A lot of web designers are more concerned with the facade of their websites that they often neglect the usability of their site. Instead of looking to simplify, some designers tend to complicate the features which defeats the purpose of the website in the first place. Here is a list of top ten mistakes web designers should avoid:

1. Scrolling Text Marquees and Constantly Running Animation

So much movement, what a big headache. Are you providing service or simulating sea sickness? Too much movement of text or images overpowers the human peripheral vision. Try to give your customers some peace when they are navigating your site.

2. Frames

This really complicates everything about the site. It breaks the fundamental user model of the web page. Bookmarking is difficult, URLs are not working and printouts become a headache. A non technical person can have a nosebleed trying to navigate the site.

3. Bleeding Edge Technology

User's have small patience to something that they do not understand on a site because frankly there are other sites out there that can give a simpler and more convenient service than a site that needs to be figured out. And new technologies, instead of helping can even damage your site's reputation. Maybe computer geeks will be flock your site but mainstream users still prefer good content and good customer service. Using new technologies while they are still in beta and the same technologies crash on your site, do not expect those users to come back anytime soon. It is better to wait till the product is proven and has gained good recognition.

4. Orphan Pages

All pages should be related to what your site is about and should have a link going to the homepage because users may enter the site through any page other than the main.

5. Outdated Information

Be conscious of maintaining the content of your site. Remove outdated information, update the content. Maintenance of current content is an easier and cheaper way to enhance site since most information in the old content are still relevant. It should also be linked to the new contents.

6. Complex URLs

Users do try to navigate your site by trying to decode the URL of the pages. So having the URL have human names will greatly help your users navigate your site easier.

7. Long Scrolling Pages Although most users do scroll down now when visiting a site, it would still be beneficial to have the most important information at the top of the screen.

8. Lack of Navigation Support

Provide a site map to help your users navigate your site. A good search option will also help users find what they are looking for. Do not assume that the users are as knowledgeable for you. Actually, it will be helpful to assume the opposite.

9. Non-Standard Link Colors

Stick with the standard. Blue for unopened link and red or purple for read or opened links. Changing of the colors will just lead to confusion.

10. Long Download Times

All users technical or not will lose patience if a page downloads too long. Any more than 15 second to download a page is already considered too long and the user can lose interest and just move to a new site.