5 Reasons I Bail from a Website

5 Reasons I Bail from a Website

Kriska Aviola | 10/06/2011

Bad Search

The search box is my lifeline when navigation fails. Overly literal search engines reduce usability in such a way that they’re unable to handle typographical errors, plurals, hyphens and other variants. Even though advanced search can help, the simple search usually works best for me.

PDF Files for Online Reading

When browsing a web page I hate coming across a PDF file, because it breaks the flow of navigation. Even simple things like printing, saving or downloading documents are a hassle. And, more often than not, PDF is an undifferentiated blob of content that’s hard to navigate.

Non-Scannable Text

A wall of plain text is deadly for an interactive experience. Boring. Painful to read. Boring. To draw users into the text and support scannability such as:

• Subheads
• Bulleted lists
• Highlighted keywords
• Short paragraphs
• Simple writing style

Anything that Looks Like an Advertisement

Selective attention is very powerful especially when users are looking for something specific. Web users have learned to stop paying attention to any ads that get in the way of their navigation.

I would automatically ignore anything that look like prevalent forms of advertising – even if it has a legitimate design. Anything with blinking or flashing text or other aggressive animation is a no-sale.

Not Answering User’s Questions

I usually visit sites because there’s something I want to accomplish, whether it’s buying a product on line, finding a contact number or a store address. The ultimate failure of a page is its inability to provide the information that users are looking for. Sometimes the answer is simply not there, other times the specifics are buried under a thick layer of marketing non-sense.

tags: Web Design ,  Web Development ,  Web Strategy ,  User Experience