The frontend of a website oftentimes distracts web designers and developers from basic things that matter when designing and developing a website. This article is focused on iterating these things that are usually overlooked. If you’re a web designer that wants to tie all loose ends when working on any project, you should bookmark this article and use it as a checklist to guide you through your project.
I got an idea for the checklist while talking to a friend of mine that works at an agency that leads web design in Nigeria. Here are the deadly sins and how to avoid or overcome them
- Not Optimizing for Mobile
This has to be the one-millionth time you’re reading about mobile optimization if you’ve not been living under a rock. Majority of internet users visit websites on their mobile phones. It’s paramount that your website looks good and functions properly on all mobile devices. Not having a mobile-optimized site will reduce your chances of turning your website visitors into customers.
- Ignoring Artificial Intelligence
The digital landscape is moving fast and artificial intelligence is a strong part of the next wave. Early adopters are using chatbots and personalization to get their users more interested in their website content. Chatbots are great for customer feedback and the infusion of machine learning makes future interaction with the chatbots even more personalized for returning visitors.
- Using heavy images on your site
This is actually a no brainer. When you check out many slow websites on the web, very heavy images are usually responsible for the slow performance. Granted, it adds to the user experience to have crispy clear images but knowing the difference between images that would be appreciated by the casual website visitor and graphic designers goes a long way in keep your website in a sweet spot. There are many online tools made for compressing image nowadays that these problem should be easily solved by you
- Use a CDN for Image delivery
If your website is a basic website that would remain static for a long time, you neeed not worry about this. If your website is more of a platform where members cann upload their own content, then it makes sense to anticipate the growth of the platform. Growth means the need for more server space and hosting your images on a content delivery network (CDN) would help in freeing up space.
- Using a framework you don’t need
Just like the way using a CDN for a content heeavy platform is the way to go, not using a framework when you don’t need one is a good idea. It may be tempting to want to join converstions that detail what frameworks are used for certain websites. However, if you are operating a static information website, using a framework will only lead you to unsolicited technical difficulties that even when solved could have been avoided all together from the start.
- Pop-Ups
The sin here is using too many pop-ups. Pop-ups have web desiners divided beacuse some are for it while others are against it. If any middle ground must be reached, it is that the number of pop-ups should be very limited on a website
