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Annoying Website Design (Part 1)
Splash screen. You type in a domain name, but instead of reaching the home page, you land on a page with a fancy Flash animation and nothing of benefit to you. That's a splash screen. A splash screen wastes the time of visitors, and adds no benefits to your site. Any even semi-competent web designer knows to avoid splash screens.
Autoplay music. It's disconcerting to arrive at a page and suddenly hear music blaring at you. If someone accesses your site from an office, a library, or even a coffeeshop, chances are they'll click out of the page upon hearing music. That's what I do. Including with ebay ads that use music.
Embedded music files make pages load slower, and they get old to repeat visitors. If you want to use music, give visitors the option to turn it on. Don't make "on" the default. In fact, avoid anything that makes sound automatically.
Under Construction Pages. Don't send visitors to an empty page. It annoys them. If the page isn't ready, don't link to it. And certainly don't use one of those obnoxious "Under Construction" animations. (Note: websites should be continually "under construction," with new things being added all the time.)
Counters. Page counters, visitor counters, and hit counters add no value to your site. There is only a downside--showing visitors that your site doesn't much action. Visitors don't need to know whatever a counter counts.
Animations. Anything that automatically flashes, scrolls, or otherwise moves draws attention to itself. Let your visitors find what they're looking for without being distracted by moving elements crying out for their attention. If it's important, they'll find it. Many animations, especially blinking text, brand you as an amateur enamored with cheesy gimmicks.
Background patterns. These were hugely popular in the 1990s. They add clutter, make text difficult to read, and mark you as a beginner. Any backgrounds should be either plain colors or very, very subtle patterns. Even better: restrict them to the area around the content (like this site does).
Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3
Autoplay music. It's disconcerting to arrive at a page and suddenly hear music blaring at you. If someone accesses your site from an office, a library, or even a coffeeshop, chances are they'll click out of the page upon hearing music. That's what I do. Including with ebay ads that use music.
Embedded music files make pages load slower, and they get old to repeat visitors. If you want to use music, give visitors the option to turn it on. Don't make "on" the default. In fact, avoid anything that makes sound automatically.
Under Construction Pages. Don't send visitors to an empty page. It annoys them. If the page isn't ready, don't link to it. And certainly don't use one of those obnoxious "Under Construction" animations. (Note: websites should be continually "under construction," with new things being added all the time.)
Counters. Page counters, visitor counters, and hit counters add no value to your site. There is only a downside--showing visitors that your site doesn't much action. Visitors don't need to know whatever a counter counts.
Animations. Anything that automatically flashes, scrolls, or otherwise moves draws attention to itself. Let your visitors find what they're looking for without being distracted by moving elements crying out for their attention. If it's important, they'll find it. Many animations, especially blinking text, brand you as an amateur enamored with cheesy gimmicks.
Background patterns. These were hugely popular in the 1990s. They add clutter, make text difficult to read, and mark you as a beginner. Any backgrounds should be either plain colors or very, very subtle patterns. Even better: restrict them to the area around the content (like this site does).
Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3
Add Your Own Thoughts. Please.