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The designing of a website should always be done keeping in view the perspective of users. It is one of the key UX principles that stands valid for all types of websites. If the user experience of any website isn’t up to the mark, then its chances of holding incoming attention are said to be very minimal. It is therefore advised to design websites carefully and avoid mistakes that are detrimental to their layout. There are a few specific things that often ruin the user experience of a website. These mistakes should be strictly avoided so that you can build a user-centric web design effectively.

In this blog, we will point out all those things that can negatively affect the user experience of your website. By keeping these things in mind, you will be able to design websites that are visually appealing having zero UI/UX errors. Let’s take a look at them in detail below. 

Key Mistakes that Affect the Website’s User Experience  

There are some specific things that often bring a negative impact on the user experience of a website. Due to not being overly prominent, they aren’t noticed by web designers most of the time. If you don’t want to ruin the experience of your website due to these mistakes, pay attention to the points defined below.  

Disappearing Menus

Dropdown menus that disappear quickly often make people frustrated. This usually happens when your cursor quickly hovers in and out from the dropdown menu. Feature like this should be avoided in the web design, because people want to see the whole menu options briefly. If they keep seeing the menu disappearing frequently, they will become irritated and might leave the website quickly. 

So, try to create dropdown menus for the website with better response time. These menus should also display sub-page names clearly, so that people can easily understand all the options defined in the menu. 

Slow Loading Images

When a user comes on to a website, he generally wants to see everything on the landing page quickly. This is a normal experience that should be provided to the people who are visiting the website to get some information. If somehow, the images on the landing page will take time to load, then visitors will perceive it as a slow-loading website. This will create a bad impression that will force people to leave the website. 

The problem of slow image loading can happen due to a variety of reasons. It is best recommended to find those fixes quickly, so that people can stay on your website for a brief period of time. 

Irritating Pop-ups

Using pop-ups on the main landing page is a good strategy to showcase your core offerings to the visitors. But, if these pop-ups keep appearing on every page, then they become a bit irritating for the people. It is therefore recommended to strike a balance while using pop-ups on the website, because no one wants to see sudden promotional alerts on every page. 

When using pop-ups on the website, make sure to design their banners creatively. You can use different shades of blue or any other color to design these banners, keeping in view the core theme and branding identity of your company.  

Unwanted Advertisements

When a user comes on to a website, he wants to explore every required information smoothly. While scrolling down, if he sees any irrelevant advertisement displayed in the middle of the page, then his attention will be quickly distracted. It can build a negative impression of the website in his mind, which will force him to leave the website in frustration. 

So, always try to keep your website clean and free from all sorts of irrelevant advertisements. They can not only distract the visitors’ attention but could also spoil your web content flow pretty badly.

Broken Links

If someone is coming to your website to find a specific set of information, make sure to facilitate him properly with the right info that can become useful for him. Creating your website with proper internal links is termed very important in this regard. Always make sure to check these links from time to time, so that it can be confirmed that they are working properly. 

Websites with broken or invalid links always present a bad impression of the overall platform. It irritates people when they click on the broken links, as they don’t perform any kind of action. So, keep a practice of checking your links regularly, as that will allow you to fix broken links timely. 

Non-responsive Layout

Due to the convenience and flexibility, many people prefer to use smartphones instead of desktops to surf the internet. This is the core reason why many websites are continuously witnessing surging traffic from mobile devices. To manage such traffic on your website, you need to create a responsive layout that can facilitate the mobile app user experience. 

If your website is built with a non-responsive layout, then it will lose a huge chunk of traffic that is coming from the mobile channel. So, try to create a responsive layout for your website, as that will make your platform accessible to everyone. 

Broken Search Bar

Another thing that presents a bad image of the website is a broken search bar. Whenever a user wants to search for anything on the website, he always heads over to the search bar. If that search bar is broken and unable to process queries, then people will immediately leave the website. They get the impression that the website does not have the relevant information, and hence it is pretty useless.

