Appendix A: Top Ten Web Design Mistakes

The following are common (yet painful) web design mistakes to avoid. These are provided courtesy of Dr. Jakob Nielsen, and are a compilation of the top usability problems voted on by the readers of his newsletter. You can view this and other information at www.useit.com/alertbox/designmistakes.html.

Tip 

If you’ve never heard the name Jakob Nielsen before, I strongly suggest you check out his site at www.useit.com. Dr. Nielsen has been called “the smartest person on the Web” (by ZDNet AnchorDesk), “the king of usability” (by Internet Magazine), and “the world’s leading expert on Web usability” (by U.S. News & World Report). Dr. Nielsen’s website provides a gold mine of useful web design information for web designers everywhere!

1. Legibility Problems

Bad fonts won the vote by a landslide, getting almost twice as many votes as the #2 mistake. About two-thirds of the voters complained about small font sizes or frozen font sizes; about one-third complained about low contrast between text and background.