Top 2 Annoying Website Attributes Part 1
Everybody has a different taste when it comes to how websites should look and feel. I will presented a few of those attributes most website designers should shy away from when designing pages.
Here is a glance as to what you will find here:
- Annoying Background Music
- Small Tiny Weeny Text
- All Links Opening To New Tabs or Windows
- Annoying Flash Menu System
Annoying Background Music
Perhaps this is my worst nightmare for websites that start blaring away with music or auto start videos. Nothing is more distracting than the sound a webpage makes without warning in a world of information overload.
You’re in an office environment or browsing on your computer or phone in a quite library and out of the blue one of thess pesky websites catches you breaking the silence. All heads turn toward your direction and there is big red invincible arrow pointing above you to you. How embarrassing would that feel if you care for the well being of others?
What is even worse then the sound auto-playing is the inability to detect where the sound is coming from. The average modern browser can have multiple tabs open at the same time and it makes this one of those tasks that throws one off-guard.
It is always best design practice to leave the control of these videos or sounds to the visitors discretion. Yes, the owners of the sites have every right to auto playing anything on their sites but frankly, it is annoying none-the-less. These sites lack the ability to build rapport with their visitors.
How to shut them up!
Most modern browsers have plugins that allows functionality to be installed to auto-stop web pages which have auto play videos or sound. If the site owners think that they have every right to intrude on your privacy then you have every right to control that intrusion, give them the plugin to shut them up!
Small Tiny Weeny Text
Is it a brainless design to fit every word into and above the fold? If a site is interesting enough the visitor will stay and read on. Why would you cram everything you have to say into tiny bits and force your visitor to read it?
I’ll give you one plugin that comes very handy for this kind of attack! Yep, I see these tiny weeny text as an attack and likewise I fight back like a Samurai warrior, slicing the page with my one power mouse. My mouse is the most powerful item on my computer second to my Alt-F4 or Alt-w. Alt-w or F4 needs the other hand to be placed near the keyboard.
I demonstrated this technique to my son on how to chop up a page that is irritating or doesn’t go away. I hold down the right mouse button and draw a quick “L” and then let go. At that very moment the page is gone. I advice you to install this plugin which helps one to quickly close pages in a quick succession.
If you’re using Firefox, the add-on I am referring to here is: Fire Gestures (opens in new tab). This is perhaps one of the best power add-ons that I use on the Firefox browser. It saves me a lot of work and time.
I will share my favourite Firefox Internet Browser Plugins of chose in my next blog post that makes my life and web browsing that much better.
The following 3rd and 4th annoying attributes will be shared in a future post. This post is long enough as it is.
- All Links Opening To New Tabs or Windows
- Annoying Flash Menu System
Thanks for staying on and reading the annoying Website Attributes.
I would love to hear your comments and any annoying website attributes that you’ve come across.