From the hundreds, if not thousands, of sites I review on a regular basis, there’s a few mistakes that I see coming up in the site designs over and over and over again, until they actually begin to get under my skin… So, what are they? Well here are the top 3 pet peeves off the top of my steaming head:
Pet Peeve No. 1: Unnecessary Music! Unless you have a really good reason to put music on your site (like you are selling an album or you make music) then please spare the world the pain of having to listen to your music selections, rollover sounds, and background noise blaring over our speakers.
Solution: Sure, you all want the world to see that you know how to put music on your site. It seems pretty cool, right? Well, check it out… Put the music on your site in the OFF state, and instead, let me turn it ON when I arrive, if I feel like it! That would be truly cool.
Pet Peeve No. 2: Hidden Entry Buttons. Over and over again we see predictable ‘Entry’ splash screens with one logo – which is not clickable 90% of the time – accompanied by a tiny ‘ENTRY’ link hidden somewhere at the bottom-right of the page. Boring! If you can’t introduce your work, or your product, on the first screen then you’re failing the basic design test, as well as losing a big chunk of traffic to people who won’t hunt and peck your entire page for a tiny hidden link.
Solution: Figure out how to speak directly to your audience, or if you must create a wrapper, either make it innovative, or very simple. But above all, create a clickable entry button that is (gasp!) large and clickable… That’s what a “button” is for, right? If someone can’t find a way in to your site or learn something about your product within 5 seconds, you’ve just become a history link to half of your audience.
Pet Peeve No. 3: Tiny Type and Buttons. The screen can be deceptive and by now, you have to know the majority of your visitors are NOT going to see tiny characters the same way designers do on high-end systems. Please stop, think and re-consider the medium. Nothing on the screen will ever be able to be held up closer to ones eyes like a book with small type to be scrutinized. And, you never have to aim a tiny cross-hair mouse on a book to find a small pixel to click to see the next page. Stop the madness!
Solution: Unless you have specific reasons, lose the tiny type. It was cool at first, and then pixel fonts came along and actually made small type legible. But while that solved some space issues, universally it just made items harder to click, severely reduced the impact of good copy.
Big type is the wave now, so remember your rules of contrast, and if you are going to use tiny pixel fonts you should offset them with large type where it counts. Also, size indicates hierarchy, so if you come at me with a page full of small type, forget it… my eye has nowhere to go, and nothing on your page looks important to me. Thoughtful designers will make big buttons, large navigation, use tiny type sparingly and/or offer options to increase type size if needed.
The final word on buttons. Buttons are meant to be clicked. Buttons are meant to be clicked. Don’t make me say it again… If you don’t make your buttons – and especially navigation – large enough to see and click (because… buttons are what?), then you are not in the right studio. Print design, down the block, THANK YOU!
That’s all of my Pet Peeves for the moment. But don’t hold your breath as innevitably more design peeves will come to annoy me in the near future.
