Most of my study breaks had been spent on surfing the Internet and browsing through websites I had never been before. I’m pretty sure most of us own a website, be it a resource site or just a personal blog. I believe everyone will have different opinions about their likes and dislikes for a website. In the short span of 2 days, I have jotted down some characteristics of websites I had visited which I’m uncomfortable with. As a disclaimer, these are my personal opinion and I’m not referring to any websites in particular.
1. Personal websites with a donation button
I find it puzzling when I saw a small notice mentioning “to cover the cost of renewing the domain …” right below the donation button when the website in question has been hosted for free. How much does a domain name cost a year? I estimate it to be about USD 9 for a .com domain. Apart from contributing to the renewal of the domain name, I cannot think of other cost which would be required to keep the website going. Is it really necessary to ask for donations for the resources1 which are supposedly provided to your visitors for free? I do not think the kind souls2 who donated would know how their money were being spend.
I understand that for some cases, the owner of the website had met with some financial problems or difficulties of their own and needed our help. I’ve no qualms about that. However, requesting for money with a donation button to fund your personal website is a bit too much. I’m pretty sure there are also other ways to get a domain name. I was reading Mimi’s blog the other day and she mentioned getting a new domain name via her rev.iew.me points. I think it’s a fantastic way as compared to asking for donations. Moreover, I often see online contests giving away free domain names for winners. Perhaps some people should start trying their luck and testing their ability at those contests.
2. A link on the navigation which leads to nothing
I need some enlightenment on this even though it’s the least annoying for me. I have seen some sites with no visitors content at all but they had a “visitors” link on the navigation. I was quite surprised to see a “No visitors content yet” when I viewed the page. In this case, the navigation link is pointless. If the content is not ready, please remove the link. Your visitor might either be disappointed or surprised which definitely makes this idea a bad choice.
3. I need a magnifying glass to be able to read anything on the site
I’m actually referring to the virtual magnifying glass – Ctrl ++ on Windows. It’s very helpful when I visit sites with extremely small font size. Having such tiny text on a website is not cool at all. Similarly, light pink text on a white background is killing my eyes. It will be nice if the designer of the layout can spare a thought for my eyes.
4. A few dozens advertisements
Seriously, does anyone really need 2 dozens advertisements on a site? The first thing I notice when I arrive at a website like this is not the content but the advertisements. The flashy graphic ads take away all the attention and I would simply click on the close button at the top of my browser without a glance at the content. It’s common to have ads on a website, be it text or graphic but try to keep it within a certain area of the layout instead of placing them everywhere. If there are many ads, a rotation might be feasible. Personally, I feel that an overdose of advertisements also spoils the entire look of the layout. No matter how good the layout is, a whole lot of ads is just repulsive for me. The mountain of ads will also slow down the website significantly. Why would I spend time waiting just to view all the ads?
30 January, 2010 at 12:54 pm
I don’t mind donation buttons as long as the website owner isn’t being dishonest about the purpose of it. For example, if they say they need donations to cover hosting costs but receive more than enough and start spending it on themselves, then that’s pretty dishonest. However, I don’t see a problem with donation buttons in general, as they’re easy to ignore if I personally don’t want to donate — so much less intrusive than advertisements. Even still, I wouldn’t put one on my website, as blogging is just a hobby.
Ctrl++ is one of the greatest features web browsers have, in my opinion.
29 January, 2010 at 7:32 pm
Hi Dayna! I just wanted to say thank you for all the help and assistance you’ve given me with my layout. I think that the purple definitely looks a lot better, though it’s a shame it looks a bit funny in your browsers! Perhaps I will have to edit the image and try and make it into a transparent PNG.
WordPress usually upgrades well for me, but I get paranoid so I have to back up everything before I upgrade!
I’m not awfully good at graphics and you do a much better job than me! So it’s probably no wonder I get all these problems with my coding when I try to do something fancy.
Thank you so much for your suggestions though!
29 January, 2010 at 7:57 pm
I have absolutely no idea why the colour is wonky on my browser. If I’m able to figure it out in the future, I’ll definitely let you know.
I tend to have problems with WordPress occasionally, especially during the past few weeks. Seems like it doesn’t like me anymore.
Nah, I don’t think it has got anything to do with skills. I think we might just have different settings in Photoshop or something which might have cause the colours to be rendered differently on different browsers.
29 January, 2010 at 9:13 am
I agree with you on all counts. I especially get annoyed by “coming soon!” statements next to non-existent links in the navigation. I don’t see the point in putting up a new title in the navigation unless that section already exists!
28 January, 2010 at 4:52 am
i agree with all except the small font one :P WELL, i do agree if they use like 4pt.. haha but sometimes its cute to use 6-7pt
i think i use 7pt , but i think its a good size. idunno (:
my #1. annoying thing about a site is auto-play music.
28 January, 2010 at 10:10 am
Cute is one thing but readability is another because it’s really difficult to read. As technology advances, our screens are getting bigger. Hence, the small font size is also increasingly difficult to read. Perhaps a decade ago, small font size is still acceptable due to the small screen size.
29 January, 2010 at 12:14 am
Oh yeah, I agree! Auto-play music is super annoying.
28 January, 2010 at 4:11 am
Those are a few things I am annoyed with as well.
Boo! Especially the small fonts and the bright colors that annoys the most out of me. 
I have pink font…is it okay? Is it readable or too bright or something?
Hmms…I hope not. But let me know, alright?
28 January, 2010 at 10:13 am
The pink font colour of the links is too light imo. The other pink in the header looks all right to me.
29 January, 2010 at 12:13 am
Okay, thanks!
I wil change it as soon as I can.
28 January, 2010 at 3:25 am
I agree. I don’t like when they have the donation button there. Especially when they’re talking about going and getting Coach purses and a new Lexus (I saw this the other day) then they’re asking you for money to help keep their site up…. If you have $ for a Lexus, you can afford your own damn site. lol The advertisements bother me too.