Many websites 'too complicated'

30/09/2008

Many companies fall into the trap of making their website design too complicated, it has been suggested.

The claim was made in an article in the International Herald Tribune, which named too much information and an over reliance on Flash as major issues.

A number of businesses risk alienating potential customers by cluttering up pages and making them too complex, Chanuki Seresinhe of Design Science Office told the newspaper.

"I don't understand why people think that putting everything on the page will attract more clicks," she said.

"It just confuses users. We're already overwhelmed with too much information."

Putting Flash animations on a site may look good but some users find it irritating, the publication added.

The website design used by department store Liberty won praise for its fusion of features and simplicity, while Google Maps was cited as a good example of a site that is easy to use.

Search engine giant Yahoo recently announced plans to redesign its homepage in order to enable users to personalise it.