10 newbie misconceptions in web design?

Community
1

After revisiting Jakob Nielsen’s “10 mistakes in web design”. I was hoping the Sitepoint community could enlighten me on any other common mistakes or misconceptions that beginning designer/developers run into. Industry language, markup, portfolio’s, history of the internet, ect.

My vantage point is that of a beginner with hopes of an entry level/temp position by the years end.

2

Here are some of my favourite myths:

  • web design is easy
  • web design means making pretty graphics
  • web design naturally utilises the right hemisphere disproportionately to the left
  • the web is a brochure and thus free to be designed
  • design can be made to fit the user
  • content is irrelevant
  • coding has nothing to do with the “design” part of a website
3

Here’s 10 more myths debunked:

  • XHTML is NOT better than HTML, in fact most people abuse XHTML.
  • Web design is not graphic design, you don’t need photoshop to work.
  • Using a social network purely to promote your own stuff IS spam.
  • You don’t need a lawyer to draw up web contacts, most people write their own.
  • JavaScript is not a requirement in a website, you should never depend on it.
  • Disabilities are not limited to physical problems, your visitors needs are paramount.
  • Content is king, a pretty website is NOT more important than well written content.
  • Using a WYSIWYG (visual) editor is not a substitute to a paid professional.
  • Single page designs are neither better or worse than multi-page designs.
  • Following the specifications does make a difference, and more than one at that.
4

thanks for the feedback.

In my short time learning to build sites I have already experienced a few of these mentioned.

I once ran across a great one page design for a small walkup restaurant in NYC. As someone who uses restaurant sites regularly at work (hospitality industry), it was very refreshing to have all the needed content on a one page site. For some reason several restaurants seems to bury their hours of operation or phone# in various locations on there sites- about, home, contact, info.

At the same hotel our splash page to connect to the internet is a great example of one page content overload. they tried to fit so much information about there brand on this one page that no one reads it. We get several calls every day asking how to get online due to poor design. I would think, a simple giant access button “connect to internet” and a one to two sentence add would be much more effective.

I’m sure the client thought captive audience rather than user experience. Another lesson for me on the value of simplicity.