To avoid having such a situation, try to regularly check the working status of the search bar. It should always work properly as per the best practices. The time to process such requests should also be monitored smartly so that users won’t have to wait to see the required results.   

Continuous Scrolling

It is generally noted that websites with precise and to-the-point information always score more conversions. People these days don’t want to waste time reading irrelevant content. They need crisp and accurate information, one that could drive their final decisions. If they have to scroll a lot more on the website to find specific information, they will certainly feel annoyed after some time. 

This is a small but important point that is often ignored by web design companies. They need to understand that too much scrolling on the webpage only ruins the user experience. This thing should be precisely avoided by keeping the page small with to-the-point user-centric information.

Excessive Call to Actions 

If you place too many call to actions on your website, it will confuse the visitors. This is one of those mistakes that often increases the bounce rate of a website. It makes the visitors confused about where they should click next because there are a lot of CTA banners being displayed on the website.

Ideally, a website should have one big call-to-action banner describing the trending promotion or discount offer. It makes the decision-making process simple, giving visitors exact knowledge of where they should go next to find the required information.   

Final Words

That brings us to the end of this blog in which we have discussed different factors that ruin the user experience of a website. Having a clear understanding of these things is pretty important because they often break the overall impression of the platform. It is best recommended to avoid these mistakes by designing the website with the right UX strategy. These little mistakes can cause a lot of harm to your website, so always make sure to address them correctly by working with the correct layout optimization methods.

Featured image by macrovector on Freepik

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“I Have a Dream….”

A line familiar to many, taken from a famous speech by Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Taken from Dr. King’s famous “March on Washington” address on August 28, 1963, this phrase has become iconic with people looking for a better, brighter, and more tolerant future. 

Although seemingly an insignificant collection of words, this phrase and the speech it was used in have been a driving force behind those campaigning for freedom and fundamental human rights. Words can be a powerful driving force, and as a business owner, a CEO, or a manager, you too need to find the right words that motivate and boost your employees’ morale. 

A good leader knows how to inspire their followers using the power of words. and what better way to do that, than through a strong speech that inspires action? Using a mix of proper structuring and planning, hard-hitting content, and eloquent delivery, you can guarantee that your next speech will influence your audience to act the way you desire. 

The Three W’s to Writing a Great Inspirational Speech

When answering the question “How to write a speech?”, the first step is to study the three W’s – why, who, and what. Once you find the answer to these questions, it’ll help you develop a speech that will resonate with your listeners. 

Each of these three W’s, asks a few questions designed to help us figure out:

WHY?

• Why am I writing this speech?
• Why will my followers listen to my speech?

WHO?

• Who is my ideal audience?
• Who will I be representing on the dais?

WHAT?

• What message is my speech meant to portray?
• What would my listeners like and expect to hear in my speech?

The questions listed above cover the most important aspects required for a leader to write a speech that connects with their followers. 

Writing a Speech That Inspires Your Followers

Writing an effective speech as a leader is about two factors – making sure that the audience remembers the key points of your address, and that your words motivate them into working towards your expected action. Essentially, it is your job as a leader to ensure that your speech is exciting and structured well enough to keep the listener’s attention. 

Let’s look at a few ways you can influence your listeners and inspire them through your speech. 

1. Find Out What Attracts Your Listeners

To understand what attracts your listeners, you need to discover their likes and dislikes. A good motivational or inspirational speech informs, educates, and, most importantly, influences its audience. If you cannot fulfill these needs, you will fail to connect with your audience. 

To create a strong copy for your speech, you need to find out what speaks to your audience. To do that, you need to understand your audience’s personality and write your speech accordingly.

Moreover, it would help if you found out where and how your speech will be shared online to structure your content in a way that will help you connect with all your audience. 

