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In todays world, a web site is virtually mandatory for anysuccessful business. But there are web sites that will win youcustomers, and there are web sites that will lose you customers.Good design has a lot to do with which category your web sitewill fall into. But what is it that makes good or bad web sitedesign? In my personal opinion, a good web site is one thatssimple, informative and gives me a reason to come backfrequently. Thats what you should get from a good webdesigner/writer team. Bad sites, on the other hand, arecomplicated to use, slow loading, confusing or just plainannoying. Heres a list of my personal top 7 turn-offs as far as web sitedesign is concerned:1.Slow loading pagesStudies have shown that you have less than ten seconds to graba visitors attention. If your web page hasnt finished loadingwithin that (very short) amount of time, you might as wellforget about it. The main culprit Ive found here are huge, slow-loading graphics, especially when they are embedded in tables.If large images are absolutely vital to presenting yourbusiness, compromise by adding thumbnails to the main page andallow the visitor to click on them to access the main image.Nobody minds a longer loading time, as long as its them who canmake that choice.2.No contact informationAs Ive already mentioned in my article "Dos and donts of website copy", one of my pet peeves is a web site that has nocontact information accessible form the main page. If I cantget in touch with a company quickly and easily, chances are thatIll go to the competition. My advice is to have a whole pagededicated to contact information address, phone, fax, email,and preferably a map of where you can be found (remember item#1, though no huge graphics!) And please, dont use a graphicto display that information in a particularly clever way. I liketo copy and paste that information directly from the web page tomy contact management program. If I cant do that, youll likelynever hear form me and all other customers who do the same!3.Difficult to navigateDont try to be clever with navigational features. Simple textlinks or, if you prefer, quick-loading graphics are perfectlygood means of allowing a visitor to navigate your site. Anythingthat requires interactive navigation, like menus that expandinto sub-menus, sub-sub-menus and so on, is more an indicationof a wrong information architecture than of a true need forcomplicated navigational features.4.Non-HTML featuresDont get me started on this one. Ive got a firewall on mycomputer, and my browser is set to block all those little nastythings that can mess with my PC. As a result I come across manya site that wont display or function properly, because itrelies on features like JavaScript, Cookies, Interactive Headersor Java Applets. None of these are necessary to build a good website, and unless you want your web site to lose you potentialcustomers, you shouldnt use them. Or, if you absolutely haveto, make sure that they are not integral parts of the web site!5.Huge splash pageAnother pet peeve of mine. As mentioned earlier, you have lessthan ten seconds to get your message across. Now guess how manyvisitors are going to wait longer than that just to watch afancy animation? Nuff said.6.Pop-up adsA huge turn-off as far as Im concerned. As a matter of fact,Ive got a pop-up blocker installed on my PC, so if your website tried to tell me something important via a pop-up window,Id never even see it. If you feel that you have to use pop-ups,consider going for the less intrusive (and annoying) pop-underwindows instead.7.Sideways scrollingNot everybody has a monitor with the same screen resolution asyou, so make sure that your web site displays on monitors with alower resolution without forcing your visitor to scrollsideways. Its a singularly annoying thing, and chances are thatyoull lose those visitors very quickly. Or, if you haveinformation in a column on the right side of your web site, itmay simply never appear on the screen.

About the Author

-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-Need online copy that gets results? Frauke Nonnenmacher is acopywriter who specialises in clear, informative and persuasiveweb copy. For more information, please visit her web site athttp://www.creativecats.com-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-