15 Common Mistakes in Web Design and How to Avoid Them

18 Common Mistakes in Web Design and How to Avoid Them

We have all been there – browsing a website that looks like a monkey put it together. It has slow load times, unreadable text, and buttons that go nowhere. You know what I mean; it makes you want to chuck your laptop out the window.

It’s true — good web design is intricate. It takes skill, practice and understanding of what users want when visiting a site. Even the pros mess up sometimes. However, many common web design mistakes can be avoided if you know what to look for.

In this article, we’ll walk through 18 common mistakes in web design and how you can avoid making them on your site. Whether you’re a designer, developer or someone who wants their site not to suck, this advice will get you on the right path.

1. Cluttered and Disorganised Layout

This one is almost self-explanatory, but it’s surprising how many websites can assault the eyes. Remember that white space is your friend. It helps to guide the user’s eye and create prioritisation and flow.

Too many elements on a page without hierarchy or structure cause confusion and high bounce rates. Don’t make your visitors work hard to decide where to look next.

1. Limit each page to a few key elements or sections.
2. Use generous white space, grids, and visual breathing room.
3. Create a clear visual hierarchy through different heading styles, spacing, colours, etc.

Real-world example: Craigslist.org. It’s ugly as sin, but its stripped-down layout and organisation make it easier to find what you want. Sometimes, less is more.

Adhere to Layout Conventions

Your website’s layout and navigation should be intuitive and follow established conventions that users are already accustomed to. For example:

• Logo in the top left links to the homepage
• Main navigation across the top or down the left side
• Search in the top right
• Footer with secondary links & info at the bottom

Break these conventions at your own risk. You may think you’re clever or innovative, but you’ll likely confuse and frustrate visitors.

Responsive & Mobile-Friendly Design

I cannot stress this enough: In 2026, your website MUST be optimised for all screen sizes and devices. Nothing kills a mobile browsing experience like tiny text, microscopic buttons, excessive zooming/pinching required…

And I’m not just talking about looking good either – mobile users have different needs/usage patterns than desktop users, so your content prioritisation, navigational menus, CTAs, etc., all need rethinking for the small screen (or even voice!).

2. Lack of a Clear Value Proposition

Right, let’s be blunt. You’ve got five seconds. That’s the window.

When someone lands on your site, a stopwatch starts in their head. They need to know, almost instantly, three things: what is this, what’s in it for me, and what do I do next? If you can’t answer that above the fold, you’ve failed the test. They’re gone.

It’s baffling how many websites get this wrong. They’re packed with vague, corporate nonsense like “synergising future-proof solutions” or “empowering business paradigms”. It’s just hot air. It tells the visitor absolutely nothing.

People are busy, they’re impatient, and they don’t have time to decipher your marketing waffle. They’re looking for a solution to their problem, and if you don’t make it blindingly obvious that you have it, they’ll bounce straight over to a competitor who does.

The fix:

• Get a headline that’s dead simple and speaks to the result. Instead of “Revolutionising Financial Workflows,” try “Effortless Invoicing for Freelancers.” One is clear, the other is fluff.
• Use a sub-headline to explain the core benefit. For that invoicing example, something like “Create and send professional invoices in 60 seconds. Get paid faster.”
• Chuck in a few bullet points. List the top 3-4 outcomes or features. Keep them short, sharp, and focused on the user’s needs. Quick to scan, easy to digest.
• Show, don’t just tell. A good hero image or a very short video is massive. Show the software in action, or a happy customer using it. It builds trust way faster than a stock photo of people in suits smiling at a laptop.
• Have a clear, primary call-to-action. A big button that says “Start Your Free Trial” or “See Pricing” leaves no room for confusion.

3. Slow Load Times

Kudos if you managed to get someone to your website. But if it loads at a glacial pace, you just burn through all your users’ patience and goodwill before they see a single page.

Studies show a 1-second delay in page load time can hurt conversions by up to 7%. And let’s be honest, today’s ultra-connected world has turned us into impatient speed gremlins – we want stuff to be instant. If your site doesn’t load lickety-split, people will simply bounce.

To quote the great web philosopher Ricky Bobby: “If you ain’t first, you’re last!”

The fix:

• Optimise all images properly with file size and dimensions in mind
• Use a content delivery network (CDN) to reduce server delays
• Minify and compress code files such as CSS and JavaScript.
• Implement caching rules so repeat visitors load pages faster
• For massive file hogs, use lazy loading when possible

4. Illegible Text and Poor Colour Choices

Hey, designers, your fancy font choices and wild colour combinations may look cool, but you’re doing it wrong if they impair legibility and scannability.

