The Tribune

By Deidre Bastian

Hell hath no fury like a customer that is annoyed by a bad website. In order to figure out what is “good”, we need to first figure out what is “bad”. Don’t give customers the opportunity to use colourful language to describe your website if it is bad.

Many of us have been on the receiving end of web displeasure. I have asked around and compiled a list of ‘pet peeves’ that automatically try viewers’ patience, and cause them grave inconvenience. Let’s take a look:

Speed is of the essence: Slow websites are awful. And it is frustrating when simple things take too long. While a human being’s time and attention span online is very short, slow load time - which is caused by cheap hosting service or too many large images - is a problem.

If your site moves at a snail’s pace, customers will no doubt find a faster one. Therefore, remove any unnecessary stunts that could be slowing your site down in exchange for something faster.

Generic Stock Photography: Stock photographs do not qualify as quality images. Are we supposed to believe that the generic stock people work at your company? Try to display photos of actual employees instead.

Music multimedia when a page loads: Shhhh!, let’s get the most obvious one out of the way. When an employee is enjoying what they thought was a silent browsing session, a loud noise appears. Yes, the ‘Marching Band’. And what’s worse, they cannot seem to locate the STOP button, which tells the boss they are not finalising the monthly account spread sheet.

Pop-Up Ads: Pop-ups are annoying, especially those that break your browser’s “back” to exit without closing down the Internet.

Poor spelling and grammar: Yes, it is 2014, and text-speak is definitely all the rafe. But if you want people to actually read your content, please take the time to use a spell checker.

Broken links: Check links regularly to ensure visitors are not continually getting ‘Error 404’ messages. Allowing this to continue month after month wastes money invested on website advertisement.

Horizontal scrolling: Scrolling back and forth to read lines of text drives viewers insane. If your website has too many moving things, such as monkeys swinging, balloons popping, arrows chasing each other around the frame, it makes it very difficult for viewers to concentrate on the text.

Your ‘Call-to-Action’ does not align with the offer: There’s nothing more annoying than being promised a 50 per cent off coupon, then finding there is a caveat that says you must first spend $1,000 on select items, join a customer club or other nit-picky requirements. If you have made a promise to first-time buyers upfront, do not tack on fine prints afterwards as it is very dishonest.

A well-designed website may look professional, but is it really serving its purpose? All too often, business owners place a lot of emphasis on the huge amount of hits received, and the swarm of multimedia animation popping up and down, rather than performance and the amount of sales generated.

Nonetheless, the first impression is lasting, and since your website is the company’s’ first impression online and has only five minutes of stage time, make it really count by establishing the strongest online presence your customer ever experienced. So, until we meet again, fill your life with good memories rather than regrets. Enjoy life and stay on top of your game.

• NB: Columnist welcomes feedback at deedee21bastian@gmail.com

ABOUT COLUMNIST: Ms Bastian is a professionally trained graphic designer/marketing coordinator with qualifications of M.Sc., B.Sc., A.Sc. She has trained at institutions such as: Miami Lakes Technical Centre, Success Training College, College of the Bahamas, Nova Southeastern University, Learning Tree International, Langevine International and Synergy Bahamas.