Web Bloopers: 60 Common Web Design Mistakes, and How to Avoid Them (Interactive Technologies)

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Back button, forcing Web users to use, 116

back-end databases, missing task-focused data, 68

back-end design, duplicate hits resulting from poor, 175

back-end developers, website usability and, 175

back-end implementation problem, 182

back ends, 43, 178

clueless, 68 “72

designing task-focused, 71

of websites , 4

backgrounds

poor contrast with text, 255 “256

solid, 256

watermark title in, 109

badly placed error messages, 260

Baffling Search Controls blooper, 161 “166

balkanization, fending off, 88

Bank of America's website, structured data fields, 128

BarnesAndNoble.com

bulleting links to reduce ambiguity, 236

dumping users at a generic page, 104, 105

"New Releases" link working as expected, 106

results sorted by "bestselling order", 180

using the word " user ", 207

Been There, Done That? Can't Tell blooper, 240 “244

beeping to attract attention to error messages, 265

Benq subsidiary of Acer, separate page for, 84, 85

Berners-Lee, Tim, 5

binary choices, expressing as checkboxes, 135

Bizarre Buttons : Click Target Smaller Than It Seems blooper, 230 “234

black on white as ideal, 257

blank Web pages, 40 “41, 117, 118

bleeding from the background into the text, 256 “257

"Blocks of Text" as a top ten Web-design mistake, 196

Blooper 1: Home Page Identify Crisis, 14 “19

Blooper 2: Confusing Classifications, 19 “24

Blooper 3: Unhelpful Descriptions, 24 “28

Blooper 4: Conflicting Content, 28 “32

Blooper 5: Outdated Content, 32 “35

Blooper 6: Missing or Useless Content blooper, 35 “37

Blooper 7: Unfinished Content, 37, 39 “42

Blooper 8: Redundant Requests, 44 “52, 53 “54, 55

Blooper 9: Requiring Unneeded Data, 52, 55 “57

Blooper 10: Pointless Choice, 57 “62, 74

Blooper 11: Omitting Important Options, 62, 64 “68

Blooper 12: Clueless Back-end, 68 “72

Blooper 13: Dead-end Paths: Now You Tell Me!, 72 “78

Blooper 14: Agonizing Task Flow, 73 “78

Blooper 15: Site Reflects Organizational Chart, 84 “89

Blooper 16: Numerous Navigation Schemes, 89 “92

Blooper 17: Deceptive Duplicate Links, 93 “102

Blooper 18: Not Linking Directly, 102 “106, 107

Blooper 19: Lost in Space: Current Page Not Indicated, 107 “111

Blooper 20: The Circle Game: Active Link to Here, 112 “116

Blooper 21: Missing Links: It's Back or Nothing, 116 “119

Blooper 22: Making People Type, 122 “124

Blooper 23: Intolerant Data Fields, 124 “128

Blooper 24: No Defaults, 128 “136

Blooper 25: Faulty Defaults, 136 “138

Blooper 26: Compulsory Clicking: No Default Text Input Focus, 139 “141

Blooper 27: Lame Label Placement, 142 “146

Blooper 28: Checkboxes or Radiobuttons, 146 “149

Blooper 29: Looks Editable but Isn't, 149 “151

Blooper 30: Mysterious Controls, 151 “157

Blooper 31: Baffling Search controls, 161 “166

Blooper 32: Dueling Search Controls, 167 “170

Blooper 33: Hits Look Alike, 170 “173

Blooper 34: Duplicate Hits, 174 “175

Blooper 35: Search Myopia: Missing Relevant Items, 175 “178

Blooper 36: Needle in a Haystack: Piles of Irrelevant Hits, 178 “182

Blooper 37: Hits Sorted Uselessly, 182 “185

Blooper 38: Crazy Search Behavior, 185 “189

Blooper 39: Search Terms Not Shown, 189 “190

Blooper 40: Number of Hits Not Revealed, 190 “192

Blooper 41: Too Much Text, 196 “199

Blooper 42: Speaking Geek, 199 “206

Blooper 43: Calling Site Visitors "User", 207 “209

Blooper 44: Insider Jargon, 209 “211

Blooper 45: Variable Vocabulary: Different Words for the Same Thing, 213 “214

Blooper 46: Inconsistent Style, 214 “217

Blooper 47: Typos and Grammos: Sloppy Writing, 217 “220

Blooper 48: Links Don't Looks Like Links, 222 “226

Blooper 49: Non-Links Look Like Links, 226 “230

Blooper 50: Bizarre Buttons: Click Target Smaller than It Seems, 230 “234

Blooper 51: Wrapped Links: How Many?, 234 “236

Blooper 52: "Click Here": Burying Links in Text, 236 “240

Blooper 53: Been There, Done That? Can't Tell, 240 “244

Blooper 54: Tiny Text, 246 “253

Blooper 55: Camouflaged Text, 255 “257

Blooper 56: Centering Everything, 257 “260

Blooper 57: Unobtrusive Error Messages, 260 “265

Blooper 58: Shades of Beige: Color Differences too Subtle, 265 “268

Blooper 59: Dead or Alive: Active Buttons Look Inactive, 268 “272

Blooper 60: Terrible Tabs, 273 “277

bloopers, 4

on all websites, 5

checklist of, 302

collecting examples of, 8

content, 13 “42

blue border, surrounding graphical links, 224

book titles, underlined , 228

BookPool.com, calling users "user", 207

"boolean" expressions, versus "literal text", 161

breadcrumb path , 111

brevity, not a goal in itself, 199

browser-based form fill, 54

"browser sniffing", 63

browser title bar, rarely noticed, 109

browsers, 5

asking users to identify, 59 “60, 61, 63

automatic form fill-in offered by, 54

checking the version of with a script, 254

font controls in, 249

recent for the Macintosh, 249, 254

used to collect graphic design and layout blooper example, 246

bullets

centering, 259

left-aligning, 260

reducing multiline link ambiguity, 235 “236

business experts, filling websites with insider jargon, 209

button image, making each a whole-image link, 233

buttons

active looking inactive, 268 “272

allowing clicking anywhere on, 230 “234

bizarre, 230 “234

constructing to look like buttons, 225, 226

designing poorly, 224 “225

labeling as actions versus objects, 214