Tiny text, poor colour contrasts, glossy text effects, and walls of unbroken text all make your content extremely difficult and unpleasant to read. And if your visitors can’t easily read your content, you can kiss engagement and conversions goodbye.

The fix:

• Stick to standard, clean fonts for body text and headers (no crazy novelty fonts!)
• Use generous line heights of 1.5-2x the font size
• Ensure high contrast between text and background colours
• Break up long stretches of text with Headers, spacing, images, etc.
• Don’t be afraid of slightly larger font sizes on desktop (16px body is the new standard)

5. Lack of Visual Hierarchy

As mentioned, an excellent visual hierarchy guides visitors through your content in and purposeful, logical way. It creates a clear sense of prioritisation and order.

You lose that hierarchy and flow if all your elements look the same size, importance, colour, etc. This makes your content feel scattered and disjointed, like a bad PowerPoint presentation. Use familiar visual cues like:

• Large vs small text sizes
• Bold and light fonts
• Colours (but only a few!)
• Spacing and containers
• Numbered lists or steps

The fix:

• Establish a strict typographic scale with planned header sizes
• Use proximity and whitespace to group related elements
• Leverage colours intentionally to show hierarchy and relationships
• Use contrasting background colours or borders to make elements pop

Scannable Content is King

Speaking of visual flow, you must accept that humans don’t read webpage content linearly or word-for-word like a book. We scan, picking out individual words, sections, and sentences.

Your content needs to be organised and formatted for this kind of scanning behaviour with the following:

• Pithy section headers and sub-headers
• Bulleted and numbered lists
• Short paragraphs and sentences
• Highlighted keywords or calls-to-action
• Meaningful images or icons to break up text

6. Terrible Navigation and Unclear CTAs

The navigational system is the central nervous system of your website. It’s how people get around and access different pages and content sections. You’ll lose visitors quickly if it’s cluttered, disorganised, or confusing.

The fix:

• Keep your primary nav simple and limited to just 5-7 main categories or sections
• Research everyday user tasks and behaviours to drive the nav structure
• Use clear, descriptive link text based on the user’s language
• Use proper visual signifiers such as hover effects, active states, etc.
• Provide secondary nav, breadcrumbs, filters, and search as helpers
• Be consistent! The same link label appears in multiple places and points to the same destination.

And while we’re on the topic, always make it clear to users how to take the next step with prominent, unmissable calls to action (CTAs).

Button text should be clear and concise, leaving no guesswork. “Submit” or “Download” is way better than vague text like “Click Here”. Additionally, your CTAs must follow visual conventions such as contrasting colours, hover effects, and proper spacing.

Mobile Nav Deserves Special Attention

Make sure your mobile nav menus and interactions are equally dialled in. Tapping tiny hamburger icons and wrestling with clunky dropdowns on the phone is a massive pain.

Some mobile nav best practices:

• Use a mix of navigation patterns like tabs, hamburger menus, and bottom bars
• Design ample spacing and tap target sizes for fingers
• Ensure primary and secondary navs are easily accessible
• Stick to simple gestures like tapping and scrolling
• Hide the nav behind a menu if needed to maximise screen real estate

7. Overuse of Distracting Animations and Transitions

Subtle, purposeful animation can be an effective tool in web design. It can guide users through processes, provide feedback, and make things delightful and polished.

However, going overboard turns your website into an obnoxious carnival sideshow. We’re looking at you, loading spinners that never stop spinning and infinitely looping background videos!

Too much movement is visually fatiguing and can make your content difficult to read and interact with. Even worse, lots of parallax scrolling, auto-playing videos, and other intense effects can utterly murder performance on lower-spec devices.

The fix:

• Use animation deliberately and sparingly as a supportive tool
• Ensure animations are fast, lightweight, and performant
• Stick to subtle effects like fades, slides, and scaling transformations
• Never auto-play video or audio! Give users control.
• Avoid infinite or perpetual loading/progress animations.

8. Intrusive Pop-ups and Interstitials

Honestly, who thought these were a good idea? You land on a site for the first time, and before the page has even finished loading, BAM! A massive pop-up appears, begging for your email address.

It’s the digital version of a pushy salesperson jumping on you the second you step into the shop. It doesn’t build a relationship; it just creates immediate annoyance.

