Historical article . References to tools and versions reflect the time of publication.
As the World Wide Web continues to grow, web design is constantly exposed to new, rapidly changing trends.
The ongoing development of design and technologies means that trends in our industry come and go quickly.
I will discuss some of the worst web design trends we have seen throughout the history of the Internet, many of which, fortunately, are no longer used.
Splash Pages
We have all seen a website that loads with a sliding photo in front, illuminated status bars and poor aesthetics. The thinking behind a splash page is, “Watch this short intro-style video to discover how amazing our website is.”
Hoping for a powerful first impression, websites that adopt this practice by displaying a splash page certainly make an impact. Unfortunately, it is usually an overwhelmingly negative one.
Splash pages waste time and delay people from accessing a website's content. Site users simply look for the “Close” button or, in some cases, if they cannot find it easily or it does not exist, close the page instead of waiting.
Conclusion: A good website with information architecture and a content strategy is all you need. Do not waste valuable time showing users pointless content. They simply do not like it!
Design Web 2.0
Rounded corners, reflections, shadows and gradients are simply techniques from 2005.
As the web moves towards a flatter, sharper aesthetic, do not let your site look outdated.
You can use better approaches than those from 2005, such as shadows and so on. Simplify your designs to make your interfaces more user-friendly and improve UX.
Conclusion: Although some argue that flat design is not the right direction, with major technology companies such as Apple, Microsoft, Google and others moving that way, the reality is that this is ultimately the right path.
3. Design for mobile audiences (Responsive)
Mobile users now account for a large proportion of Internet users and will soon outnumber desktop users.
For this reason, you should place great emphasis on reaching people browsing on mobile devices. By incorporating a responsive version of your site, which lets your page adapt to each user's screen dimensions in a navigation-friendly way and fit every device, you will achieve the widest possible reach for your site.
Stock photos
Good stock photos do not actually look like stock photos, but they usually cost much more.
As a result, lifeless photos that do the website no favours are often used to keep production costs from soaring.
Conclusion: If photos are essential to your site, try taking them yourselves. If that is not an option, be selective about the stock photos you use. Apply genuinely strict expert criteria to determine whether adding a photo is necessary and will improve your site's appearance, or whether it will look like a careless attempt to entice visitors.
Flash Sites
Flash's strength is also its weakness. Although Flash animation can improve your site's appearance and certainly attract attention, it is incompatible with many web devices, such as those using iOS.
What good is a wealth of visual stimulation in your content if many of your users cannot even see it?
Who doesn't hate websites like these?
With the maturing of CSS3 transitions and HTML5 standards, we can create impressive animated effects on websites without using Flash, a closed-source software product.
Even the company that owns Flash agrees that it is an outdated technology and that HTML5/CSS3 is the future of website development.
Conclusion: It is time to stop relying on Flash and use HTML5, CSS3 and JavaScript, achieving many of the same things as Flash with fewer compatibility and performance problems.
Background Music
Some web designers want to awaken as many senses as possible in visitors, so they add music tracks or loops to help achieve that aim.
If you are considering this, keep two things in mind: 1) Some users have their sound muted, so your effort is wasted, your bandwidth usage in KB rises for no reason, as does loading time, and that extra sense will not be engaged. 2) Those with sound enabled are likely to be listening to something else or looking to listen to something else at that moment.
Not to mention potential issues with licensing, user experience and so on.
Conclusion: Unless you are a record company, DJ or radio station, leave music off your website.
Popup windows
We have all experienced the frustration of loading a website and being overwhelmed by one popup after another, even as we close them. It seriously harms our experience on the page and makes us reluctant to return to the same page in future.
Unfortunately, the concept of popups is now being reincarnated as full-screen overlays that open automatically and interrupt our reading experience.
Conclusion: Advertising is part of our lives and an important source of revenue for many websites. What is certain, however, is that nobody wants an advertisement that is excessively disruptive.