Ten Common Website Mistakes—And How to Fix Them

Michael Gold, West Gold Editorial Consulting
April 7, 2005

Websites have improved over the years, but many sites (including credit unions) still make the same mistakes. According to Michael Gold, principal of San Francisco-based West Gold Editorial Consulting, one of the best ways to have a successful site is to assume that “users have little patience and time.” Below are Gold’s top-ten most common website mistakes, and how to fix them.

Mistake No. 10: Phony front door.

This is a useless, time-wasting site entrance (i.e., animated introduction) that requires visitors to do something extra to get to the home page but provides no useful information. Solution: Eliminate it. Let users get right to your home page.

Mistake No. 9: Squandered vertical space.

Oversized decorative elements usurp the top of the page, pushing important content, functions, search results, and so on “below the fold,” where this information is invisible unless visitors scroll down. Solution: Keep logos, banner graphics, and display type shallow. Make use of horizontal areas rather than cannibalizing valuable vertical space. Consider pointing visitors’ attention to information below the fold and provide page navigation to jump down.

Mistake No. 8: High clunk quotient.

The site is cumbersome and slow-loading, and has too many elements. Solution: Trim slow-loading pages, eliminate frames, redesign pages requiring horizontal scrolling, and eliminate “gratuitous multimedia shows.”

Mistake No. 7: No helping hand.

There’s little guidance on the site to help visitors. Solution: Provide “getting started” information for new users, target different content to different user groups, include glossaries for specialized information, and provide “reassuring” error messages—i.e., ones that ask, “Did you mean…?”A good example is EBay’s three-step instruction on its home page (find, buy, pay).

Mistake No. 6: Information overload.

There are too many navigational choices, topics, content items, and so on. Solution: Remember the Rule of Sevens: List clusters of information in groups of seven (roughly). This helps users sort through information more quickly.

Mistake No. 5: Slow text.

Long columns of nothing but text are unappealing, indigestible, and difficult to read on a computer screen. Solution: “Webify” text by keeping it short and dividing it into scannable, easy-to-read chunks. Use bullets and bold type.

Mistake No. 4: Fuzzy identity.

The site doesn’t make its value to users clear. Solution: Create a tagline to explain the site’s purpose, and design the site so users can quickly understand what they can do there. CollegeView, for example, has a descriptive tagline and clear navigation.

Mistake No. 3: Untapped Web power.

The site uses static print information and doesn’t capitalize on the Internet’s capabilities. Solution: Use the Web’s capabilities to augment or create content with linking, user-generated content, enhanced search function browsing by topic, and so on.

Mistake No. 2: Weird navigation.

Users are forced to navigate the site in unconventional ways and decipher unclear labels on links and buttons. Solution: Be unoriginal. Follow Web conventions, make links recognizable, and let users return to the home page from every page location.

Mistake No. 1: Buried treasure. The site hides important and interesting content. Solution: Highlight key content, and create prominent tools on the home page to allow users to do what they came to the site for. Provide links in the top half of the page that access content below the fold.

Michael Gold is a principal with San Francisco-based West Gold Editorial Consulting. Contact him at 415-647-8595 or michael@westgoldeditorial.com. This story first appeared in Credit Union Magazine at www.creditunionmagazine.com and is reprinted with permission.