In honor of Halloween today, I thought I would talk a little bit about the spooks that are hiding within your website that are scaring potential customers away. Below are some of the more common design elements that are likely giving visitors a little anxiety when visiting...
Help! I can’t get out of this maze!
Websites that don’t have a clear and consistent navigation can lead a visitor through a maze of pages of which they don’t know how to get out of. There is nothing worse than trying to find something on a website that you just saw, but don’t know how to get back. Help your visitors through the maze by offering simple and easy to find and use navigation.
Have the ghosts taken over?
A visitor gets to your site, but doesn’t see anything! This is the downfall of using Flash in creating websites. There are so many issues with Flash, but some of the more serious ones from a visitor experience perspective include:
- some people don’t have Flash installed on their computers and therefore see nothing but an icon asking them to download Flash;
- people don’t have the most recent version of Flash which can cause issues in viewing;
- and the most important: Flash does not work on Apple tablets and phones – people using these devices will see nothing!
Don’t let your website look like it’s doing an invisibility act – just say no to Flash!
Is this website possessed?
If your website is still not responsive to mobile devices including phones and tablets, it will most likely come out looking, well, a little crazy… scaring your visitors away. Considering where mobile usage stands today and where it’s going, if a website does not have a mobile-friendly website, visitors will look for one that is, and that will most likely be your competitors.
Is that a scary clown on your website?
For any of you who are watching the latest season of American Horror Story – you know just how scary a clown can be. Don’t let seemingly cute and colorful graphics and getting caught up with the latest trend or fad turn your website into an unexpected nightmare. A website should be easy to read and clearly communicate your brand. A good design really is easy to achieve if you just stick with a few basic rules, for example: do not use 10 different colors and font types throughout the site and do not make images huge and typeface small.
This Halloween, do a quick review of the state of your website design and based on the information in this post, really consider whether it is scaring potential customers away. Even if your website was once a friendly place, if there are many additions and edits over time, it can show signs of becoming scary and we can help.
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+Elissa Mitchell
@ezmitchell
