Mistakes (web) designers make

It's funny how recognizable these mistakes are, as I usually get worked up when I encounter these dorky mistakes and near-instantaneously click the back-button. To me these are obvious mistakes, yet oh so omni-present.

• PDF files are print, not online reading
  -- Agreed. There's nothing worse than plowing through a big-butted PDF that takes ages to load (don't get me started on the way Adobe Reader loads every page individually whilst scrolling...)


• Don't violate design conventions
  -- While you might think putting your navigational elements at the far bottom of the page is cool, I think your page isn't worth browsing through to look for them.


• Don't use totally wrong color-themes, like white on yellow (no!)
  -- It really does hurt to read yellow text on a white backgroud, believe me.


• Make your text scan-able
  -- Or at least make an effort.


• Don't use fixed font sizes
  -- No, this does not only apply to old people, since I'm the kind of person who likes to enlarge text on a website for prolonged reading. I do this so I won't strain my eyes for too long, as I use a pretty high screen resolution. I'm sure others agree it's not very agreable to read a wall of text at a font size of 8 or 10. Spare me or I'll click away (it's fine to design this way, but please, let me use my 'CTRL-+', thank you).

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clipped from www.articlefollow.com Users hate coming across a PDF file while browsing PDF is an undifferentiated blob of content Oops, maybe if I let go of this apple, it will turn into a tomato and jump a mile into the sky. They (users) form their expectations for your site based on what's commonly done on most other sites A wall of text is deadly Intimidating. Boring. Painful to read. Respect the user's preferences and let them resize text as needed. Also, specify font sizes in relative terms