Like fingernails on a chalkboard, so are the all-too-familiar web design mishaps that I see every time I adventure out into the world wide web. I could go on and on, but these are the peeves that top my list:

Too Many Fonts, Too Many Voices.
Think of different typefaces as different voices. Two or three make a good conversation, but any more and you’re in a noisy crowd and won’t get your point across. Choose a web-standard font for your main content and a pretty one for graphics. If you need to differentiate or create heirarchy or emphasis, use bolding, caps or color to create visual difference. Keep your content clean and simple.

Just Say No to Scaling.
The ancient art of scaling JPGS and GIFS to whatever size you need for placement is not really acceptable. It’s just being lazy. By scaling you aren’t doing the quality of your photo any favors or the visitor who has to load the 200k file instead of the 20k one. You can’t make an xL t-shirt into a XS. Take the time to crop to size. Don’t make me ask again.

Under Construction = Path of Destruction.
Oh yes, this one could make or break your site. You wouldn’t hang an OPEN sign on your empty store, would you? Just think of how many visitors took the time to drive there, park and come into your store. If you are setting up the expectation that you are ready for visitors, make sure that you are. If you do have a section that is incomplete, leave it off of your navigation until you have it completed. Enough said.

Skip Intro…Entirely.
Although I’m guilty of setting up a few “Flash Intros”, it was more than likely against my own will. I think these were meaningful and relevant during the dawn of Flash, but as for modern day websites, people are looking for the meat, not the fluff. Think of how many clicks it took them to get to your front door. Don’t throw them off the porch before they even reach for the door knob. If you have some incredibly stunning animation, build it into your site or feature it.

Color Grounded.
Unless you are trying to prove a point in gestalt theory of perception, choosing opposing colored backgrounds and text colors may create more ocular discomfort than reading your content. Be careful that your content is still legible through your background colors or patterns. Think simple.

Dis-Counted.
In 1995, placing counters on pages of your site were a glorified way to prove that your website was loved, and you were a brilliant internet pioneer, but not anymore. Counters show that you don’t really have a clue to the latest technologies that lead to more effective and sophisticated ways of tracking visitors. Not sure what I mean? Visit googleanalytics.com and be amazed at how important your web site is.

Muzak.
Although we live in a multi-sensory world that is a relentless competition in grabbing an audiences attention for a small glimpse of time, adding music to your site is NOT an effective way to keep your visitors clicking. Chances are you’ll startle them and send them darting away never to return again. I do however think that music can be tastefully introduced to certain interactive elements. The magic is asking your visitors FIRST then show them where the OFF button is.

This is NOT Print Design.
Okay this one really gets to me. If you are a print designer, please don’t take your InDesign layout and export for web. Giant image-mapped JPGS containing all of the text, and graphics is NOT actually a website. It’s a huge load to your visitors, assuming that your site will even show up on search engines.

Excuses.
There is NO excuse for a poorly designed website. Your site is in most cases, the very first impression anyone will have of you and if it’s bad, it could be the last. Think of it as a job interview. Most people would never show up in an ugly suit and a hand written resume.  And I’ll speak directly to the unprofessional do-it-yourselfers,  would you really try to make your own suit? If you take the time and money to invest in your site, it will help your business be successful. Do it right the first time.

I wish they taught a “Mind Reading for Web Development” course, but last I checked, they don’t offer one. It would really help, but since developers are not taught mind reading, we rely on creating what is specified to us. We don’t know what you want, unless if you tell us. Since we aren’t telepathic, the key to any successful project is a well written spec. A spec should outline everything that is required for a project to be successfully completed.

A good way to create specs is to start with basic functionality. When the user first visits this module, where is it? What does it look like? What does it say? How does the user interact with it? Specify every aspect of how the module works. If it requires user input, then what are the fields, which fields are required, and what are the limits or validation rules on these fields? Does the input need to be captured in a database? Stored in a flat file? Emailed out or sent to a third party?

A spec should be written in such a way that it anticipates any question a developer may need to ask. It may be one page or it may be 100 depending on the size of the project. Just remember that we can’t read minds, and what seems natural for you, may not be natural for us. We may have different ideas on how things should work by default, but if you specify how things should work, we won’t have to guess or use our own judgement that may conflict with what you wanted.