Since the birth of the internet and the inkling of web design, there have been many great lessons learned on how a web page should behave. Part of this learning process was realizing that users are having a hard time using the internet. Jacob Nielsen made a list back in 1996 about some of the biggest mistakes web designers have made and has recently updated that list showing that some of the mistakes are still relevant 10 years later.

These mistakes and brief explanations are ordered as followed:

  1. Bad search - typing mistakes and order of importance hinder usability with overly literal search engines.
  2. PDF files for online reading - harder to navigate, read, scroll, print, save, and fit to the browser window.
  3. Not changing the color for visited links - all orientation and navigation is lost without the "bread crumbs" that lead the way back.
    "Most important, knowing which pages they've already visited frees users from unintentionally revisiting the same pages over and over again." (Nielsen)
  4. Non-scannable text - lack of structure creates garbage. No one likes to spend time and read a full page of words if it doesn't have the information they need.
  5. Fixed font size - if users can't adjust font size so they can read it at a comfortable level, they will be discouraged to visit the site again.
  6. Page titles with low search engine visibility - the title page and further pages need to be unique to each other so that users can find more of you and what they need. No titles or multiple pages with the same title will limit usability.
  7. Anything that looks like an advertisement - users do not like constant advertisements! They know the structure of how they look. If information on your web page resembles an advertisement structure, users will avoid it.
  8. Violation design conventions - users expect all web sites to behave in a similar fashion. If it doesn't, "Jakob's Law of the Web User Experience"is realized and people will not return to your site.
  9. Opening new browser windows - opening new browser windows every time a user progresses in a website causes window clutter and abandonment of a reliable navigation tool, the back button! Use links.
  10. Not answering user's questions - not very service oriented. You don't have to have a web page to understand this one. Don't avoid listing the price of products and services. Users come to a site with a goal that they will accomplish something. In order to have users come back, make the web page an experience of accomplishment for the user.

This article hits on some very important issues on internet experience that I have never really thought about but I realize that I have been programmed through my experience to recognize these very same mistakes on many a web site. I have a list of bookmarked sites that I have known to be user friendly and very reliable. This confirms to me that I, like most other people, have expectations of how a web page should behave and act. The time I spend on a web site are sometimes determined by the limited amount of the mistakes mentioned above. I believe that this article and its sister article Are Users Stupid? can give a web designer a great advantage to make a web site where people will stay and that people will enjoy.