Top errors in building a website

[Adam Y.]

I just wanted to see drives people away from websites.
1)Long Download Times: Flash and java create havoc for those who have slow computers.
2)Lack of navigation:You can't find the link back to the home page. It is like hacking through a jungle of information.
3)Poor color schemes:You can't even read what is being said.
4)Lack of cross-browser compatibility: Using all the special features that only works in Internet Explorer.
5)Poor Grammar:Using Haxor language or just not proofreading the website.
6)Frames
7)Other:This is all I can think of at this moment. Please post if you can come up with some more examples.

1. Flash = Root of all evil, my web design professor refuses to download a flash viewer on his computer and won't grade any projects that use any flash at all..its so evil if used for more then just a banner or something.
2. A lot of people don't check their links and they are dead because they forgot a letter.
3. I hate these extremely bright backgrounds on light text....so annoying..
4. Again, while I use IE mostly, I occasionally run into a problem like that with mozilla or opera..
5. I'm terrible when it comes to grammar, but on a professional website, come on...you have to do better then that.
6. Frames are evil.
7. Pop-ups and spyware! I hate having to run adaware because when I visit some music lyrics website, they have to be funny and install some stupid spyware and add 50 billion popup windows. So annoying!

[FizMan]

8) Poor formatting: When you can obviously see that either a) the webmaster doesn't have much experience in laying things out aesthetically; or b) the formatting code itself doesn't work and everything looks screwed up

9) BROKEN LINKS!

10) BROKEN IMAGES!

11) Bad thumbnailing; i.e. they just use HTML to resize the image so you're still loading a page of two dozen 400kb jpegs.

[ngreen]

Lack of content- You can build an amazing site but unless there is something there I want to look at I'll only be there once.

[Koko Ed]

Too much reliance on flash that serves no other purpose than to dazzle.
Bad spelling and poor grammar.
Lack of information.
Numerous dead links.
Lack of updates.
That's what bad websites are made of.

[ahecht]

Some other things I hate:

1) Guesswork navigation. I don't want to have to mouse over arbitraty symbols to see where each button goes. The home button should say "Home," the photos button should say "Photos", etc.

2) Improper use of backgrounds. A background image on a website is a dangerous tool. Some repeating tiled backgrounds can be effective, but most of the time I just see a large photo that repeats over and over, which can be annoying. If you must use a large picture, try the CSS no-repeat tag, and use photoshop to tone down the contrast.

3) Background music. Need I say more? I often browse the web while watching TV in another window, and there is nothing I hate more than my web browser drowning out my TV. If you must have music, have it off by default and use a link to turn it on.

4) Flashy animated GIFs. The only thing worse than Flash. One or two for dramatic purposes it fine, but I don't want to see this.

5) Bad Mouseovers. If you have a mouseover on your site, make sure that a) the image and the mouseover image are the same size, so the rest of your site doesn't all shift around when I mouseover, and b) you preload mouseover images, so I don't get red sqaures or a blank image when I mouseover.

6) Page Transistions. Yes, I know I can turn them off, but for those who don't, it's just a waste of time. (oh, and I am equally opposed to transitions in Powerpoint, but that is another rant).

[xxmaddjxx]

we are a rookie team and i made our first website this year. i was thinking maybe some of you guys can take a look and tell me whats wrong or what needs work, etc. were at http://www.pyrobots.com

[10intheCrunch]

Ok as someone above posted you have to thumbnail your images better--right now everyone has to d/l the entire 1600x1200 image just for the thumbnail (I can see it loading line by line on firefox right now). You need to actually create a smaller image for posting on that page.

[Yan Wang]

I will never visit a website a second time if it somehow manages to incorporate into it an intro page made with a 1mb Flash movie that has a lack of color coordination, poor grammar, frames that don't look right in Firefox or Safari, and lacks a link to "Skip this intro."

[Adam Y.]

4) Flashy animated GIFs. The only thing worse than Flash. One or two for dramatic purposes it fine, but I don't want to see this.

Hehe that reminds me of the simpsons episode where Homer makes an episode with all those animated pictures.

