What to Avoid While Designing Your Web Page

There are many things you can do when designing a web page to make it stand out and seem original and memorable to a reader. At the same time, there are numerous design mistakes that can easily make people figuratively run screaming from a site, never to return.

Moving images

Try to avoid using too many moving images on your web pages. While these are sometimes very good at conveying certain ideas and may not slow down the loading process very much now that it is common for readers to have plenty of RAM installed in their machines, too many flashy animated images are distracting and actually prevent readers from concentrating fully on the message that you want to convey.

Brightness and contrast

You want to make sure that there is enough contrast between the background of your page and the text, so that readers do not have to strain to read what is written on your page. At the same time, make sure that you avoid the overuse of very bright colors. Even with black text, bright-colored backgrounds cause eyestrain and make many readers flee from your page.

Backgrounds and contrast

Avoid placing text directly on top of high-contrast images. If you wish to use an image for your background, rather than a solid color, the best choice is a lower-contrast image in eye-pleasing shades that do not distract the reader's eye too much from the text that you want them to read.

Keep it short

When you write your content, keep each paragraph short and to the point. Your readers can more easily get the message from brief paragraphs, and from web pages that are concise.

Generally speaking, it is best to ensure that the visual design elements of your web page are subtle enough that they do not distract your reader. You do not want to detract from your written message with busy images or bright colors that make it difficult for people to absorb your words.