by Thomas Walters

Created on: March 02, 2010

Back in the 90s when the excitement of the web was new and huge, every Tom, Dick, and Harry jumped on the old web design wagon. They learnt from those around them and threw together websites overnight. But what many of them forgot, was a crucial part of what they were doing. Design. Without a good design websites are a chore to navigate and use, they can put users off in an instant and render your website useless. And so as the years went on many technically-minded people continued to design (I use the term loosely) websites, using tables and other horrible techniques to help them along the way. This kind of design had led to a generation of people thinking that with little know how you can easily create a great looking site.

It wasn't until the late 90s, early 2000s that actual designers started getting involved. These were the people that created and still do create fantastic websites, the ones that understand typography and just know how to make a wonderful page layout. So that's mistake number one for you, developers, designing sites, as opposed to trained designers doing so.

Another common mistake in web design is this. Thinking that you are better than you actually are. I have met countless teenagers on the Internet who show me websites for review, which are usually met with me telling them they need to learn the design basics before carrying on. Many "young people" (not to sound patronising) believe that they can design websites as good as the top designer. But what they fail to understand is that their work comprises of nothing more than copied and stolen (more than likely inadvertently) ideas, taken from good designers. This is a huge problem because there are so many sites out there, composed of the dreaded "Web 2.0" standard, which are all glossy and bright. True web design is about innovation, not replication.

Getting down to the nitty gritty though, some other common mistakes include having music on your site. Sure it might be appealing to you as you make the site, but most people don't like some cheesy music blaring out of their speakers the moment they land on your site. Obviously the exception to the rule if if you are making a site for a musician or band, in which case the user would be able to turn the music on/off at their leisure. Another common mistake is single-browser testing. This is common in people who haven't been making websites for long, but also a feature of many of the sites made back in the 90s. The world

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