{"id":52,"date":"2022-04-01T10:16:44","date_gmt":"2022-04-01T10:16:44","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.normanbalberan.com\/blog\/?p=52"},"modified":"2022-03-11T14:52:45","modified_gmt":"2022-03-11T14:52:45","slug":"anatomy-of-a-bad-website","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.normanbalberan.com\/blog\/anatomy-of-a-bad-website\/","title":{"rendered":"Anatomy of a Bad Website"},"content":{"rendered":"<figure id=\"attachment_53\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-53\" style=\"width: 890px\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\"><img decoding=\"async\" class=\"wp-image-53\" src=\"https:\/\/www.normanbalberan.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/10\/bad-website.jpg\" alt=\"bad website\" width=\"900\" height=\"680\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.normanbalberan.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/10\/bad-website.jpg 1200w, https:\/\/www.normanbalberan.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/10\/bad-website-300x227.jpg 300w, https:\/\/www.normanbalberan.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/10\/bad-website-768x580.jpg 768w, https:\/\/www.normanbalberan.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/10\/bad-website-1024x774.jpg 1024w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 900px) 100vw, 900px\" \/><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-53\" class=\"wp-caption-text\"><center><a href=\"https:\/\/www.flickr.com\/photos\/notionscapital\/7224617748\" target=\"_blank\"><span style=\"font-size: small;\">Mike Licht \/ Flickr<\/span><\/a> \/ <a href=\"https:\/\/creativecommons.org\/licenses\/by\/2.0\/\" target=\"_blank\"><span style=\"font-size: small;\">CC BY 2.0<\/span><\/a><\/center><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<div id=\"ez-toc-container\" class=\"ez-toc-v2_0_85 counter-hierarchy ez-toc-counter ez-toc-transparent ez-toc-container-direction\">\n<div class=\"ez-toc-title-container\">\n<p class=\"ez-toc-title\" style=\"cursor:inherit\">Table of Contents<\/p>\n<span class=\"ez-toc-title-toggle\"><a href=\"#\" class=\"ez-toc-pull-right ez-toc-btn ez-toc-btn-xs ez-toc-btn-default ez-toc-toggle\" aria-label=\"Toggle Table of Content\"><span class=\"ez-toc-js-icon-con\"><span class=\"\"><span class=\"eztoc-hide\" style=\"display:none;\">Toggle<\/span><span class=\"ez-toc-icon-toggle-span\"><svg style=\"fill: #999;color:#999\" xmlns=\"http:\/\/www.w3.org\/2000\/svg\" class=\"list-377408\" width=\"20px\" height=\"20px\" viewBox=\"0 0 24 24\" fill=\"none\"><path d=\"M6 6H4v2h2V6zm14 0H8v2h12V6zM4 11h2v2H4v-2zm16 0H8v2h12v-2zM4 16h2v2H4v-2zm16 0H8v2h12v-2z\" fill=\"currentColor\"><\/path><\/svg><svg style=\"fill: #999;color:#999\" class=\"arrow-unsorted-368013\" xmlns=\"http:\/\/www.w3.org\/2000\/svg\" width=\"10px\" height=\"10px\" viewBox=\"0 0 24 24\" version=\"1.2\" baseProfile=\"tiny\"><path d=\"M18.2 9.3l-6.2-6.3-6.2 6.3c-.2.2-.3.4-.3.7s.1.5.3.7c.2.2.4.3.7.3h11c.3 0 .5-.1.7-.3.2-.2.3-.5.3-.7s-.1-.5-.3-.7zM5.8 14.7l6.2 6.3 6.2-6.3c.2-.2.3-.5.3-.7s-.1-.5-.3-.7c-.2-.2-.4-.3-.7-.3h-11c-.3 0-.5.1-.7.3-.2.2-.3.5-.3.7s.1.5.3.7z\"\/><\/svg><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/a><\/span><\/div>\n<nav><ul class='ez-toc-list ez-toc-list-level-1 ' ><li class='ez-toc-page-1 ez-toc-heading-level-5'><a class=\"ez-toc-link ez-toc-heading-1\" href=\"https:\/\/www.normanbalberan.com\/blog\/anatomy-of-a-bad-website\/#How_Not_to_Lose_Your_Readers\" >How Not to Lose Your Readers<\/a><ul class='ez-toc-list-level-6' ><li class='ez-toc-heading-level-6'><a class=\"ez-toc-link ez-toc-heading-2\" href=\"https:\/\/www.normanbalberan.com\/blog\/anatomy-of-a-bad-website\/#Big_Blocks_of_Text\" >Big Blocks of Text<\/a><\/li><li class='ez-toc-page-1 ez-toc-heading-level-6'><a class=\"ez-toc-link ez-toc-heading-3\" href=\"https:\/\/www.normanbalberan.com\/blog\/anatomy-of-a-bad-website\/#Horizontal_Scrolling\" >Horizontal Scrolling<\/a><\/li><li class='ez-toc-page-1 ez-toc-heading-level-6'><a class=\"ez-toc-link ez-toc-heading-4\" href=\"https:\/\/www.normanbalberan.com\/blog\/anatomy-of-a-bad-website\/#Mouse_Followers\" >Mouse Followers<\/a><\/li><li class='ez-toc-page-1 ez-toc-heading-level-6'><a class=\"ez-toc-link ez-toc-heading-5\" href=\"https:\/\/www.normanbalberan.com\/blog\/anatomy-of-a-bad-website\/#Music\" >Music<\/a><\/li><li class='ez-toc-page-1 ez-toc-heading-level-6'><a class=\"ez-toc-link ez-toc-heading-6\" href=\"https:\/\/www.normanbalberan.com\/blog\/anatomy-of-a-bad-website\/#Animations\" >Animations<\/a><\/li><li class='ez-toc-page-1 ez-toc-heading-level-6'><a class=\"ez-toc-link ez-toc-heading-7\" href=\"https:\/\/www.normanbalberan.com\/blog\/anatomy-of-a-bad-website\/#Unnecessary_Plug-ins\" >Unnecessary