Even worse are those full-page ads, the “interstitials,” especially on mobile. You’re trying to read an article, and the whole screen is hijacked. Now you’re squinting, trying to find the tiny ‘x’ to close the damn thing. It’s a horrible experience.

And here’s the kicker: it’s not just you who hates it. Google hates it too. Since 2017, they have actively penalised sites that use intrusive interstitials in mobile search results. So that desperate grab for a newsletter subscriber isn’t just irritating your visitors; it’s actively damaging your SEO.

The fix:

• If you must use a pop-up, use an exit-intent one. This only triggers when the user’s cursor moves to leave the page. It’s a polite, “hey, before you go…” rather than an obnoxious “HELLO!” in their face.
• Think about less intrusive formats. A slide-in banner from the bottom corner or a small notification bar at the top of the page gets the message across without blocking the content.
• Make closing it a doddle. Don’t hide the close button or use faint grey text on a white background. A big, clear ‘x’ is all you need. Respect their choice to say no.
• Give them some breathing room. Set your pop-up to appear only after a visitor has been on the site for, say, 30 seconds, or has scrolled 50% down the page. Let them decide if they like your stuff first.

9. Non-Existent Flexibility and Extensibility

It’s shocking how many websites show zero thought for future scalability or adaptability. What happens when you need to add more pages, content types, or functionality down the road? If your site wasn’t built with flexibility and extensibility as core principles, you’ll likely have to rebuild everything from scratch. What a nightmare!

The fix:

• Build your site’s front end using a styling architecture or methodology like BEM, OOCSS, SMACSS, etc.
• Establish a robust pattern library and UI component system
• Make liberal use of UI kits, style guides, and design systems
• Develop a modern, modular CSS & JS codebase with reusability in mind
• Use a flexible, data-driven content management system (CMS)
• Adopt an iterative development process with scalability testing

Even if your website is basic now, plan ahead to ensure it can evolve and grow quickly with your business’s needs.

Maintaining Code is Equally Important

Do you know what else often gets overlooked? The long-term maintainability and organisation of a website’s codebase (HTML, CSS, JS, etc.).

Haphazard, bloated, undocumented code that multiple devs have hacked together over the years is pure misery to update or build on later. Consistent naming conventions, separation of concerns, code comments, and overall architectural planning are crucial.

Performance testing, browser compatibility checking, and code validation at every stage are equally vital – not just an afterthought. Nothing’s more frustrating than dealing with cross-browser bugs or efficiency issues way after the fact.

10. Accessibility? What’s That?

I have two words for you: accessibility and inclusivity. Did you even test your colour choices, typography, animations, media, etc, to make sure they’re usable by people with disabilities? Or did you just assume everything would be hunky-dory?

Making a website accessible to individuals with visual, auditory, motor or cognitive impairments isn’t only good ethics – it’s also good business. Over one billion people worldwide have some form of disability; that’s a potential market of that magnitude.

What should be done:

1. Design with accessibility standards such as WCAG in mind right from the beginning
2. Ensure sufficient colour contrast for text, buttons, and other elements.
3. Provide alternative text for images and transcripts for audio/video.
4. Allow all functionality to be operated via keyboard.
5. Support assistive technologies like screen readers
6. Test rigorously with actual users of all abilities

So, instead of treating accessibility as an afterthought, prioritise it from the start, and you’ll create a better experience for everyone involved.

11. Bloated Page Sizes and Unnecessary Requests

How many HTTP requests and MB of data does your website’s homepage need to load fully? If you don’t know, you’ve got a problem. Excessive page weights absolutely murder load times, especially on lower-bandwidth mobile connections.

Why does a simple blog post need 37 different JS, CSS, font, and image file requests weighing 5MB+? All that excessive resource usage and render-blocking code are just wasting precious time.

The fix:

• Compress and minify all code files (HTML, CSS, JS)
• Concatenate multiple script files together into a single request
• Optimise and appropriately size images for various screen densities
• Subset or delay loading of web fonts to unblock rendering
• Use a content delivery network (CDN) for faster file transfer times
• Implement lazy loading for off-screen images and assets
• Run your site through tools like WebPageTest.org to find opportunities

Your goal should be to trim your site to the leanest, most critical code and assets needed to provide a flawless initial viewport load. Then, you can progressively load any additional functionality or content.

