Web Site Design Guide (logo)
Good Design ConventionsThe Electronic PageCascading Style SheetsTemplatesLibrary Items and AssetsBad Design FeaturesForms
Bad Design Features
Overview
Backgrounds
Text
Links
Graphics
Animations
Junk
Navigation
General Design

Overview

Not all of these I necessarily agree with but they are worth consideration.

Backgrounds

Colour combinations of text and background that make the text hard to read
Busy, distracting backgrounds that make the text hard to read

Text

Text that is too small to read
Text crowding against the left edge
Text that stretches all the way across the page
Centred type over flush left body copy
Paragraphs of type in all caps
Paragraphs of type in bold
Paragraphs of type in italic
Paragraphs of type in all caps, bold, and italic all at once
Underlined text that is not a link

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Links

Default blue links
Links that are not clear about where they will take you
Dead links (links that don't work anymore)

Graphics

Large graphic files that take forever to load
Meaningless or useless graphics
Thumbnail images that are nearly as large as the full-sized images they link to
Graphics with no alt labels
Missing graphics, especially missing graphics with no alt labels
Graphics that don't fit on the screen (assuming a screen of 640x460 pixels)

Animations

Under construction" signs, especially of little men working
Animated "under construction" signs
Animated pictures for e-mail
Animations that never stop
Multiple animations that never stop

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Junk

Counters on pages--who cares
Junky advertising
Having to scroll sideways (640 x 460 pixels)
Too many little pictures of meaningless awards on the first page

Navigation

Unclear navigation; over complex navigation
Complicated frames, too many frames, unnecessary scroll bars in frames
Orphan pages (no links back to where they came from, no identification)
Useless page titles that don't explain what the page is about

General Design

Entry page or home page that does not fit within standard browser window (800 x 600 pixels)
Frames that make you scroll sideways
No focal point on the page
Too many focal points on the page
Navigation buttons as the only visual interest, especially when they're large (and dorky)
Cluttered, not enough alignment of elements
Lack of contrast (in colour, text, to create hierarchy of information, etc.)
Pages that look okay in one browser but not in another

Source http://www.baddogdesign.com/webdesignprocess.html

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Good Design Conventions The Electronic Page Cascading Style Sheets Templates Library Items and Assets Bad Design Features Forms
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