7 Web Design Sins

[bytech]

I've written an article about some of the less mentioned annoyances we encounter on the web every day. Some of the sinners include Amazon and the new VW GTI website. Check it out, and let me know what is missing on the list. The top entry will get writen up for the 7 sin, which is still unclaimed. There's a prize too helping me with this one.

Here's an excerpt without the hotlinks:

III. Drop Down Menus

Almost every site on the net is guilty of this sin, and they all deserve to burn in the “Web Usability Hell”.

The Annoying: Drop down menus create a mine field everywhere they are used. I have to hold my breath while reading your content, or remove my hand from the mouse. If I don’t, the text I am reading could disappear at any time under that lovely drop down menu of yours.

For fun, I want to point out some big name sinners when it comes to this one:

Amazon.com manages to cover pretty much the whole screen on a 800×600 when the mouse is placed over “See all 32 Product Categories”. Hovering over “Find Gifts” also takes out a chunk of the display area. There are a few more smaller offenders, but they pale in comparison to the two main creatures of evil. Geez Amazon, just use a regular link that shows the info when it’s asked for. It’s not that hard! You’ve used that marvelous concept in other areas of the site. Time to spread the goodness around!

Canadian Business Online has three areas of the page where placing the mouse cursor will render the first paragraph of the feature article unreadable. The Subscribe links for “Canadian Business” and “Money Sense” cover all lines of the first paragraph on my 1152×864 resolution desktop. The same goes for the “Entrepreneur” button. Other “pop-ups” partially obstruct the feature article, making this another truly unpredictable minefield. This feels a little like “Whack the Mole” with things popping up everywhere. Great fun, no? All I can say is “burn baby, burn”.

Jacob Nielsen no longer considers Amazon the top role model for e commerce website design. He doesn’t specifically mention the issues I have with the site, but I think he’d agree with me. You’ll find Jacob’s Amazon usability issues list in his July 25, 2005 Alertbox.

[link removed]

[bytech]

Ack, wordpress messed up again and the entry was hidden. *sigh* If you try again, it should be working now...

[Lev]

Nice article, I like this part the most:

VI. “This Site is Best Viewed…�

That should be a sin, especially when you are using the browser it suggests and it still displays. Resizing of windows is also annoying.

[LazyJim]

Well I know you closing date has passed but I've always hated buttons where the whole visible button is not clickable - only the text inside that button. This annoys me because not only are they missing an opportunity to increase the "target size" of the interactive element, but they mislead all people using the site, some may get confused and be unable to click it, and leave the site!

[bytech]

LJ, closing date is May 21st. Add yer peeve to the blog for a shot at the prize.

[Kalina]

"Canada based Web Design Forums" cool! Thanks bytech, I will be registering now.

[bytech]

Saw you signed up Colleen... Hope you'll make yourself right at home.

[Kalina]

You better be careful what you wish for, my a$$ is known to grow roots!! LOL!

[LazyJim]

oh right May ok

[kenkam]

Dropdowns are not so bad if you do them right. It validates xhtml, and degrades beautifully even if your browser doesn't support javascript. Works for IE too.

[Cordell]

I agree that it isnt 100% bad to use dropdowns. I think it would be impossible to have a website with a white background and a big button right in the middle that says "Click Here"

The more complex, the more information, the more the need for some way to navigate and find. Until something really good comes along to replace, I think I will still use them. Plus, people know how to use them.

[CaffinePhil]

Is there a link to the rest of the article?

[&Ingonyama]

I think dropdown menus that use onMouseOver events are usually very annoying but I don't have a problem with ones that you just click, like on alistapart mentioned above.

[brokencode]

God, accept my mercy, I have so those seven sins ....

[PixelPerfectDesigner]

Nice article... but where's the 7 sins?

[DaveyBoy]

Where's the link? I wanted to see it

[Rexibit]

Lol, true. I am glad that more and more web designers are understanding how to fill an entire area in a drop down menu. It is terribly annoying to have one not function properly.

[abercrombie]

Could the dropdown tip be more on opinion rather than any data or study based? In early July started implementing drop downs on all my sites after a template swap on one site. I noticed the page impressions increased by at least 35%. I interpret that as the data is more available and there are less clicks. A simple reduction of 1 click seemed to spur more page surfing.

[pontarae]

Originally Posted by abercrombie

Could the dropdown tip be more on opinion rather than any data or study based? In early July started implementing drop downs on all my sites after a template swap on one site. I noticed the page impressions increased by at least 35%. I interpret that as the data is more available and there are less clicks. A simple reduction of 1 click seemed to spur more page surfing.

Abercrombie I believe you are correct, that properly designed drop downs do increase pages viewed. We've seen this on a huge Drupal site we've re-built from Joomla. Our choice of implementing dropdowns for the re-design was driven by accessibility issues (its a wellness site) and the page view enhancement was an unforseen bonus.

It seems to me we found published studies that document this effect; if I can find them I'll PM you.

[renault24]

Great Article!
I Like the post. I want one advice from you how to avoid such designing sins would you like to give more information.