Inconsistent Design

By Jeff Colburn
Posted Monday, June 21, 2004

One problem I often see on websites is inconsistent design. This not only looks unprofessional, but it also makes a site difficult for visitors to use. I recently visited a site, and each page was so different from every other page that I thought I was being sent to different websites. I found it so disconcerting that I left the site after going to three pages and have no plans to go back. Do you think I would ever buy a product or service from this kind of site? Not likely.

You want to make your site have a consistent design. By this I mean that all the links and contact information should be in the same place on every page. Each page should have the same design and colors too. A minor change in color isn't really a problem, but be sure that it's necessary. A change in color or layout should have a definite purpose and not be done just because you feel like it or want to show people what a great website designer you are.

Here are a few design tips to remember when creating a website.

 Don't use blinking text. Everyone hates it because it's so darned annoying.

 Don't use more than 3 font styles on a site. Ideally, you should use only one font for the entire website. You can use a fancy font for your site title, but be sure to make it into a graphic, such as a JPEG file. If you use a fancy font, it must be on the viewer's computer or it will be replaced by the viewer's default font.

 Keep italic and bold to a minimum. Use bold to highlight something important on a page, but if you use it too often people will ignore it. Most people find italicized letters hard to read, so if you must use italic, do so sparingly.

 Don't underline anything that isn't a link. It's understood that underlined words on a website are links. So if you have something underlined that's not a link, when someone tries to click on the word and nothing happens, they will be upset. You don't want visitors to be upset. This happened to me a couple or weeks ago. I felt that if the person didn't know this basic rule, I wouldn't trust him enough to buy anything from him.

 Use a font that's easy to read, like Arial. Virtually every computer, both PC and Mac, has Arial on the system. So when you design a site using Arial, you know that viewers will see it the same way you designed it. Arial is easy to read because it's a Sans Serif font. That means that it doesn't have "feet," the little lines at the top and bottom of the letters.

 Don't use a background that's either too busy or a similar color to your font. This will make the text very difficult to read, and visitors will leave quickly. I've seen a black font on a midnight blue background, and a white font on a pale yellow background. They were both so hard to read that I left in less than a minute.

Creating a website that's easy to use and pleasing to the eye will be a pleasant experience to visitors. This will keep these visitors on your site longer and increase the chance that they will buy something from you.

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