Most website problems aren’t caused by a bad overall concept — they’re caused by a collection of small decisions that weren’t thought through carefully enough. The typography is slightly off. The navigation is one click too deep. A button doesn’t look clickable. The mobile layout breaks at a specific screen width. Individually, none of these things kills a site. Together, they erode trust and send people away.
The good news is that the same principle works in reverse. Small, deliberate improvements compound. Here are the areas where relatively minor changes tend to have the biggest impact on how a site looks, feels, and performs.
Typography and visual hierarchy
Visitors don’t read websites — they scan them. Within a few seconds of landing on a page, a user has already formed an impression based almost entirely on visual structure. Typography does most of the heavy lifting here.
A clear hierarchy — a strong H1, distinct H2s, body text at a comfortable reading size, and generous line height — makes content feel approachable before a single word has been processed. Conversely, a page where every element is roughly the same size and weight forces the eye to work, and most visitors won’t bother.
- Limit your typeface selection to two fonts maximum — one for headings, one for body
- Body text should be at least 16px, with a line height of 1.6–1.8
- Use weight and size to signal importance, not colour alone
- Ensure sufficient contrast between text and background — WCAG AA requires a 4.5:1 ratio
Microinteractions and feedback
Every time a user does something on your site — hovers over a link, submits a form, clicks a button — they expect a response. Microinteractions are the small animations and state changes that provide that feedback. A button that visually depresses on click. A form field that highlights when active. A confirmation message that appears immediately after submission.
When these are absent, users are left uncertain — did that click register? Is something loading? Did the form go through? Uncertainty leads to repeated clicks, frustration, and ultimately, abandonment. Getting microinteractions right is one of the lowest-effort, highest-impact improvements available on most sites.
Mobile usability
Designing for desktop and adapting for mobile is the wrong order of operations. Most UK users encounter your site first on a phone, and a layout that works beautifully at 1440px can be completely unusable at 390px if it hasn’t been properly considered.
The most common mobile problems are easy to fix once identified: tap targets that are too small (anything under 44×44px is a problem), text that requires horizontal scrolling, images that overflow their containers, and forms with fields too close together to tap accurately. A properly responsive site doesn’t just reflow content — it rethinks the layout for the context in which it’s being used.
A user who can’t quickly find what they came for will leave. Website navigation should require the minimum number of clicks to reach any destination, and the labels should be immediately understandable — not clever, not brand-specific jargon, just clear.
Common navigation mistakes that are easy to fix:
- Dropdown menus with too many items — consider grouping or a dedicated page instead
- No visual indication of the current page in the nav
- Mobile hamburger menus that open slowly or are difficult to close
- Footer navigation that doesn’t reflect the main nav structure
- Links that look like buttons, or buttons that look like links
Page scanning and content structure
Long blocks of unbroken text are one of the most common ways to lose a reader. Even well-written content fails if it’s presented as a wall of paragraphs. Break text into shorter sections with clear H2 and H3 headings, use bullet lists for items that don’t need prose, and leave enough white space between elements that the page breathes.
The goal isn’t to make content shorter — it’s to make it scannable. A user should be able to read the headings alone and understand the shape of the page. If they can do that, they’re far more likely to slow down and actually read the sections that are relevant to them.
Error checking and broken elements
Broken links, missing images, forms that don’t submit, and JavaScript errors all send the same signal to a visitor: this site isn’t looked after. A single broken element can undermine confidence in the entire site, particularly on pages close to a purchase or enquiry decision.
Run a structured check of your site on a regular basis — not just after launches. Check for 404 errors, test every form, verify all media loads correctly on both desktop and mobile, and check that interactive elements behave as expected. These are the kind of issues that get noticed by users long before they get noticed by the site owner.
Load speed
Speed is a design decision. A slow site is a bad site, regardless of how good it looks. Slow-loading pages increase bounce rate, reduce conversions, and negatively affect search rankings. Most speed problems on WordPress sites come from a small number of sources: unoptimised images, too many plugins, no caching, and unminified CSS and JavaScript.
Addressing these doesn’t require a rebuild — it requires a methodical approach to WordPress performance optimisation and a willingness to remove anything that isn’t earning its place on the page.
Consistency
Inconsistency is one of the subtler signs of a poorly maintained site, but users pick it up intuitively. Different button styles on different pages. Colours that don’t quite match across sections. Heading sizes that vary without a clear system. These details signal that the site hasn’t been designed as a whole — and that erodes trust in the same way a disorganised physical space does.
A simple design system — even just a documented set of colours, type sizes, and component styles — eliminates most consistency problems and makes future updates faster and cheaper.
If your site has accumulated a collection of small problems you haven’t had time to address, a web design review from Falling Brick can identify what’s worth fixing and in what order.
With over two decades of web design and development expertise, I craft bespoke WordPress solutions at FallingBrick, delivering visually striking, high-performing websites optimised for user experience and SEO.
