10 Web Design and Usability Mistakes to Avoid

Looking for that web2.0’sh look for your website? It is now a trend everyone is now converting their pages into CSS and standards compatible pages, but still the majority of pages that you find on internet are badly designed. There are few biggest mistakes that one can make while creating website designs.
1. Slow-loading Web pagesOne of the prime mistakes that is common with both beginners and professional websites is that people do not optimize there pages for the loading time, many use magazine like images which are large in size and uncompressed graphics. By keeping large graphics files the web page is bound to be slow loading. The page if carefully designed this blunder can be avoided.
2. Table layoutTables Layout are still very common, these are structural elements and are not complaint with W3C. It is a wise thing to use CSS for layout instead of tables on your website, as it will make it accessible to all devices like PDAs, car browsers and Webtvs. You must test how your website looks on a mobile phone screen. CSS can be modified to adjust on each screen size and resolution type. Using CSS for layout also benefits on ranking better on search engines and also enable quicker loading pages
3. Bad color combinationsMany Website designers don’t pay much attention to the color combinations they use on their website. Others pay too much attention and still can not improve their work. Bad color combinations can lead to difficult-to-use pages. As a particular color identifies hyperlinks, with unused links and recently used links having different colors this are the website usage basics. The standard colors for links are blue for unvisited links and purple for visited links. Black or gray text on a white or off-white background is what people are used to, and it is the best choice. With this background color the standard link colors look just fine.
4. Using FramesAnother big blunder we find on websites is the use of frames which have plenty of usability problems, the pages are not printable and they can not be bookmarked, moreover the visited links across frames don’t change colors. Use of Frames must be totally avoided. Also the content in Frames is non search engine friendly.
5. Using Non-resizable text Use of Small text is prevalent on many websites, it looks good and you can give a lot of information on your webpage, but as resolution increases small text becomes non readable. To enable your website accessible to all kind of users, devices and different resolution types. One must specify the font size in terms of %, em or a relative value (like small, medium etc.).
6. Using Images that have text informationMany website designers use images to display text, this makes the text non resizable and definitely not accessible to other users and on handheld devices. Text on images also appears pixelated and is too blurry to read. This text is also not readable by search engines.
7. Wrong ALT textNew devices like car browsers and users that use slow dial-up connections who usually turn off images have dependability on correct ALT text, in place of images. To ensure accessibility, the images must have a correct ALT description that describes the image and its function properly.
8. No searchAlmost more than half internet users are so used to search function, by not keeping a search utility on your website you disappoint those who head straight for the search function to find what they are looking for instead of going by navigation. A prominent search bar enhances website usability and also helps in your conversion goals.
9. Meaning less 404 error pageA big blunder that people tend to do is either they don’t have a 404 page or if they do it is meaning less and adds no value to the website. Usually the 404 error shows up when a user reaches to a URL of a page that no longer exists or has been moved, this also happens when someone types an incorrect URL. Not all your users would know what a 404 error message mean so please don’t call this page as a 404 error page. You must inform the user on what happened and what he must do to reach where he intends to go. Such a page must have a call-to-action, like you could include a search function and few links to the homepage, site map, and most popular pages.