about user centricity. They show where your visitors usually go on the site, how long they stay there, how often they visit and from what sources do they usually come from. This can help you understand more about the experience of users with your website.
There are a lot of user testing tools that you can use for checking your website. You could assess it based on factors like mobile, design, performance (including speed), SEO friendliness and security; after which give custom suggestions to enhance its quality.
In this section, we’ll look at some of the most common mistakes in bad website design so you can avoid them and create a website that engages users and meets your goals.
Unconventional navigation
Users expect to be able to find information with little effort. Visitors to your site will leave if they can’t find information quickly.
If your navigation lacks organization, it will discourage users from browsing your site.
And, because they can’t find information, you’ll drive more users away from your page.
People are discouraged from engaging with your site if the navigation is confusing. Pages may appear in unexpected places in your menu or be missing from your navigation structure.
Well-designed navigation will make your site appear more organized, make it easier to navigate and find things, and keep leads on your site.
Slow loading times
People have an assumption that a site’s web page will load within two seconds. If it takes more than three seconds, about 40% of users will leave and find another one to visit.
So, if your site loads for over two seconds, you need to improve its performance.
If a website loads too slowly, people won’t want to continue waiting for it. They seek answers promptly and if the page takes too long to load, they’ll leave your site and look elsewhere. Additionally, search engines penalize slow loading times with lower rankings and quality scores.
Non-responsive design
The main reason, shown by 73% of web designers, for why people leave a website is because it is not responsive. A non-responsive design means the site does not change size or adjust to fit different screens and devices.
Designing for mobile responsiveness is an important part of ensuring a good Internet experience. Even though more than 60% of internet traffic comes from mobile, many businesses do not make their websites optimized for people who use the web on their phones or tablets.
When your website doesn’t have a responsive design, people who visit using tablets and other mobile devices will not receive a good experience. They might use their phone to access the desktop version of your site which makes it hard for them to read information and move around on your site.
Cluttered design
A website needs to appear clean and professional. Visitors will not stay if it appears outdated, amateurish, or simply not visually appealing.
A good design is not only pleasing to the eye but also functional.
Overcrowding your website with text or images, and not leaving enough whitespace are both bad website design practices. You need to find a balance between the two. A cluttered website is difficult to navigate and, let’s face it, not pleasant to the eyes.
Platforms for building websites are jam-packed with features and add-ons, as they should be. However, this does not imply that you must include everything.
The illusion of space is both visually appealing and easier to navigate.
Inconsistent branding and poor color choices
Your website’s content might be hard to read, perhaps because the text size is too small or big, in a color that’s tough to see, arranged into lengthy paragraphs without any breaks and more.
The color scheme of a company’s website is a grave error in website design. It is the first thing that your site visitors will observe about you, and can make or break their experience. Some businesses commit this mistake by using excessive amounts of colors on their webpages which leads to confusion for those who visit them.
When there are many colors, users become confused and it is hard for them to figure out where they should focus on your site. Because coloring has a great effect on brand recognition, you need to be careful in selecting appropriate colors for your page.
Picking a font for your site is crucial, equal to selecting a color scheme. If you don’t use the correct font, people won’t be able to read the data on your site.
There are many bad examples out there. For instance, fonts that are too small, too big or filled with too much decoration can make reading difficult. And then there’s also the issue of mixing different fonts together.
Unsecure site
As worries about the safety of personal information are growing, your website has to be safe. If it’s not secure, the people who visit will feel uncertain while looking through your pages and go back to search results.
Websites that perform sales transactions, especially those involved in e-commerce, absolutely require secure websites. This is due to the fact that people hesitate to purchase things from an unsecured website as they do not feel safe entering their credit card information or other personal details.
Yet, when you request for any information from the visitors – even if it’s just their name and email address, your website must be secure so that they feel confident in giving you their details.
Ineffective CTAs
CTAs are used to compel people to take action. You need compelling CTAs, whether you want them to sign up for your newsletter, follow you on social media, or call you.
When it comes to CTAs, there are several common mistakes that people make. One of these mistakes is not including them on your website at all. Use clear CTAs that provide the user with clear instructions.
