After recently launching the RA Project re-design, I laid out the design decisions that annoy readers. Due to the awesome feedback, I am going to lay out several more design decisions that annoy readers.

Snap Preview Pop-ups

I have nothing against Ajay D’souza (I highly respect him in fact), but he made it very easy for WordPress bloggers to add Snap Shots to their blogs. The feature is annoying for several reasons:

• Readers had no choice in the matter. Now a reader can opt-out. Opting out still sucks, however.
• Snap Shots are obtrusive.
• Snap Shots are arguably unnecessary. What is the value of knowing what a blogger’s site looks like anyway?

MT laid out his opinion on Snap Preview:

The Snap preview popup is one of those ideas that sounds good, but is very annoying in practice. I’d rather a small option to see the preview popped up. Read the full comment.

Auto-Play Music

May all MySpace users who have music be sent to a special place in hell. Okay, maybe that’s a little harsh. MySpace users don’t really know any better, right?

However, a serious website owner should know that readers should have a choice in the matter whether music plays on a site or not.

Not only do you have people browsing from work, but you also have people who aren’t very technical who can be really confused when the music starts blaring. Music on a website should be an opt-in affair.

Sephyroth makes a good point regarding music:

The most annoying thing that happens when you go to a page is when it plays music at you. Not only does it slow the page down, if you’re not aware of it, you’ll wind up getting blasted out of your chair. Read the full comment.

Talking Advertisements

Congratulations. You’ve just gone to a site where there are talking advertisements. You’ve won a month supply of Viagra as well as Trojans (good combination, no?).

Too bad all of your co-workers heard what you have just won. Avoid embarrassing the readers. Do not ever let ads that “talk” onto your site.

Obtrusive Subscription Requests

You’re new here, right? Why not subscribe (sorry, couldn’t resist) to our feed?

A better phase might be, “Yo, dude… check out the feed NOW! If you don’t subscribe, I’ll keep nagging you. Even if you do subscribe, I’ll still nag you. HA!”

MT phrased it a little more elegantly:

As for examples of the subscription-nags… I keep running across blogs with big outlined boxes at the top of posts, noting that I look new, and asking me to subscribe. They just annoy me — especially since often I’m already subscribed. (I think this is due to a cookie/ip checking plugin/script, intended to show only to new readers — but I’ve got a dynamic IP, and I use Firefox (which frequently updates and resets) so I’m often getting messages intended for first time users). Read the full comment.

Hidden Subscription Options

Another thing the readers pointed out as annoying were hidden subscription options. I, myself, have personally been annoyed when I would go to a blog and couldn’t find anywhere a subscription option. I don’t like going to blogs anymore ever since I’ve discovered my lovely and handy feed reader.

If I can’t find your subscription options, guess where I go? I’ll give you a hint: It’s not back to your blog.

This is a point for debate, but I say that subscription options should be as prominent as search. It’s one of those things that readers (albeit, more technical readers) look for when coming to a blog.

Failure to Interlink Posts or Show Related Posts

MT once again weighs in:

Not making it simple to glance at other posts. A list of recent, favorite related or commented on articles in the sidebar makes me happy. Having to hunt down other posts to wander through makes me cranky. Read the full comment.

Here at RA Project, we try to provide an easy way to find posts. There’s a sitemap, related posts on the sidebar, downloads on the sidebar, and also recent and popular posts in the footer.

How do you (the reader) help readers find relevant content?

Obtrusive Advertisements

Every now and then when I browse to CNET News or Slate, I get a full-page view of an ad where I must click a “close” button to view the page content. I also get the same treatment at MySpace or RottenTomatoes when I must “continue to the page” or continue viewing the ad.

Obtrusive advertisements are detrimental to the readers. If I had my choice, I would just read CNET and Slate from a feed reader, but they don’t offer full feeds. Punks. So I’m “forced” to view these ads if I want to view the content. And it’s a wonder why sites like these are losing their popularity.

Readers should have a choice in all things and should never be forced into anything, including viewing or clicking on ads.

Vivien has a similar point of view:

Lately I stumble more and more upon websites with the dynamically flowing ads, that slide right on top of the article and stay there until you click on an obscure “close” button. That annoys a heck out of me. Read the full comment.

In-Text Advertisements

DailyBlogTips had a post that discussed avoiding in-text advertising. The reason is that readers are tricked into thinking a blogger is endorsing a product.

Andrew lays it out from a reader’s perspective:

Snap previews, in-text advertising, and those flash adverts that are all designed to interrupt you and prevent you getting to the content properly actually work against the company. If a company that is willing to shove their product in my face that way then they must have a significant amount of contempt for the customer, or at best, think their product is so poor that no one would take notice any other way. Read the full comment.

I agree with Daniel (DailyBlogTips) and Andrew that in-text advertisements should be avoided, especially since pop-up advertisements are so annoying in the first place.

Small Font Size

Simonne wrote a post a while back that explained things that make her nervous when reading your blog. Her first point was to avoid small font-sizes. In fact, her post encouraged me to increase the font-size on this blog. So why should small font sizes be avoided and why is a small font-size an annoying design decision?

Bill gives it to us from a reader’s perspective:

I realize (that small fonts) are somewhat subjective, but if one’s font size makes post text look like “fine print” compared to “most” websites - it’s too small. Read the full comment.

Small fonts are hard to read. And as Simonne pointed out in her article, not all readers are aware of the tools necessary to increase text size. Furthermore, a lot of designs break when text is increased, so it is best to design from the start with a larger font-size in mind.

Conclusion - Part 3?

I may be asking too much for a part 3, but there were many good points about annoying design decisions that the readers contributed for this article. If there is a design decision not mentioned here or in Annoying Design Decisions Part 1, please weigh in. And thank you to all of the readers who contributed to this article.

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