I will never visit a website a second time if it somehow manages to incorporate into it an intro page made with a 1mb Flash movie that has a lack of color coordination, poor grammar, frames that don't look right in Firefox or Safari, and lacks a link to "Skip this intro."

Here is a question since I don't have access to a Mac computer. Would making sure the website works in Mozilla be enough to make sure it works in Firefox and Safari? Also, which do people prefer more. A vertical navagation bar or a horizontal navagation bar.

[Yan Wang]

Originally Posted by Adam Y.

Hehe that reminds me of the simpsons episode where Homer makes an episode with all those animated pictures.
Here is a question since I don't have access to a Mac computer. Would making sure the website works in Mozilla be enough to make sure it works in Firefox and Safari? Also, which do people prefer more. A vertical navagation bar or a horizontal navagation bar.

It's not definite - what will make it standardized is if you validate your website html, css, etc. with www.w3c.org It'll automatically check your syntax.

[Adam Y.]

It's not definite - what will make it standardized is if you validate your website html, css, etc. with www.w3c.org It'll automatically check your syntax.

Yeah I know that. Im saying that the differnce between what Internet Explorer and Mozilla displays is a little noticable. Its the way they are programmed to display the CSS and HTML with Mozilla being the closest to the standard. I also read that Netscape has a nasty bug that when the window resizes the CSS formating dissapears. Is that still the case?

[LauraN]

I HATE frames. Well, the "old-school" frames that have scrollbars and everything in them. If you can't tell at first glance that they're frames, then they might be ok.

Poor color schemes may sound like a trivial criticism, but I think it really makes the difference between professional and unprofessional. Like when you see personal webpages that have like, black backgrounds and bright green fonts. Granted, I use that color scheme on AIM =), but that's not my webpage. Also things like really silly looking background files bug me.

Poor grammar turns you off of anything, not just websites.

Originally Posted by Adam Y.

Also, which do people prefer more. A vertical navagation bar or a horizontal navagation bar.

I personally prefer vertical. I don't know what "people" prefer, but that's what I prefer.

Originally Posted by xxmaddjxx

we are a rookie team and i made our first website this year. i was thinking maybe some of you guys can take a look and tell me whats wrong or what needs work, etc.

The only "real" problem I have with your site is the image of your name at the top of the page. The font is ok, but the image itself is hard to make out.

Other than that, what I have to say next may just be personal preference, so don't take it too seriously, except as the opinion of just one user of the site. I personally don't like the way you used so many frames. They're set up very nicely but I think it's just a bit too much to have them on the top and on both sides. I also think things like the calendar belong in the sidebars and not on the main body of the page. This may be my personal preference, so you'll want to ask other people what they think about it.

In terms of coding, I definitely have to congratulate you. It's very well done, very professional looking. I really like the look, I just don't really like the set up. (I hope that made sense, because I don't really know how else to explain it.) Off-topic question: in your member list, what's the difference between a "team" member and a "club" member?

[Ryan M.]

Originally Posted by xxmaddjxx

we are a rookie team and i made our first website this year. i was thinking maybe some of you guys can take a look and tell me whats wrong or what needs work, etc. were at http://www.pyrobots.com

I like it. I especially like the light silver background. I hate sites that have busy backgrounds. (Dark is usually bad too.)

I also hate sites that require, say, IE. (like the MS site) I use Firefox for all my home computers and I like it much better that IE. And to answer an earlier question, I think that if a site is Mozilla compatible, it's pretty much Firefox compatible. (pretty much meaning Firefox isn't yet at the 1.0 release. )

[Venkatesh]

I really hate webpages with bad color schemes and grammar put together. Those two together make me question why I am wasting my time at the site in the first place.

I really like frames, because they are the right way to layout webpages. No fancy-schmancy CSS here. All frames. Frames were meant for layout, tables for data, and CSS is my archenemy.

But thats just me - and I don't design webpages.

Very good job to you guys at Pyrobots. I really like the color scheme, and the site looks very professional. I also like the calendar a lot. The site renders very well in Mozilla Firefox and MSIE. And whoever laid out the site deserves a cookie.

My only complaint? The FIRST logo in the corner. I don't like the way it looks jagged. Maybe a little Antialiasing on it might help.