12. Broken Links and 404 Pages

A few things are more frustrating for a website visitor than clicking a link only to land on a 404 “Page Not Found” error. It instantly destroys trust and confidence in the website and company. Why would anyone want to stick around after that kind of a letdown?

The fix:

• Regularly audit all internal and external links for 404 errors
• Use a link checker tool or browser extension for automated testing
• Set up proper 301 redirects for any changed page URLs
• Create a helpful, user-friendly 404 page with:
  • Clear error messaging
  • Search functionality
  • Navigation to get back on track
  • Links to popular or relevant content

And hey, even your 404 page is a branding opportunity! Inject humour, illustrations, or delight in softening the blow of a dead end.

What About the Reverse? 404 When a Page Should Exist

While we’re on 404s, here’s a pro tip: Monitor your website’s analytics and error logs for instances where a page actually throws a 404. These could be cases of:

• Incorrect redirects or rewritten URLs
• Bugs in your routing or server-side code
• Search engine bots are hitting non-existent pages

In these cases, you need to fix the underlying code issue to ensure legitimate pages return the proper 200 “OK” HTTP status code. No one likes a ghost page!

13. Lack of Interactivity and Engagement

In 2026, a current website has to do more than just act as a digital brochure. People today expect an interactive experience that is rich and memorable enough to hold their attention while enabling them to access the required information easily.

A “contact us” form only scratches the surface; you need to be using:

• Chatbots or messaging widgets
• Dynamic FAQ or knowledge-base search
• Hover effects, accordions, and other micro-interactions
• Calculators, quizzes, surveys, and data tools
• Comment and discussion functionality
• Augmented reality (AR), virtual reality (VR), and voice interaction

14. Ignoring Search Engine Optimisation (SEO)

Unless your website is solely an internal tool or native mobile app, you must optimise for organic search engine visibility and rankings. Why spend all that time, money, and effort creating an excellent site that no one can discover and access?

I won’t dive deep into technical SEO factors like site architecture, link building, structured data, etc. Just know that if you completely disregard SEO best practices, your site’s traffic potential is severely limited.

Don’t Neglect Core Web Vitals

SEO isn’t just about keywords anymore, mate. Google’s a lot smarter now. It actually measures whether your site is a pleasure to use or a complete pain in the neck.

This is where Core Web Vitals come in. Think of them as Google’s official user experience report card, and yes, it directly affects your ranking.

There are three main bits to it. First is Largest Contentful Paint (LCP), which is just a fancy way of saying “how fast does the most important stuff load?” Then there’s Interaction to Next Paint (INP). This one measures how quickly your page reacts when someone clicks or taps something.

It replaced an older metric in March 2024 because it’s a much better gauge of real-world responsiveness. Finally, you’ve got Cumulative Layout Shift (CLS), which checks if stuff jumps around on the page while it’s loading.

You know, when you go to tap a button and an ad loads in its place? That’s bad CLS, and it drives people mad. Get these wrong, and Google will notice.

Some quick SEO tips to follow:

• Implement a keyword strategy with thorough keyword research
• Use descriptive, keyword-rich page titles and meta descriptions
• Optimise copy with proper header tags, keyword density, and semantic HTML
• Audit and improve your Core Web Vitals scores using tools like Google PageSpeed Insights
• Ensure images and ad slots have defined dimensions to prevent layout shifts (improving CLS)
• Build an XML sitemap and submit it to search engines
• Focus on mobile page speed and responsiveness
• Generate high-quality backlinks through guest posting, directory submissions, and other methods.

You must help search engines quickly discover, crawl, render, and understand your website’s content and structure. That’s the only way to maximise organic visibility.

15. Lacklustre Performance Testing and Monitoring

I already touched on performance factors, such as page weight optimisation, earlier. But even if you follow all those best practices for front-end performance, your site could still suffer from poor stability and uptime due to issues on the server side.

Things like inadequate hosting resources, lack of caching rules, unoptimised databases, inefficient back-end code, and failure to detect traffic surges can all lead to dreadfully slow page loads or complete outages. And we all know even the slightest hiccup can devastate sales, marketing efforts, and overall user experience.

The fix:

• Invest in quality hosting with sufficient computing power and CDNs
• Implement caching systems, load balancing, and database optimisation
• Use monitoring tools to track metrics like availability, response time, and throughput
• Set up alerts for potential traffic spikes or impending bottlenecks
• Have rollback and failover plans in place if issues do occur
• Regularly audit server configs and back-end code for inefficiencies

16. Ignoring Basic Security Protocols

While design and user experience rank high on web designers’ priority lists, security must be addressed. Cyber-attacks can bring even the most reputable sites down within seconds, damaging brand trust beyond repair.