Plug-ins<\/a><\/li><li class='ez-toc-page-1 ez-toc-heading-level-6'><a class=\"ez-toc-link ez-toc-heading-8\" href=\"https:\/\/www.normanbalberan.com\/blog\/anatomy-of-a-bad-website\/#Conclusion\" >Conclusion<\/a><\/li><\/ul><\/li><\/ul><\/nav><\/div>\n<h5 style=\"text-align: justify;\"><span class=\"ez-toc-section\" id=\"How_Not_to_Lose_Your_Readers\"><\/span>How Not to Lose Your Readers<span class=\"ez-toc-section-end\"><\/span><\/h5>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">These days it is easier than ever to setup your website. Advances in design software and browser technology have brought us into the era where web pages can be created and published in a matter of minutes. Community web portals such as <a href=\"https:\/\/wordpress.com\/\" target=\"_blank\">WordPress<\/a> and <a href=\"https:\/\/www.blogger.com\/\" target=\"_blank\">Blogger<\/a> allow users to create web pages using plug-ins that run in the browser itself.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\"><strong>When you create your web page, you are creating something that you want other people to see.<\/strong> Maybe you just want to share photos with your family, or maybe you\u2019ve written some great fan fiction that you want to show off to every other Harry Potter fan. No matter the reason for creating your page, you are going to want people to look at it, and while they are looking at it, you want to keep them happy, so they look at it again.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">Designing an excellent web page is hard, well beyond the scope of this article. So instead of telling you what you should do, <strong>we are going to tell you some things that you should not do.<\/strong> By following the advice in this article, we can\u2019t guarantee you that you will have a great web page, but we can ensure that it will drastically reduce the number of people who are horrified by it.<\/p>\n<h6 style=\"text-align: justify;\"><span class=\"ez-toc-section\" id=\"Big_Blocks_of_Text\"><\/span>Big Blocks of Text<span class=\"ez-toc-section-end\"><\/span><\/h6>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">Ideally, your web page will look a lot like a page out of a magazine. Your text will be evenly spaced with breaks between paragraphs. Reading long passages on a web page is not as easy as reading one in a book, so give your reader\u2019s eyes a break by giving them sweet bits of white space. This will allow them time to take a breath, absorb what you just said, and move on to the next chunk.<\/p>\n<h6 style=\"text-align: justify;\"><span class=\"ez-toc-section\" id=\"Horizontal_Scrolling\"><\/span>Horizontal Scrolling<span class=\"ez-toc-section-end\"><\/span><\/h6>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\"><strong>Unless you use some accurate coding on your web page, most web browsers will happily wrap the text at the end of the screen.<\/strong> This way your users just have to keep scrolling down to read what you are trying to say. Sometimes, however, even the most well-intentioned web page designer can accidentally \u201cbreak\u201d the browser window and cause it to think that it is bigger than it is. This is most often caused by having wide pictures on your page. If your image is 1000 pixels wide, then any user who has their desktop set to 800 by 600 will suddenly find that they have to horizontally scroll across your page to not only see the entire picture but anything that you have written.<\/p>\n<h6 style=\"text-align: justify;\"><span class=\"ez-toc-section\" id=\"Mouse_Followers\"><\/span>Mouse Followers<span class=\"ez-toc-section-end\"><\/span><\/h6>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">Imagine going to a web page that you want to read. You arrive at that web page, and while you are navigating around, you notice something odd. There is stuff following your mouse around! Maybe it\u2019s a cat, maybe it\u2019s a hundred cats, or maybe it\u2019s a bunch of different colored text that chases your mouse around, and when you stop moving the mouse, reassembles itself into a clock. No matter what it is, it\u2019s distracting and annoying. They were nice five years ago for 2 minutes, but not anymore. You want people to read your page, so<strong> stop distracting them<\/strong>!<\/p>\n<h6 style=\"text-align: justify;\"><span class=\"ez-toc-section\" id=\"Music\"><\/span>Music<span class=\"ez-toc-section-end\"><\/span><\/h6>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">You are sitting in your office\/den\/bedroom, browsing the web looking for the latest figures\/antiques\/American Idol gossip when all of a sudden Madonna\u2019s \u201cLike A Virgin\u201d starts coming out of your speakers. Only it\u2019s not even the real version of the song; it\u2019s a cheap MIDI of the song that sounds like someone is playing it on their Gameboy. <strong>When people are browsing the web, if they want to listen to music they will choose their own and put it in their CD player.