10 Horrible Web Design Features

Ten web design features and styles that can truly make your visitor disconnect there Internet connection. Over the top, but seriously, these are very annoying..

Auto-Playing sound

Isn't it funny how; whilst browsing the Internet at 2am you come across a website that has no inclination of having loud playing music and *BAM*, Indie rock music fully blaring. Also.. why is it the volume button on your speakers seems to play hide and seek at that precise moment? Seriously guys, not cool!

Now, you're probably thinking "I have no music on auto-play" right? Well so did my friend Mr. Hongkiat.com, until he realized a sponsored ad was auto playing to visitors from the UK (me ). Sometimes a great intro theme, or audio interview is great.. Just keep the auto-plays to a minimum.

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Clock

I love Roulette! And if you've ever been to a real casino you may have noticed they have not got a clock in view. Ask the croupier for the time and you'll be politely told "sorry, I don't have a watch".

You see, Casinos understand people have needs at certain times, and if you have to meet your friend for Coffee at the local Starbucks at 4pm, then you'll not be in the Casino, and if you're not in the Casino they aren't making any money from you.

The same goes for a website. If you have a clock app in your sidebar, or the date and time in the header, that's a great reminder that the visitor has things to do other than buy your stuff, read your articles, and comment etc.

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Comic Sans

Just don't!

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Text Blocks Without Breaks

You want your articles to flow into the readers mind and make it enjoyable to read. Not easy to achieve when your article is 40 lines of text long without a break. Subconsciously, reading such a "block" becomes a mission for the eyes and is seen as hard work.

I usually don't have more than 8 lines at a time before a line-break as this makes even 800+ word articles very easy to digest. With your next article consider playing around around with paragraph sizes as it all depends on the width the article is going to be.

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Video Without Player Options (RC)

I've noticed a new trend with bloggers and Flash Video. I'm not sure what Flash player is the offender but they are set to auto-play by default and to further rub Salt in the wounds the player has no visible buttons at all! Not even when you hover the playing video.

I suppose the auto-play is effective for sales and squeeze pages but at least give us some volume or pause control, jeez.

What will they think of next, auto form submissions?....

> Read More At ShoeMoney <

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Pop-up/Under Windows

I can't help but feel this one is all too obvious. Either way it has to be on the list.

Po-pups went out of fashion just before Tartan Trousers did. The only pop-ups that can be justified nowadays is those which are NOT separate windows but part of the page and show something of use to the visitor like your newsletter opt in form etc.

Try to avoid those "Zwinky" type pop-unders that scream and shout until you click. They show that you are desperate for a commission and have no thought or care for the visitor thus resulting in lower bounce rates. I mean.. there's only so much browsing you can do whilst listening to that annoying "heellllooooo!".

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Surveys For Access

OK somewhere along the line an idiot told you- "you can make some real bank by ransoming people to complete surveys and other affiliate requests just to view your content. Nothing will make me hit the browsers back button quicker than having to fill out a ten page "WIN 6 TRILLION IPODS" survey.

Having those "survey for access" scripts on your site is tacky and you can kiss any repeat visitors Ga-Bye. Not only that, but I've heard some of those big name scripts are serious Malware pushers. Not mentioning any names, of course.. Gimme a Z, Gimme a A,

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Bad Captcha & Bot Questions

It's simple, before you can post a comment you need to answer a simple maths question to prove you aren't a bot. The question is: 1 + 4 =. You proceed to guess 5 and hit submit but are quickly returned to the previous screen where it now states (in that dreaded red color, Comic Sans font) "You've answered incorrectly!" So now you start to question yourself "I must have got the answer wrong?".

OK, new question.. 3 + 2 =. ah haa.. I know the answer to this one.. 5, but wait! The FRIGGIN SUBMIT BUTTON HAS DISSAPEARED!! You then proceed to smash your computer, of course.

Bottom line is, use a reputable captcha client.

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Large Flashing Things

Whether it's an AD or part of your design, flashing is a big no-no for web pages. Below, is an actual screenshot of a theme designed for the popular Simple Machines forum platform. Believe it or not this theme has had over 1000 downloads :S "Ouchy"

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3rd Party Malware Advertisers

By allowing sponsors to show 3rd party ads via scripting or PHP is a big risk. Unless using a well known, and respectable sponsor like AdSense.. You may be opening your website up to malicious content/ads.

Seriously, some heavy hitting, very secure websites have been branded as malware hosts simply because they allowed sponsors the freedom to show what they like. If considering an advertising platform take a look at other sites which also use it, take note of things like load times, and is the ads related to the content? etc etc..

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By the way, a few years ago when I purchased my first ever website, I had everything above on one page Except I used size 18 (centered) comic sans. It truly was a site that hurt the eyeballs.

Whatever