Not-so-good Design Checklist
From "The Non-Designers
Web Book" by Robin Williams
Watch out for the following
items - each one is a sign of an amateur designer. Each item can be easily corrected
to make the page look so much more professional. Keep in mind that the point
of eliminating bad features is not just to make the page prettier, but to communicate
more effectively.
Backgrounds
- Gray default background
color
- Color combinations of
text and background that make the text hard to read
- Busy, distracting background
that makes the text hard to read
Text
- Text crowding against
the left edge
- Text that stretches all
the way across the page
- Centered type over flush
left body copy
- Paragraphs of type in
all caps
- Paragraphs of type in
bold
- Paragraphs of type in
italic
- Paragraphs of type in
all caps, bold, and italic all at once
Links
- Default blue links
- Blue link borders around
graphic
- Links that are not clear
about where they will take you to
- Links in body copy that
distract readers and lead them off to remote, useless pages
- Text links that are not
underlined so you don't know it's a link
- Dead links (links that
don't work anymore)
Graphics
- Large graphic files that
take forever to download
- Meaningless or useless
graphic files
- Thumbnail images that
are nearly as large as the full-sized images they link to
- Graphics with "halos"
of anti-aliasing artifacts around the edges
- Graphics with no alt
labels
- Missing graphics, especially
missing graphics with no alt labels
- Graphics that don't fit
on the screen
Tables
- Borders turned on in
tables
- Tables used as design
elements, especially with extra large borders
Blinking and animations
- Anything that blinks,
especially text
- Multiple things that
blink
- Rainbow rules
- Rainbow rules that blink
or animate
- "Under construction"
sings, especially of little men working
- Animated "under
construction" signs
- Animated pictures for
e-mail
- Animations that never
stop
- Multiple animations that
never stop
Junk
- Counters on pages - who
cares
- Junky advertising
- Having to scroll sideways
- Too many little pictures
on the the first page of awards that don't mean anything
Navigation
- Unclear navigation, overly
complex navigation
- Complicated frames, too
many frames, unnecessary scroll bars in frames
- Orphan pages (no links
back to where they came from, no identification)
- Useless page titles that
don't explain what the page is about
General Design
- Entry page or home page
that does not fit within standard browser window (640 x 460 pixels)
- No focal point on the
page
- Too many focal points
on a page
- Navigation buttons as
the only visual interest, especially when they're large
- Cluttered, not enough
alignment
- Lack of contrast (in
color, text, to create hierarchy of information)
- Pages that look okay
in one browser but not in another