A different mistake is failing to make the CTAs appealing, which can result in lower click-through rates.
It is also important to use a color that makes the CTA buttons stand out. To avoid user confusion, it’s essential to clearly indicate that the CTA is clickable.
Lack of SEO
If your website is not SEO-optimized, it will not rank well in search engine results, resulting in fewer visitors. The majority of people will find you via search engines. If they search for you or your company and you are not on the first page, they will have a negative impression of you and will likely move on.
There are a few things to keep an eye out for here, such as meta titles, meta descriptions, and meta tags. This is where you include your keyword in the title, description, and tags.
In this section, we will go over some of the best practices for creating and maintaining a good website design.
Create a clear and consistent brand identity
Because colors have such a large impact on brand identity, you want to make sure you choose the right colors for your page. The ideal color scheme for a website is three to four colors. The primary color, one to two accent colors, and your text color should be the color breakdown.
The colors you choose should help build brand recognition. People will connect your color choices with your brand, so choose colors that best represent your business’s image.
When selecting colors for your brand, keep in mind the psychology of color. Colors provoke specific emotions or feelings in people, so it’s necessary to understand how colors affect your audience.
Fonts are another important aspect of a consistent brand identity. Choosing a font for your website is as important as selecting a color scheme. Your audience will be unable to read the content on your website if the font size is too small or too large.
Choose fonts that are clear and easy to read for your audience.
Use no more than three fonts. If you use too many fonts, your site will appear disorganized, and the design will be inconsistent. Using only a few fonts will keep your site clean and organized.
The color of your font is also important. Some colors are difficult to read in general, especially when they are extremely saturated and paired with a small font. Check your colors to ensure they are easy to read against your background. In most cases, black is ideal.
Keep your body text fonts above 16 pts at a minimum. It will be too small to read on-screen if it is any smaller. Your headings can be a few points bigger. Your title should be large enough to be noticed. Your body text font should also be web-compatible, as this guarantees the best conversion across devices and sizes.
The design of your website’s pages should be consistent. Without cohesiveness, your pages won’t look like they belong. A consistent design will also make your pages appear more complete.
Optimize website speed and performance
Large file sizes from elements such as images, GIFs, and videos are one of the primary causes of slow load times. Compression tools can help you speed up your site by compressing and resizing those elements.
Begin by testing your load speed using tools such as Google PageSpeed. Many tools will recommend ways to speed up your page. To improve the speed of your site, you can also invest in page speed optimization services.
Use clear and easy-to-navigate menus
If you believe your website has difficult navigation, there are a few steps you can take to resolve the issue:
Plan out how your visitors will interact with your website. Create a navigation hierarchy. Your site’s core pages should be accessible via your navigation menu in some way.
Visitors should be able to return to your home page, whether via your navigation menu or the company logo. Make sure to include those features for a more convenient browsing experience.
Check your website’s links to make sure they all work and lead to the correct location. People lose engagement if they click on broken links.
Design a mobile-friendly and responsive website
Google’s Mobile-Friendly Test will tell you whether your site is mobile-friendly or needs improvement. You can use this as a starting point to see if your website is already mobile-friendly.
Choose a responsive template and test your website on your phone and/or tablet to ensure it looks good on all devices. Most website builders take this into account, but it is still a good idea to double-check the spacing and padding. If you’re using WordPress, most Elementor and Gutenberg themes are responsive. You can always preview the theme and template to see how they will appear on different types of devices.
Elements on your site, such as photos and banners, must be mobile-friendly. Buttons and links should be scaled so mobile users can easily access them.
A website is the focus of a company’s digital marketing strategy. Visitors have high expectations in today’s highly competitive online market, and poor website design can lead to significant frustration and a quick exit. Bad navigation, slow loading times, non-responsive design, and poor color choices are all common mistakes in bad website design.
Businesses can improve the user experience and keep visitors engaged by optimizing their website design.
By avoiding these common mistakes, your business can create a visually appealing, clean, and professional website that meets your goals and engages users. This will eventually help your company generate leads, sales, and revenue.
