Three More Cliches to Avoid With Your Web Designer

Asking for trite design and content not only frustrates your web designer, but including these cliches in your website will also annoy your users. The vast majority of your website visitors are savvy enough to understand that they are, in fact, using the internet. There’s no need to remind them that another website is just a click away by relying on worn-out design and text.

We previously discussed some well-worn cliches of the web design world. Here are a few more examples:

“Welcome to our website”

This is one that just refuses to die. First off, it’s just silly. Of course site visitors are on your website. Whether they got there via search and were really looking for something else, or they are repeat visitors to your site with specific needs, they should be able to recognize instantly where they are and what need your site fulfills. Adding a welcome message serves absolutely no purpose.

Second, everything on your website should serve an informational purpose. Whether it’s to entertain, to educate or to sell, there should be no extraneous text. The actual information on your site–the images, navigation and content–should serve as their welcome. Learn to edit ruthlessly and cut the fluff.

Flash page takeovers

In the early days of Flash, it was popular to have a “talking head” type of Flash introduction. Upon entering a website, users would be confronted with an overlay of a person, either real animated, welcoming them to the website. Sometimes the user was forced to sit through an entire spiel before being able to get rid of the overlay and get on with their business. Repeat visitors were treated to the same annoyance every time they went to that website.

While a great novelty at one point, like a dashboard-mounted turntable in a car, it’s an idea with no real purpose. In fact, these “takeovers” only serve to annoy users and delay them from getting to the real point: browsing your site and buying something.

Auto-play music

Much like the above example, music that automatically starts playing when a site is visited is a major annoyance. Just because something is technically possible doesn’t mean it’s a good idea. For instance, it’s possible to hit every visitor to your house in the face with a pie, but it’s really not the ideal way to welcome them to your home.

Plus, what if someone is visiting your site in a quiet environment like the library or their workplace? Invariably everyone in their vicinity is blasted with whatever your choice of music, which is both startling and distracting.