"Super Sins of website design
Ignoring the customers' eye view
Many businesses make their first mistake by not acknowledging what the website's purpose before starting the design process. The main aim of most businesses' websites is to assist their customers. A business' website that has not been designed with the customer in mind is bad one.
Websites that take visitors more than five seconds to catch the reader's attention are not destined for success. Browsers typically give a page of few short seconds before moving on to the next website, so it is important to avoid putting them off at first glance." - advice on the Wessex Business Link web site
This is so sloppy that it could be used as a sample text for correction to train proofreaders or EFL students. What were they thinking of? Missing or mistaken words, scattergun punctuation and a particularly creative approach to plurals and apostrophes (Lynne Truss would love this!).
Not to mention that you have to read it several times to work out what they are on about: visitors/readers; browsers = programs or people?
The last sentence is especially ironic, as that is exactly what this poor text did: put me off at first glance.
18/02/07 @ 22:39