Is Your Website Trapped In Time?

Website Trapped In Time

The rules of the attractive website have changed drastically over the past 20 years. Yet, some sites still look like they were created for the year 1980 (and some sites from years ago still exist !). It's amusing, every once in awhile, to look at some sites that just can't seem to get it right.

Whether these sites are part of a shared hosting or direct hosting plan doesn't matter too much. What matters here are fonts, colors, and other design details that just plain fail.

Sites That Don't Get It Right

• citydeli .com: take a look at this site. Do you see what the problem here is? The fonts, the colors, and, oh wow, that food photo. The whole site is bad from start to finish!
• mamascheesies .com: ok, this site is set up by a mom selling handmade crafts and accessories – but that just makes it all worse! Shouldn't this site owner have more taste? Right now, the site is a jumbled mess with a background that's really hard to look at.
• yvettesbridalformal .com: where to begin? Don't look at this over-crowded, too colorful, florescent website too long! It might actually damage your eyes! Yikes!
• mrbottles .com: another site that screams “makeover!” Mr. Bottles needs a new site designer, stat.

What Makes a Bad Website?

Maybe you've just set up that shared hosting or direct hosting account, and now you want to build a website. You certainly don't want to wind up on this list, right? So what makes a site really, really, bad?

• Bad Overall Design: are the words hard to read? Is your background crowded and too colorful? Is it impossible to find any information?
• Horrid Font: font is important! You might love the look of Gothic font, but this might be really hard to read. Think of your readers!
• Clutter and more Clutter: don't cram a thousand things onto one page. You can create additional pages for extra information. If you have something to add to a site, it's best to make it concise! Hire a writer to help!
• Too Much Animation: is any animation ok? That one is debatable. But, signs that pop up and characters that dance across a page are just too hectic. Keep it simple!

Website Trapped In Time: How to Create a Great Site

Start by thinking about what your readers will see. Then, narrow down the words that will go on your site. Not such a great writer? Hire someone like me to do the work for you. Your words should convey what you want to say, but you shouldn't fill your site with thousands of words either. It's a fine line between tacky and tasteful!

Got another site that deserves to be on this list? Let me know what site you think I missed!