From encrypting transmitted and stored sensitive user information to preventing injection attacks and cross-site scripting vulnerabilities, there are many potential avenues for security breaches.

The Solution:

1. Use the HTTPS protocol for every page, not only those that contain sensitive details.
2. Adopt strong password policies backed by two-factor authentication methods
3. Keep software up-to-date with the latest patches released by vendors regarding security issues
4. Acquire services from a web application firewall provider as well as a DDoS protection service supplier
5. Ensure that all user inputs are validated and sanitised on the server-side code before further processing is done with them
6. Apply file permission based on the least privilege principle, i.e., only grant the ecessary permissions needed for each specific task performed by certain files within your site’s structure
7. Create an incident response plan to be activated when things go wrong, such as detecting malware or unauthorised access attempts to critical systems that hold important data about clients/customers/partners/vendors, etc.

17. Disregarding Legal and Privacy Compliance

Look, I get it. This is the boring bit. Legal compliance and privacy policies don’t get the pulse racing like a slick new design.

But listen up, because ignoring this is like building a beautiful house on a foundation of dynamite. It’s only a matter of time before it blows up in your face.

Regulations like the GDPR in Europe and the CCPA in California aren’t just for massive corporations; they apply to almost anyone with a website that gets visitors from those places. The fines for getting it wrong are eye-watering.

We’re talking potentially millions, or a percentage of your global turnover. All because you couldn’t be bothered with a proper cookie banner or a clear privacy policy. Common mistakes are everywhere: banners that use “dark patterns” to trick you into accepting, pre-ticked consent boxes, and policies written in impenetrable legalese. This isn’t just bad practice; it’s against the law.

The Solution:

1. Implement a proper cookie consent banner. It must give users a clear and easy choice to accept or reject non-essential cookies. No “accept all” button without an equally easy “reject all”.
2. Write a privacy policy for actual humans. Use simple language. Clearly state what data you collect, why you collect it, how you use it, and who you share it with.
3. Get explicit consent on your forms. If you’re going to send someone marketing emails, you need an unchecked checkbox they have to actively tick to opt in.
4. Practise data minimisation. This is a core principle of GDPR. Only collect the data you absolutely need for a specific purpose. If you just need an email for a newsletter, don’t ask for their phone number and home address.
5. Make it easy for users to access or delete their data. You need a process for this. It builds trust, and it’s a legal requirement.

It shouldn’t be an afterthought – bake it in right at the beginning!

Security must be taken seriously and incorporated at every stage of the website-building process, from architectural design to actual coding practices during development, lest one invite attackers through wide-open doors.

18. Treating Mobile as an Afterthought or Separate Experience

In 2026, treating mobile as a separate, disconnected experience from the desktop is entirely outmoded. While better than separate mobile URLs, responsive design still has limitations in providing a truly optimised experience.

Your website needs to be built from the ground up as a unified, platform-agnostic digital product that works flawlessly across devices, input methods, and browsing contexts. This means:

• Adopting a design philosophy like atomic design or utility-first CSS
• Using a modern front-end stack like React, Vue, or Web Components
• Supporting mobile-first interactions like swiping, gestures, and voice
• Dynamic serving of assets tailored to each device’s capabilities
• Unified, responsive layout engines for seamless experiences

The days of browser detection and device-specific code are over. Your codebase and architecture should enable an intelligent, adaptable front-end tailored to each use case.

Wrapping Up

Then, here are 18 typical traps and anti-patterns that can quickly destroy an otherwise excellent website. The main point is that great web design must be total, deliberate, and forward-looking throughout every phase.

From initial sketches and information architecture to final front-end and back-end implementation, you must always consider usability, performance, flexibility (and future scalability). Aesthetics must be balanced with interactivity, which in turn must be balanced with marketing requirements, SEO, and technical considerations.

Any of these components ignored will lead to significant suffering for your site, even if it’s beautiful at first glance. User experience is holistic.

Therefore, I would recommend going through this list with your website in mind; there’s bound to be something you can improve, no matter how established the product may seem from the outside.

Better safe than sorry when dealing with anything related to web design or development, so good luck!

FAQs on Common Mistakes in Web Design