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Spotting Amateur Web Site Designers
 Use every color in the rainbow
- Color should be used to deliver a message
- Don’t use more than a few colors on your web site
- Use color consistently across every page
Make gathering information difficult
- Don’t use the most fancy font available
- People want to be able to quickly and easily read text
- Delivering the message in a straightforward way should be the goal
Use as much animation as possible
- Nothing is as effective at slowing down a web site as the overuse of animation
- Dancing babies, flying airplanes, whatever, should only be used when it enhances the message and not at the cost of having a slow web page
- Animation can also amuse people to the extent that they are totally distracted to the point they forget why they even came to the web site
Use the most current technology just because you can
- You don’t need to use Java, DHTML, XML, and whatever other technology you heard about just because you can
- Overuse of these technologies, especially when used for animation, can really slow your website
- Again, use only what you need to deliver a message with high impact
Use forms to gather information without knowing how to edit
- This is one of the first things I look for when I am evaluating a website
- Having a form to collect information from your website visitors does absolutely no good if you don’t make certain information is provided
- Many websites allow a visitor to submit a form without any information on it. Some even go so far as to thank the visitor and promise someone will contact them without knowing their name, email address, phone number or anything else
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