On our travels around the Web, we see the same common (and easily fixed) mistakes time and time again. Over the next few weeks we’re going to keep adding to the list, so keep checking back. Have you seen any of these, or maybe you’ve come across something that really bugs you about websites - if so, tell us about it.

We might even get around to putting the full list into a PDF for download, if enough people are interested.

1. Don’t underline anything that isn’t a link - users expect all underlined text to either take them to another web page or download a document. Underlined text that doesn’t do anything drives people crazy!
2. Do make sure email addresses are clickable - if your email address is on display, it should open a blank email when clicked. Don’t expect people to copy & paste your address into their email program. Try to make life as easy as possible for your users!
3. Don’t use poor quality images - clipart that came free on the cover of a magazine does NOT make a good impression on a business website. That’s all we’re going to say on the subject!
4. Don’t use moving text - bouncing, flashing, scrolling and any other form of movement is a big no-no. Seriously, this is the equivalent of tying your text to a couple of fighting cats and expecting people to read it.
5. Do test your website in all the top browsers - if you use Google Analytics, you can track the percentage of users that are viewing your site through different browsers. You might be surprised what people are using, so, as we always say - TEST, TEST, TEST!

This entry was posted on Friday, October 31st, 2008 at 3:06 pm and is filed under General Ramblings. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.