<\/strong> They don\u2019t want you forcing music on them, especially if you are doing it just for the heck of it. There might be a few, a very few, web pages out there that warrant having music embedded in them, but I have yet to run across one. If you insist on doing this, at least give your visitors fair warning.<\/p>\n<h6 style=\"text-align: justify;\"><span class=\"ez-toc-section\" id=\"Animations\"><\/span>Animations<span class=\"ez-toc-section-end\"><\/span><\/h6>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">The human eye is naturally drawn to movement. If you have a happy face on your web page doing the Macarena, then that is what your visitor&#8217;s eyes are going to keep being pulled toward. Do you want your readers reading your vacation story, or staring at the dancing happy face? If you need to draw attention to something, use different colored text or a different font. <strong>Never, ever, have more than one animation in one browser window unless you are intentionally trying to trigger epileptic fits.<\/strong><\/p>\n<h6 style=\"text-align: justify;\"><span class=\"ez-toc-section\" id=\"Unnecessary_Plug-ins\"><\/span>Unnecessary Plug-ins<span class=\"ez-toc-section-end\"><\/span><\/h6>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">People are uncomfortable downloading unfamiliar software to their computer, and rightly so. Therefore you should <strong>avoid placing anything on your web page that forces your users to download a plug-in.<\/strong> People have gotten used to Java and Flash, and putting something on your page that requires one of those is okay. However, people are not going to want to download \u201cJoe\u2019s Super Cool Weather Info Plugin\u201d so that they can see the current temperature (plus great offers) whenever they visit your web page.<\/p>\n<h6 style=\"text-align: justify;\"><span class=\"ez-toc-section\" id=\"Conclusion\"><\/span>Conclusion<span class=\"ez-toc-section-end\"><\/span><\/h6>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\"><strong>Your website is a gift to your friends, family, or the whole world.<\/strong> Try to make your web page as neat and clean as possible. Most likely you want your website to be one that people come to again and again, so you want to make sure that when people are reading your page they are not distracted or annoyed by a bunch of cutesy bells and whistles. <strong>Respect your visitors and they will appreciate your website.<\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>How Not to Lose Your Readers These days it is easier than ever to setup your website. Advances in design software and browser technology have brought us into the era where web pages can be created and published in a matter of minutes. Community web portals such as WordPress and Blogger allow users to create &#8230; <a title=\"Anatomy of a Bad Website\" class=\"read-more\" href=\"https:\/\/www.normanbalberan.com\/blog\/anatomy-of-a-bad-website\/\" aria-label=\"Read more about Anatomy of a Bad Website\">Read more<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":53,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8,1],"tags":[90,27,89],"class_list":["post-52","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-guide","category-web-development","tag-bad-website","tag-website","tag-website-anatomy"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.normanbalberan.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/52","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.normanbalberan.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.normanbalberan.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.normanbalberan.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.normanbalberan.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=52"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.normanbalberan.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/52\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.normanbalberan.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/53"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.normanbalberan.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=52"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.normanbalberan.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=52"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.normanbalberan.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=52"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}