2. Use Stories to Drive Your Message Home

Audiences today are easily distracted due to a short attention span averaging 8 seconds. Raw data and facts tend to confuse them, which quickly turns to boredom. It results in your listeners missing the point of your speech, wasting both their and your valuable time. As someone looking to inspire, having little to no impact on your address is something you want to avoid at all costs.

To make your speech engaging, use stories and anecdotes. This will help your audience remember a large portion of that information, as the stories help them relate to the speech better. In fact, a few motivational speakers and business coaches guide their followers with personal stories and anecdotes. 

To find good stories to drive your points home, talk to your followers and observe them learn stories that can help you convey your message more effectively. Tony Robbins and Gary Vaynerchuk are great personal branding examples who have built a brand around helping people through their life experiences. 

3. Structure Your Content Appropriately

A speech is quite different from an article or an essay. Unlike a report, the most critical sections in a speech are the beginning and the end. These two sections of a speech are those where your audience pays the most attention. So if you want to leave your audience with some key takeaways, this is where they need to go. 

Moreover, speech focuses on the natural flow of language. So while you still need to be careful about the grammar and syntax of your content in an address, you can be a little versatile in structuring your speech according to your oratory style or the level of passion required for the topic. 

Short sentences, everyday phrases and words, and easy-to-follow flow are the hallmarks of good speech. Studies suggest that a speechwriter needs to dedicate at least 70% of their time writing and structuring their content to ensure that the audience likes it. 

4. Ensure That the Speech Embodies Your Passion

An inspirational speech that motivates your followers into action is all about passion. Your audience will quickly pick up on the energy you exude during the speech, and will respond accordingly. If your words lack passion, then you cannot expect the audience to respond to them. 

Speak from the heart using simple words, add personal touches like your life stories to connect with the audience, and connect with your audience on a personal level. This will humanize you and the issue you are defending and make them more sympathetic to your perspective. 

5. Keep Your Speech Short and To-the-point

A good speech that makes an impact is short and goes straight to the point. It ensures that your audience remembers the majority of what you say, thus maximizing the impact and efficiency of your words. 

An average speech uses short phrases and relies on passion and strategic pauses to get its point across. Essentially, this can be one of the most challenging tasks, as you need to portray your point sufficiently while being concise. 

To eliminate filler content from your speech, you need to be your own harshest critic. You need to eliminate everything that doesn’t add value to the message of the address to reduce the bulk of irrelevant content that a listener might be exposed to. 

Giving Your Speech

No matter how great a speech you write, it’ll only have the intended impact if you deliver it properly. The first thing to do to ensure a good delivery is to practice, practice, practice. This will help you remember the focal points of your speech, which will aid you in conveying those points successfully—moreover, this way, you will need to consult your notes sparingly, boosting your speech’s authority. 

Secondly, deliver your speech in front of a mirror to know your body language. Visual cues are essential in helping a listener pay attention. If you give a powerful speech, yet your body language is one of nervousness and confusion, then the audience will be able to pick up on that, and your message would not make the impact you intended. 

Many people today are scared of speaking in front of an audience. But if you focus on the two tips above, you will focus on delivering your message without worrying about what the audience thinks of you. 

Other Duties as a Leader

Remember, as a leader, you will be required to speak at various events. Your employees may ask you to speak at their weddings, or you may be asked to speak at a funeral. If you follow the simple guidelines listed above, you will be able to adapt them to all manners of speech. 

All you would need to do is look up what goes into that specific speech. There are many inspirational addresses, wedding toasts, and eulogy examples available online, which will help you understand the structure.

Ready to Deliver Your Speech?

Before you start writing your speech to inspire your employees, we suggest listening to some of the best orators from history, such as Dr. King, John F. Kennedy, and others like them. Besides being efficient speakers, they were highly effective leaders who inspired and motivated hundreds of thousands to millions of people. Doing so will help you understand how to capture your audience’s attention and get them to act the way you want, an essential skill for any business leader.

Featued Image by Unseen Histories on Unsplash

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