Website Designing Blunders!

Hi,

“When you are at it… BE at it!!” or so they say. And let me do the same. After telling you the way how to go about designing a perfect website, let me also enlighten you about some designing blunders that people tend to make.
A mistake is worth regret if you not learn anything from it. I learnt my lessons the same way.

Cornucopia of Graphics
A crisp title, I know would induce no glamour to this oft-repeated rule of the book. But repetition just reinstates the importance. I can possibly scream it out from rooftops, if only people cared to listen. Too many graphics only make the website heavy and difficult to load. And visitors might never return to your website if you disappoint them once with the download speed. But if you still swear by that glittering lump of mass that you think is the crown of the site, then for your own sake use GIF files rather instead of the normal JPEG. And reduce your graphic size without distorting the images.

Beefy Banners
Banners are what you call the necessary evils of the website. they sure do guarantee a steady stream of income but takes eternity to load and thus gives to annoyed visitors too! Play safe and make the best of both worlds and limit the use of banners on your site. For most visitors banners are just sister replicas of an advertisements, so they usually skip clicking it. Keep your banner either on top of the site or at the bottom. Be precise while using your banner. It should relate to your product or services.

Hit counters
Completely renounce that hit counter placed strategically on your website. For the record, hit counters show the number of hits of the site. Never make hit counters visible on the site unless of course you belong to the website kin, whose visitors amount to millions… and still counting types. Think about it… have you ever had dinner from someplace that says you are the first customer?? You value your taste buds and visitors their time. Spare them the agony of knowing that he/she is the ninth or tenth person on the planet to come visiting the space.
However, once your site is up and running and figures out in the millions registry, then use these counters to promote your site or attract advertisers.


Hodgepodge Website
Organization is the key! And that is it. Feng shui advices de-cluttering and the same goes for your website to. If you want your website to be loved by customers make sure you present them with a clean and well organized website. your visitors are not mystery customers who will wait to evaluate and analyze each and every component of your site. If you can afford to have a website then have on it well placed links leading the visitor to other pages and a sound navigation.

Generalization
Don't make your website a universal template. You could have done better with a newsletter in case! Rather, be interactive in your approach. Personalize your approach and treat them special. There is no glue like emotion. Play on that and develop and emotional bond with the visitors so that they return, be it owing to that attachment. Decide on your target audience and make your website focus on them make your content more communicative and let your visitors feel that you are talking directly to them.


The bible proclaimed seven deadly sins. I tell you about five. But believe you me, going by the bible of website designing, abstinence is the rule to play them by!


wii get you more next week...

Maneet