Jakob Nielsen's Top Ten Web Design Mistakes of 2005

Jakob Nielsen has just published his Top Ten Web Design Mistakes of 2005. It is based on the results of a survey he conducted with readers of his Alertbox newsletter. As you will see most of the issues are perennial favourites (baddies!).
1. Legibility Problems – Number one spot reflects the issues that people have with fonts.
2. Non-Standard Links – Jakob includes 5 guidelines for getting hypertext links correct. He says:

Links are the Web's number one interaction element. Violating common expectations for how links work is a sure way to confuse and delay users, and might prevent them from being able to use your site.

3. Flash – Surprisingly, he says that web developers still don’t get how to use Flash correctly on a web page.

Flash is a programming environment and should be used to offer users additional power and features that are unavailable from a static page. Flash should not be used to jazz up a page. If your content is boring, rewrite text to make it more compelling and hire a professional photographer to shoot better photos. Don't make your pages move. It doesn't increase users' attention, it drives them away; most people equate animated content with useless content.

4. Content That's Not Written for the Web – He advises that writing for the web means making content:

·    short,
·    scannable, and
·    to the point (rather than full of fluffy marketese).

From both a visitor and search engine perspective, he says that Web content should:

·    answer users' questions and
·    use common language rather than made-up terms (this also improves search engine visibility, since users search using their own words, not yours).

5. Bad Search – this is one area that Jakob concedes will take investment (on software) and time to get right
6. Browser Incompatibility - with the rise of Firefox, Opera and Safari it is worth paying attention to get this right.
7. Cumbersome Forms – often too long and asking too many unnecessary questions. Jakob offers  five basic guidelines to this end.
8. No Contact Information or Other Company Info – The number of times I have to advise clients to address this basic principle is unbelievable. As Jakob says,

Even though phone numbers and email addresses are the most requested forms of contact info, having a physical mailing address on the site might be more important because it's one of the key credibility markers. A company with no address is not one you want to give money to.

9. Frozen Layouts with Fixed Page Widths – 2 complaints here: relating to monitor resizing and printing.
10. Inadequate Photo Enlargement

One of the long-standing guidelines for e-commerce usability is to offer users the ability to enlarge product photos for a close-up view. Seeing a tiny detail or assessing a texture can give shoppers the confidence they need to place an order online.