5 Web Design Mistakes You Should Avoid and Fix Immediately
Since a website is often the first point of contact between you and your audience, let's get to know five critical web design mistakes that business owners and UX designers often make. A…
Since a website is often the first point of contact between you and your audience, let's get to know five critical web design mistakes that business owners and UX designers often make.
A well-designed website can leave a lasting positive impression, while a poorly designed one can quickly turn visitors away. If you would rather skip the pitfalls entirely, see how we approach web design. Avoid these common critical web design mistakes that can lead to bad website design, so you can create a user-friendly and appealing online platform.
What makes a bad website design?
A bad website design can vary from having poor UX, unattractive visuals, slow loading time, broken links, and many more. Let's see the most common web design mistakes.
Every one of these mistakes has the same cost: a visitor who leaves before you get a word in.
Web design mistakes you need to avoid from the get-go
We've seen these website mistakes often enough to believe we need to remind you of them, so you can avoid these pitfalls.
Ignoring mobile users
Today, 91% of Americans own smartphones. Yet, we still see that some websites completely ignore how their website would look on mobile. Yes, it's additional work but it's important to keep your brand consistent and user experience across multiple platforms. Conversely, neglecting mobile users can result in frustration, decreased engagement, and lost opportunities.
A responsive web design is non-negotiable. It ensures that your website adapts to various screen sizes and devices, providing a consistent and user-friendly experience. Likewise, a well-optimized mobile site maintains your brand's integrity across platforms, creating a consistent brand image that can build trust and credibility with your audience.
How to do it
- Open your key pages in Responsively App or Chrome DevTools device mode and step through 375px, 768px, and 1440px.
- Check that tap targets are large enough (aim for roughly 44px), text reflows with no horizontal scroll, and the nav collapses into a usable menu.
- Fix the worst breakpoint first, then retest the whole page after every layout change.
See a worked example
Say a B2B services homepage looks polished at desktop width, but on a 375px iPhone the six-item nav wraps into an unreadable stack and the hero headline overflows its container. Previewing the same page across phone, tablet, and desktop widths usually surfaces these breaks in a few minutes, before a prospect ever hits them.
Tools to use
Responsively App to preview one page across many device sizes at once, and Chrome DevTools device mode to simulate phone and tablet viewports.
Steal our AI prompt
Act as a responsive-design reviewer. Here is the HTML and CSS for one page: [paste markup and styles]. The site targets [describe primary audience and top task]. List every layout, tap-target, or readability problem you would expect at 375px, 768px, and 1440px widths, ranked by how badly it hurts a first-time mobile visitor, and give a concrete fix for each.
Complicated navigation
We all get frustrated when a website is making it hard for us users to find what we need. To create a no-brainer website navigation, try these two fairly easy tricks:
- Streamlined menus: Simplify your header and footer navigation. Think about the top five navigation you need to have on the header menu. Anything beyond that is simply getting too complicated and will frustrate your users.
- User-friendly design: Consider intuitive navigation elements, such as a search bar, well-organized categories, and a clear hierarchy of information. Remember, simplicity is key to a satisfying UX.
How to do it
- List every page you are trying to fit in the nav, then run a quick open card sort with 5 to 8 users in a tool like Optimal Workshop.
- Group by how real users cluster the cards, not by your internal org chart, and cap the header at roughly five top-level items.
- Add a visible search field and clear category labels, then watch a few people try to find a page to confirm the structure holds.
See a worked example
Imagine a services firm with fourteen top-level menu items covering audiences, industries, and services all at once. When you ask a handful of real users to sort those pages into groups that make sense to them, they often collapse it into four or five clear buckets, which becomes a far simpler menu than the one the team argued into place internally.
Tools to use
Optimal Workshop to run card sorts and see how users group your pages, and the NN/g primer on card sorting for when and how to use it.
Steal our AI prompt
Act as an information-architecture consultant. Here is my current site navigation and page list: [paste menu and page titles]. My primary audience is [describe audience] and the top three actions I want them to take are [describe]. Propose a simplified navigation with no more than five top-level items, explain which pages you grouped or demoted and why, and flag any labels that are jargon rather than user language.
Overloading with information
There needs to be a balance when it comes to providing information about your business, your service, and your product on your website. The content on your website needs to be easy to digest, not a novel to read.
