#design
- Pop-ups before I even read the page
- Your text is light grey on a white background
- Your CTA button blends in so much I can't find it
- Auto-play videos or music that startle me on load
- Huge walls of text with no breaks or headings
- Form fields with placeholders instead of labels
- Text over a busy background image I can barely read
- Your site isn't mobile-responsive, so I'm constantly pinch-zooming
- Hiding basic navigation behind a mystery icon
- No search bar on a content-heavy site, so I'm lost
- Carousel slides that change before I finish reading
- Images without alt text (screen readers get nothing)
- Using only color to indicate links or errors (some people won’t notice)
- I still have no idea what you do after reading your homepage
- Multiple CTAs on one page (I don’t know where to click)
- Massive uncompressed images that make your site painfully slow
- Too many third-party scripts dragging down performance
- Links that don’t look like links (no underline or color)
- All your pages are titled "Home" (I can’t tell one tab from another)
- Tiny buttons and links I can barely tap on mobile
videos
- Visual inconsistencies across pages (fonts, colors, styles) signal sloppy design and quietly erode user trust.
- Scroll-jacking or unnatural navigation behavior breaks basic user expectations and breeds instant frustration.
- No feedback on user actions (e.g. clicking a button does nothing visible) leaves visitors confused and doubting the site’s functionality.
- Hiding critical navigation or content behind vague icons or hover-only menus guarantees many users will never find it.
- Designing content or CTAs to look like ads triggers banner blindness — users will instinctively skip over them.
- Removing focus indicators (outlines) on links/buttons makes keyboard navigation a blind guessing game for users.
- Trendy low-contrast text (light gray on white, for example) might look sleek, but it’s illegible for many and fails accessibility.
- Using color alone to convey information (such as only red text for errors) leaves color-blind users in the dark about what’s important.
- Generic link text like “Click here” or “Read more” is an SEO and accessibility fail since it provides no context about the link’s destination.
- Overloading pages with third-party scripts (ads, trackers, widgets) is a silent performance killer that can even break your site if one fails.
- Content that jumps around while loading (layout shifts) signals poor optimization, making users lose their place and patience quickly.
- Serving huge desktop images to mobile devices (without responsive images) wastes bandwidth and makes mobile users wait needlessly.
- Not leveraging browser caching or a CDN means even returning visitors must re-download everything, dragging down repeat load times.
- Leaving out structured data (schema markup) for key content means search engines get no extra context, and you miss out on rich search results.
- Intrusive pop-ups or interstitials that cover content (especially on mobile) not only annoy users but can also invite search ranking penalties.
- Forcing account signup or personal info too early (gating content before showing value) sends visitors running before they engage.
- A blog or news section that hasn’t been updated in years shouts neglect, making visitors wonder if your business is active or trustworthy.
- Immediate pushes for browser notifications or location access create a spammy first impression and quickly erode user trust.
- Pages that lead to dead ends (no clear next step or call-to-action) leave visitors stranded with nowhere to go, harming engagement and conversion.
- Multi-step processes with no progress indicator (like checkouts or sign-ups) test user patience and often lead to drop-offs before completion.