30/11/2014 By Waka Reading Time: 2 Minutes

6 annoying design mistakes that make you lose customers. 

Why people leave your website in less than few seconds? Well, you must be giving some sort of negative impressions.

Here are the most common reasons your visitors are ditching your website to another.

1. No search box? No way!

Perhaps one of the most basic things that your website, blog and/or eCommerce need to have.

Your site is like ‘‘an archive of information’’. For some visitors, a search box is the shortcut to find exactly what they are looking for. Your visitors might be looking for a piece of advice that you have buried underneath the tons of other information. 

2.  Unscrupulous use of pop-Up ads

Ads are the ultimate annoyance to whoever visiting your website. Though a modest amount of pop-up ads are not necessarily harmful (particularly if the ads are focused and personalised), overusing it could be considered as ‘intrusive’.

Visitors may also find sign-up-to-our-newsletter messages that appear right after they land on the page or the first time. What is more, some website eagerly wants you to download their app as soon as you enter their website. Understandable. But the constant pop-up messages disrupt your viewer’s attention, leaving him/her feel lost and disturbed.

3. Abusive use of white space

People don’t like an over-loaded website. People certainly don’t read every single detail.

No matter how in-depth and insightful your website is, it is unlikely that most of your visitors will spend their precious evenings scrolling up and down throughout the page.

Also, you should avoid using horizontal scroll bars if possible.

Why? Firstly it can be distractive. Users should never get distracted by thinking about horizontal scrolling. Surely there is no one-size-fits-all solution in the world of UX and UI. Yes, there are circumstances when horizontal scrolling might be appropriate such as a photography / design portfolio.

Nevertheless, users may find it more ‘annoying’ as there is no horizontal scroll wheel (and thus much more difficult to move your finger left to right.

4. Not Mobile Optimizing

Google’s study indicates that almost 61% of respondents have said that they are more likely to leave a website if they can’t find what they want right away.

About 78% of mobile users are reluctant to click more than twice to access a page / information on their mobile phones.

As more people are surfing the Internet via mobile phones and tablets, your website needs to be optimised to respond the fast-growing mobile user population.

5. Use of Stock images

Ok, so this is the most unattractive thing on a website. If you are a real company, employing real people (not robots), then never use stock images that feature average-looking people with fake smiles in suits.

6. Anti-social website

While most of websites feature the buttons linking to their social media accounts, there are still some websites that only have social sharing buttons. What’s annoying about this? Well, today people don’t easily share whatever they see. Especially when it comes to a company website’s ‘Contact Us’ or ‘Who We Are’ page.

It is more important to have links to show that your brand has a real social media presence – let it be Facebook, Twitter or Pinterest. Don’t run the risk of being seen as a company who doesn’t take a part in any social networks.

Remember, a couple of small tweaks can always make a huge impact.

What do you think?

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