Quality trumps quantity. A cluttered website with an excess of information can lead to sensory overload. Strive for clear, concise, and engaging content with attractive visuals, videos, and interactive elements. And maintain a clean and organized layout so users can find what they need without feeling overwhelmed.
How to do it
- Paste each page's copy into the Hemingway Editor and fix sentences it flags as hard or very hard to read.
- Rewrite dense paragraphs as a one-line summary followed by a short bulleted list, since people scan rather than read.
- Cut anything that repeats a point already made, and keep one clear primary action per section.
See a worked example
Take a services page where every section runs three dense paragraphs. Pasting that copy into a readability checker often flags a grade level well above where you want it and highlights long, hard-to-follow sentences. Cutting each section to a short lead sentence plus a scannable list usually keeps the same substance while making the page far easier to skim.
Tools to use
Hemingway Editor to flag dense sentences and score readability, and NN/g on how users read on the web for the research behind scanning.
Steal our AI prompt
Act as a UX content editor. Here is the copy for one page: [paste copy]. The reader is [describe audience] and the one thing I want them to do is [describe]. Tighten it for scanning: give me a one-sentence summary per section, convert supporting detail into short bullets, cut repetition, and flag any sentence that is too long or too complex, without inventing facts I did not provide.
Neglecting page load speed
Website visitors have little patience for slow-loading pages. Neglecting your site's loading speed can negatively impact UX because it frustrates your users and can cause them to leave your website. It might even hurt your search engine rankings because site speed is one of the main contributing factors.
Alternately, optimize your website by reducing image and video file sizes, enabling cache, and using content delivery networks (CDNs). Don't forget to also regularly review and improve page load speed, ideally every month.
How to do it
- Run each key page through Google PageSpeed Insights and read the Opportunities and Diagnostics sections top to bottom.
- Compress oversized images with Squoosh (WebP or AVIF), then enable caching and serve static assets from a CDN.
- Re-run PageSpeed after each change so you can see which fix actually moved the numbers, and recheck monthly.
See a worked example
Suppose a homepage ships a 4MB uncompressed hero image plus several unoptimized photos. Running the page through a performance tool typically points straight at those images as the biggest opportunity, and re-exporting them as compressed WebP through an image optimizer can cut their weight substantially while looking the same on screen.
Tools to use
Google PageSpeed Insights to score speed and list fixes, and Squoosh to compress and convert images to modern formats.
Steal our AI prompt
Act as a web-performance engineer. Here is my PageSpeed Insights report for one page: [paste the Opportunities and Diagnostics items, or describe the flagged issues]. My stack is [describe platform or CMS]. Rank the fixes by likely impact on load time versus effort to implement, and for each one give me a concrete, platform-specific step to carry it out.
Ignoring accessibility
Today, it is more necessary than ever to create digital products that cater to a diverse user base. Here's how to do that:
- Keep it simple: Use plain language and avoid jargon or complex terms.
- Follow the best practices: Incorporate features like alt text for images, proper heading structures, keyboard navigation, and captioning for videos.
How to do it
- Scan each template with WAVE or axe DevTools and fix the errors it reports: missing alt text, unlabeled form fields, and low color contrast.
- Tab through the whole page with your keyboard to confirm every link, button, and field is reachable and the focus order makes sense.
- Check what automated tools cannot, like meaningful alt text and logical heading order, against the WCAG quick reference.
See a worked example
Consider a page with images missing alt text, form fields with no labels, and light-gray text on a white background. An automated accessibility scan will usually catch the missing alt text, unlabeled inputs, and low-contrast text right away, giving you a prioritized punch list before you bring in manual keyboard and screen-reader testing.
Tools to use
WAVE to see accessibility errors flagged on the page, axe DevTools for automated WCAG checks while you build, and the WCAG 2.2 quick reference for what accessible actually means.
Steal our AI prompt
Act as an accessibility specialist. Here is the markup for one page or component: [paste HTML]. Review it against WCAG 2.1/2.2 AA and list issues around alt text, form labels, heading structure, color contrast, keyboard focus, and ARIA use. For each issue give the specific element, why it fails, and the corrected markup.
Ready to say goodbye to bad website design?
If you steer clear of these common web design mistakes, you can enhance your website's appeal and functionality. Remember, a well-designed website not only attracts and retains visitors but also boosts your online presence. Don't fall victim to these website mistakes, and your site will be on its way to success.
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