The Goldilocks Rule: Your Overpowered Website is Working Against You

You love your brand, your products, your services, and your hard-earned insight and can’t wait to share these things with the masses…and you’ve built the ultimate sensory-blasting website to prove it! Packed with features like advanced tools, automations, interactive elements, videos, etc., no one would argue that your design and development team didn’t do an amazing job.

But is it actually boosting your target outcomes? Quite possibly, not. In fact, you are likely losing out on visitors because of it. Why? Because visiting a website that’s styled more like a sensory arcade than a practical tool for shopping or information can actually make navigation, shopping, and information harder to come by for everyone, especially those who are blind, low vision, or have sensory processing challenges.

If you happen to be a niche business that provides a highly specific and targeted product or service to a very specific subset of the population, maybe you can get away with an all-out,  in-your-face experience without facing much fallout. But most websites will suffer a loss if they build without awareness of the potential pitfalls that need to be factored in.

Let’s explore common over-the-top design elements, the problems they create, why you should care, and what you can do about it. 

Common Issues with an Overpowered Website

1. Too Complex: Rarely does making things MORE complex make them better. No matter what you’re talking about. In fact, most people would easily agree that the opposite is true. This general principle holds up when you’re looking at web design features, too. 

Layering in all of the latest features might seem to make your site superficially fun, but too many features can ultimately confuse your users, distracting from your intended message or your desired outcome. Most people just want to hop online to find the info, buy a product, or connect with a service, not wrestle their way through a website. 

Want to all but guarantee that less tech-savvy or older adults can’t use your website properly? Load it up with unnecessarily complex features that require visitors to figure out how to use the site before they can even get what they came for. 

2. Too Slow: Even the coolest websites can be completely undone by slow loading times. It impacts your rankings, your session duration, your conversion rates, your repeat visitors, etc. In the age of relentless attention-demand, sloooooooow loading times are intolerable to the super scrollers of the online world.

3. Too Overwhelming: Visually intense websites can seem exciting in theory, but the flashy graphics, aggressive video displays, and unnecessary motion can actually overstimulate and frustrate visitors. Yes, this applies to visitors with sensory sensitivities, but also to anyone and everyone who spends time online. Overwhelming displays can make it hard to focus and leave people feeling more like they’ve had a once and done experience than like they’ve found a useful resource. 

4. Too Inaccessible: Putting an emphasis on razzmatazz without factoring in accessibility is a surefire way to prevent website engagement. Every single flashy, splashy, pop-up, auto-play, sprinkled, sparkled, bedazzled feature on your website has to be intentionally created with accessibility in mind or else it’s inaccessible. Full stop. Accessibility is never an accident. It is always achieved through design intention. 

Common accessibility issues on overpowered websites include:

• Screen readers stalling on overloaded pages

• Motion-heavy pages that hog CPU and drain batteries

• “Loading spinners” that never end

• Crucial buttons buried under slow-loading overlays

• Navigational barriers that trap, bounce, and frustrate 

These digital accessibility road blocks prevent full functional utility of your website for a remarkably large segment of the online consumer base-  up to 12% who are blind and low-vision (relying on screen readers and other assistive technologies), plus up to 16% who have sensory processing issues. 

So, congrats on your high-res hero video! Unfortunately, it froze three times before the screen reader could even find your navigation and the visitor went to your competitor’s site instead. Ouch.
Not to mention, accessibility isn't just a wish-list item, it’s the law. So, while you’re blocking customers, clients, and curious people with visual bombardment, you’re also increasing your vulnerability to lawsuits and regulatory fines.  

5. Too Out of Touch: Understanding your consumer base and matching your design elements to meeting their needs is always your best bet.

6. Too SEO Damaging: Guess what else happens when you use heavy Javascript or custom frameworks unnecessarily? You can actually hurt search engine visibility. Search engine algorithms don’t necessarily favor websites that are slow-loading and inaccessible. In fact, the opposite is true.
 

The Goldilocks Rule: Performance and Accessibility in Balance 

Ah, the old Goldilocks Rule hasn’t failed humanity yet. The tale of Goldilock’s afternoon of trespassing in the three bears house teaches us that extremes are rarely where the answer lies. Ultimately, this is a rule that reminds us that moderation, balance, and perspective are key. 

In the world of web design, what does this mean? It means that the BEST user experience is not necessarily the flashiest and most overstimulating experience. Nor is it necessarily the most rudimentary and plain experience. After all, either of these extremes is almost certain to make your website unappealing to the vast majority of visitors who fall somewhere comfortably in the middle. 

The middle- the Goldilocks zone- welcomes and embraces web design that invites engagement but that does so in a way that fully centers and respects accessibility at every step of the way. By keeping digital accessibility as a top-line priority in the design and development of your website, you will automatically improve the overall experience for everyone. Because the elements that make your website accessible also make it most enjoyable…for everyone. 

Who doesn’t want easy navigation, easy visual understanding, and easy product or service review? Who doesn’t want to stay on the page they're visiting rather than getting inadvertently bounced or blocked by pop up traps? Who doesn’t want to seamlessly spot and understand the steps necessary to accomplish the purpose of their visit?

Staying in the Goldilocks zone ensures the best possible experience for the most possible people. 
 

Digital Accessibility is Easy

Building a website that is enjoyable and accessible is actually easy to do. 

If you’re starting from the ground up, reach out to one of our CPACC-certified specialists who can carefully walk you through the key considerations and arrange a full digital accessibility audit once your website is complete. 

If your website is already up and running, and all things look good for continued growth, our team of auditors can review your website for ADA-compliance to keep you seamlessly headed toward a bigger, better, broader reach. 

After all, digital accessibility means strong SEO, greater brand reach, being shielded from costly lawsuits and regulatory fines, enjoying lucrative tax breaks, and more generating more growth. 

So yes- put time, money, and attention into building a user experience that elevates your brand, but don’t make the mistake of thinking that taking every visitor to a technology circus is the way to do that. 

Reach out to learn more today!