Usability Fails: Introduction
In this series of posts we will deal with common usability fails in modern website layouts. I will try in a few paragraphs to talk about the positives and negatives of each method and explain why we should avoid them.
Designers always try to find ways to impress visitors and future clients with unique layouts and clever solutions for elements in a website, but in many cases they end up with a disaster.
How the problem starts
The main reason is designer’s mentality. A web designer usualy began his career as a traditional graphics designer. This background many times leaves some residues in his way of thinking when designing.
The lack of user interface principles leads a graphic designer to design a website, as it was a poster or a cover of a magazine. The client is happy for having a “unique” website and everyone is happy until the REAL results and statistics flow.
The website doesn’t have the click rate the clients expected and they try to think why all these happened with their “amazing” design.
This series
Our topics for this series of posts are going to be:
- Font size and color
- Hidden menus and supportive links
- Lack of favicon and proper headers
- Intro pages
Of course these are not the only fails but i think they play a big role in the website usability.
If you have something else to add to the list of fails, you are free to propose it!