By John Eberhard
Web design is a little like cooking. When done well, it’s delightful, intuitive, and leaves people wanting more. When done poorly, visitors take one look, quietly back away, and vow never to return. Unfortunately, many websites still fall victim to the same classic mistakes—mistakes so common they might as well be carved into stone tablets brought down from the mountains.
Enter: The Seven Deadly Sins of Web Design. If your site is committing any of these, don’t panic. Redemption is possible. But first, let’s confess.
- Pride: “Look What We Built!”
Pride in web design shows up when a site is more impressed with itself than its visitors are.
This is the website that opens with a full-screen animation, a dramatic slogan, and zero explanation of what the company actually does. The navigation is “creative,” meaning no one can find it. The copy is vague but poetic. The designer is thrilled. The user is confused, and leaves – fast.
A proud website prioritizes cleverness over clarity. But here’s the hard truth: users don’t care how smart your site is. They care whether it answers their question in five seconds or less.
Cure: Clarity beats clever every time. Say what you do. Say who it’s for. Say it fast.
- Greed: “Click Everything!”
Greed shows up as too many calls to action competing for attention.
“Book a Call.”
“Download the Guide.”
“Subscribe to Our Newsletter.”
“Watch the Video.”
“Chat With Us.”
“Follow Us on Social.”
All on the same screen. All flashing. All desperate.
Instead of guiding users, greedy websites overwhelm them. When everything is important, nothing is.
Cure: Decide the one thing you want visitors to do on each page, and design around that goal.
- Lust: “But It Looks So Cool”
Lust is when aesthetics overpower usability.
Yes, that ultra-thin font looks elegant. But, no one can read it.
Yes, that pale gray text on a white background is “modern.” But, it’s not accessible.
Yes, that experimental layout is unique. But, users don’t understand it.
Design trends come and go. Usability sticks around.
Cure: Make it beautiful and readable. Form should support function (i.e. usability), not sabotage it.
- Envy: “Our Competitor Has This…”
Envy-driven web design happens when decisions are made by copying competitors instead of understanding users.
Your rival has a video hero section? You need one too.
They’re using parallax scrolling? You should as well.
They launched a chatbot? Guess you’re getting a chatbot.
But what works for one business doesn’t automatically work for yours. It might. But blind imitation leads to bloated, unfocused sites that try to be everything to everyone.
Cure: Design based on your audience’s needs, not your competitor’s features.
- Gluttony: “More Content Is Better, Right?”
Gluttony is content overload.
Walls of text. Endless dropdown menus. Ten service pages that say roughly the same thing. A homepage that scrolls for three miles and still hasn’t made its point. Or makes over a dozen points.
Visitors don’t want more content. They want the right content, served efficiently.
Cure: Edit ruthlessly. If a paragraph doesn’t help users understand, decide, or act—cut it.
- Wrath: “Let’s Make Them Wait”
Wrath shows up in slow load times, heavy images, excessive scripts, and features no one asked for.
Nothing sparks rage (or abandonment) like a website that takes forever to load, especially on mobile. Add in pop-ups that appear before content loads, and you’ve created a perfect storm of user frustration.
Google notices this too, by the way. Slow sites don’t just annoy users—they rank worse.
Cure: Optimize images, simplify features, and remember that speed is an important part of user experience.
- Sloth: A Website Last Updated During the Nixon Administration (Yes, We Know That Was Actually Before the Internet)
Sloth is when a website is put up, then just ignored. No regular updates. No regular blog posts. No checking to see if any of the links are broken. No putting up new images or videos. No updated staff bios.
Such lazy lack of maintenance or love will result in lack of love or interest from visitors. They can feel your stupor and they end up sharing your lack of interest.
Cure: Maintain the site with regular updates, regular new content, and a new design every two years or so.
Final Confession
The truth is, most websites commit at least one of these sins. And that’s okay. Web design isn’t about perfection: it’s about speed, testing, and improvement.
A great website doesn’t show off. It serves. It guides. It respects the user’s time, attention, and intelligence.
Avoid the sins, embrace simplicity, and your website will do what it’s supposed to do: attract visitors, keep them engaged, and quietly convert them. No divine intervention required.
If you’d like a free website analysis, call Real Web Marketing at 661-441-2429, or fill out a form here.
