Website Don’ts Part Two…from our NJ team
One of the blessings – but also a curse – that the availability of powerful yet simple-to-use website development tools has bestowed upon us in recent years is that now it seems nearly everybody and his brother consider themselves web designers. In New Jersey, we are well-acquainted with the self-styling phenomenon. To get a taste of the havoc it can wreak in the area of personal style, all you have to do is watch an part of MTV’s Jersey Shore. Equivalents to Snookie’s poof, J-Wow’s new figure and The Situation’s droopy acid-washed jeans abound in cyber-space, and they certainly aren’t confined to NJ-based websites.
Last week, we had a few things to say about website development technologies that work at cross-purposes with your best intentions. In this installment, our website designers in NJ focus on just as inadvisable visual design elements that are likely to drive away those visitors you’re trying so hard to acquire and retain.
We caution our clients that it’s really easy to get carried away with all the website design variables that are available out there, at the expense of simplicity and clarity. You don’t want to confuse and alienate your visitors by trying too hard.
Don’t-Do-It Design Basics
Don’t overdo the colors! Too many colors are chaotic and just annoy people. Choose a palette of complementary colors, using five colors at most, and use them consistently throughout your site. Select your colors based on the emotional response you want from your target audience. Keep it calm if you’re in the finance business, but look for a color scheme that’s more exciting if you’re hyping an event, for example.
Don’t overdo the fonts! Again, chaos is not appealing. You don’t have to use six different fonts in 12 sizes and include six header styles just because you can. That’s annoying and difficult to scan. Avoid blocks of bold or italic text or all capital letters, too. That’s just hard to read and signals visitors that it’s not worth the trouble.
Don’t overdo the text! Frankly, your website visitors aren’t interested in those dense 400-word paragraphs that you have stacked up on the page, no matter how brilliant you think they are. If they wanted to read a textbook, they could do that on their Nooks. A good rule of thumb is to have no more than 400-500 words on the whole page and to break them up in small sections with lots of headings that are easy to scan. If you must go on and on, do it in your blog.
Don’t overdo the images! Tiling images across the entire screen is outdated and distracting. It makes the meaningful content hard to distinguish, especially if the images you tile are large and high-contrast. Avoid a jumble of boxes, animated gifs, and marquee scrolling text, too. Gimmicks don’t work. Clean, coherent design draws the eye exactly where you want it on the page.
Keep It Simple and Clear
At Dotcomweavers in Paramus, NJ, our web designers and web developers nj recognize the virtues of making things clear to your visitors. For examples of how to get your website design right by keeping it crisp and focusing the impact, we invite you to take a look at the designs showcased here on our website and to contact us to discuss your objectives.
Processing your request, Please wait....
