8 Common Web Design Mistakes

8 Website Design Mistakes to Avoid in 2023:Did you ever consider that your website’s design itself could account for 75% of its credibility? If your website is poorly designed, visitors could think your business is less reliable. Avoiding these common web design mistakes can enable your company to stand out online for the correct reasons, whether you’re creating a new site from scratch or updating your existing one. You’ll discover practical solutions in this article to correct or prevent these faults altogether, as well as top 8 web design mistakes to avoid in 2023.

1. Not Prioritizing Accessibility

The most common error in website design is to treat accessibility as an afterthought. There may be many issues with the accessibility of your website, but we’ve identified the most obvious ones here:

• Lack of color contrast
• Alternative Text for Images or Graphics That Is Missing or Inappropriate
• Insufficient or absent Visual Focus Markers
• Ignoring labels or names that are accessible

Let’s dive deeper into each of these. 

1. Insufficient Color Contrast

Color contrast is a common accessibility mistake. This error frequently happens because businesses build websites that employ their trademark color scheme, which isn’t typically made with accessible design in mind.

“Text and icons can be challenging to perceive when a color scheme used on a website lacks sufficient color contrast between the background and foreground colors,” explains Kelly. This is especially true for people with visual impairments like color blindness. “Color contrast issues were discovered on more than 80% of homepages, according to the 2022 WebAIM Million annual study!”

2. Missing or inappropriate Alt Text

 Screen reader users rely on image alt text to explain the message that an image or graphic is intended to convey. You are isolating readers who require it to browse your site if it is absent or inadequately describes the image.

Since images are a component of the content on your website, it’s necessary to approach them similarly to how you would approach standard website copy: What message is the graphic on your page attempting to convey? Make sure your alt text conveys the same concept.

Visual focus indicators are either absent or insufficient.

Visitors won’t be able to fully utilise your site’s features without visual focus indications. Around interactive elements like links and buttons, focus indications typically take the form of outlines. It should be obvious to users who can see the screen and are using a keyboard which element on the website is currently in focus so they know where they are on the page and what to expect when they interact with it.

3. Overlooking Accessible Names or Labels

Be considerate of users of assistive technologies if your website uses visuals to deliver information. When creating websites and other elements that display information graphically, that same information should also be labelled in a way that is accessible to assistive technology.

For instance, card components with a ‘Read More’ button or link showing at the bottom of each card are a popular trend in web design. Although the design makes it clear which item each button is linked to, screen readers may find it challenging to identify these buttons if they lack accessible labels that include the necessary information.

2. Forgetting Responsive Design 

Even without taking into account tablets, mobile devices accounted for more than 58% of all website traffic in the second quarter of 2022. You run the danger of driving away visitors and raising your bounce rate if your website isn’t equally user-friendly on mobile devices as it is on desktop.

More people than ever before visit websites on a variety of devices, including phones, tablets, computers, and even TVs. Visitors will lose trust in us and click/tap away from the site if our content appears negatively on any of them.

3. Aesthetics>> User Experience

Prioritizing aesthetics over user experience is one of the website design errors that has become more prevalent over the past few years. The explosion of new media and design on the internet has made it saturated, making excellence all but necessary for success. Sadly, this has led to a wave of overuse of design and graphic elements that appeal to users’ senses but fall short of or feel divorced from a website’s genuine goal.

The overuse of animation, content and heavy visuals that improve the looks but serve no purpose are design trends that dilute a brand’s value proposition. It’s about balance and how the form complements the purpose; this doesn’t imply that a minimalist or brutalism style should be used.

4. Not Investing in Customization

You pass a clothes store with a unique, eye-catching window display while downtown walking. It creates a story with a backdrop and appealing content while offering a selection of clothing items for sale. Then, nothing draws your attention when you pass a store with just a few items of clothing displayed on mannequins in the window.

Consider your website to be the online storefront for your company. It should embody your corporate identity and have a distinct vibe. Using a generic template without personalizing it is one of the worst web design errors.

For instance, using the default hero banner can be detrimental. Everybody has seen the full-width graphic immediately beneath the menu, which typically has text in either white or black with a button on top.

To make the lettering readable, the image is either cleverly cropped, extremely light, or extremely dark. There are a few factors that make me believe this is a terrible choice. The first is that it is so typical that it has turned uninteresting and formulaic. What was once a striking design choice has become boring.

5. Features that Don’t Convert

Utilizing wasteful features is a further frequent mistake. No matter how visually appealing a feature may be, keep in mind that the effectiveness of your website should always come first. Relying on rotating carousels to display numerous bits of material at the same level is another typical error.

Make sure you don’t bury important information on a feature if you know users ignore it or it doesn’t convert. (Or, even better, abandon it entirely.) Make sure to take best practices into account if the website for your business has a carousel.

Using controls that are clearly visible, reducing the number of slides, and placing the most crucial information first are a few ways to enhance the carousel experience. To ensure that the user receives the full experience even if they do not interact with the component, nothing crucial should be concealed past the first slide.

6. Lack of Hierarchy

Have you ever been on a website and been unclear about where to concentrate your attention? If so, you probably found yourself on a page with no hierarchy. Your website’s typography should use headings and subheads to indicate importance, just like a newspaper does.

Order on your website is both aesthetically pleasing and useful. The arrangement of website components gives your site a cogent structure that encourages users to take specific actions, accomplishes the main objective, and, as a result, produces a seamless experience.

Fixing this is difficult, especially if your business caters to a diverse clientele with various objectives. Martinez says it would be ideal if you did it, though, as this problem might have a significant impact on how users interact with your website.

7. Having Unclear Navigation

Uncertain navigation is a problem since it increases the friction visitors feel when they first arrive at your website. Having clear navigation and consistency throughout your many touchpoints and user journeys will ensure a smooth transition from the first visitor to advocate. As more and more businesses expand into the digital realm, content on the website becomes more cluttered and complex.

Make sure the navigation on your website is simple.

Your website’s bounce rate can indicate that your site’s navigation is buggy. Consider effective navigation as a must for an enjoyable user experience.

The use of intuitive navigation ensures a positive user experience and helps the user’s journey by making it simple to find information or return to a previous location. Teams should specify the levels of navigation (preferably no more than three) as well as how pages on various levels link back to their parent level in order to ensure this. Additionally, make sure the labels are accurate to make it simple for any user to grasp, and make sure the navigation functions on all screen sizes because they could behave differently.

8. Not effectively communicating your Business Purpose. 

Visitors should have no trouble understanding what your business performs once they arrive at your website. What if the image is even slightly hazy? Yes, visitors to your website may leave.

When someone loads your website, the first thing they do is check to see if they are in the proper place. Does your website make it apparent what goods or services it offers above the fold?

Your website should increase your company’s credibility. A website makeover is probably necessary if it isn’t expressing your company’s goal and reassuring visitors that they are in the proper place.

Please avoid common web design mistakes to boost site credibility

You may improve your site’s trustworthiness and provide visitors with an engaging experience by avoiding typical website design blunders.

A circular method is necessary for web design because it ensures effective alignment across teams, stakeholders, and user knowledge. There is no better way to make sure your website is heading in the correct path than to test and iterate, including user research and usability testing.

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