Custom Web Design

When analyzing Custom Web design, it is easy to identify a large number of mistakes that reduce usability of web sites. Here's a list of some basic custom web design elements that will increase the usability of virtually all sites:

Using Frames

Don't use a lot of frames to split up a page into different sections. This will make the site messy and confusing to the users as well as search engines. Frames break the fundamental user model of the web site design. All of a sudden, you cannot bookmark the current page and return to it (the bookmark points to another version of the frameset), URLs stop working, and printouts become difficult. Even worse, the predictability of actions goes out the door: who knows what information will appear where when you click on a link?

Scrolling Text

Scrolling Text, Marquees, and Constantly Running Animations
Never include page elements that move incessantly. Moving images have an overpowering effect on the human peripheral vision. A web page should not constantly attack on the human senses. Give your user some peace and quiet to actually read the text!

Long Scrolling Pages

All critical content and navigation options should be on the top part of the page. Only 15% of users scroll beyond the information that is visible on the screen. Recent studies show that users are more willing to scroll now but still we recommend minimizing scrolling on navigation pages.

Orphan Pages

Make sure that all pages include a clear indication of what web site they belong to since users may access pages directly without coming in through your home page. For the same reason, every page should have a link up to your home page as well as some indication of where they fit within the structure of your information space.

Link Colors

Non-Standard Link Colors
Links to pages that have not been seen by the user are blue; links to previously seen pages are purple or red.

Don't mess with these colors since the ability to understand what links have been followed is one of the few navigational aides that is standard in most web browsers. Consistency is key to teaching users what the link colors mean.

Custom web design

Navigation Support

Lack of Navigation Support
Don't assume that users know as much about your site as you do. They always have difficulty finding information, so they need support in the form of a strong sense of structure and place. Provide a site map and let users know where they are and where they can go. Also, you will need a good search feature since even the best navigation support will never be enough.

Long Download Times

Traditional human factors guidelines indicate 10 seconds as the maximum response time before users lose interest. On the web, users have been trained to endure so much suffering that it may be acceptable to increase this limit to 15 seconds for a few pages.
Even web sites with high-end users need to consider download times. Bandwidth is getting worse, not better, as the Internet adds users faster than the infrastructure can keep up.

Suggestions

Outdated Information

Budget to hire a somebody for web maintenance as part of your team. In practice, maintenance is a cheap way of enhancing the content on your web site since many old pages keep their relevance and should be linked into the new pages.