Susan Suarez

1) Not Using A Separate Color for Visited Links

Knowing where you’ve gone and where there is left to go, makes it easier for the reader to navigate a website. Links are important in this process and will keep them from revisiting the same pages over and over again unintentionally, thus improving user experience. If visited links stay the same color, readers may experience disorientation especially on new sites.

2) Not Catering To Speed Readers

A wall of text can be intimidating and painful to read when writing online. Using bolded text and bulleted points will greatly assist in scannability.

3) Opening New Browser Windows

Don’t pollute a screen with more windows. I’ve been an offender to this rule and have been converting my ways. It seems logical to open a new window to keep users on a site, but actually it becomes self-defeating as the back button is then disabled which is the ‘normal’ way of returning to a site.

4) Browser Incompatibility

Many people are starting to use Firefox but a lot of users are using Internet Explorer or Opera. Double-check how your website appears on multiple browsers.

5) Collecting Email Addresses Without a Privacy Policy

Users may sign up for a newsletter because it’s free, but you need to also let them know how frequent and what type of content they will be receiving in their precious inboxes. Email addresses are valuable, so provide a privacy statement along with an opt-in/opt-out options will gain the amount of newsletter subscribers but also protect yourself from CAN-SPAM legal issues.

6) Long Urls

Having a URL over 75 characters can make it almost impossible for an url link to be shared with friends. When sent in an email, the url may break or the user may not know how to copy the full url field.

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