Waving Goodbye to 5 Web Design Trends
The web design industry is fast-moving – blink and you will miss something! Like with any industry, trends come and just as fast they disappear – web design is no different.
Sometimes we hold onto trends for too long when really we should be letting go, moving on and seeking something far superior. Holding onto trends can seriously inhibit growth and put you behind any potential competition.
We present five web design trends that we want to wave goodbye to, so it’s out with the old and in with new web design elements which will no doubt take their place.
Goodbye…
Mobile Versions of Websites
It used to be that you would build mobile-switched websites e.g. m.websitename.com. However, now many web designers and web developers are rightfully focusing on responsive designs.
Unfortunately there are a number of designers claiming to provide customers with responsive designs but in reality this is not the case. Gone are the days where it is acceptable for a website to just detect different devices and switch accordingly, mobile users want a much more integrated experience.
Responsive web design allows the complete layout of the website to adjust according to specific users and their devices. The website will respond based on the width of the device, gadget type and even functionality of the website can switch providing users with the best experience when they visit your website.
Even Google has credited the use of responsive web design because it reduces any need for multiple subdomains and with this any potential for duplicate content.
Many designers now choose to design with mobiles in mind from the start and with mobile versions of websites a thing of the past you would be foolish not to just wave goodbye and let it go.
Text Heavy Sites
This is a major one on our list of items and one which many web designers still aren’t quite getting. Visual media is on the increase and is much more shareable through social media and other platforms – people no longer want information as a block of text or a paragraph.
The new trend is to tell a story in a visual manner, infographics are always popular but cutting down text right to the essentials is far better than text heavy pages.
Sometimes websites may need to be more text-based by nature but there is a way round this. Users want richer content experiences whereby the text is complemented with integrated imagery, videos and interactivity which really gets them involved as a user.
When carried out correctly, combining both rich text and visual media, then web designers and website owners can hold the attention of even the most impatient visitors to their website.
SEO copywriting
Probably one of the biggest elements of web design where “content is king” is a phrase frequently used. SEO copywriting has been made extremely hard to keep up with due to frequent changes in Google algorithms.
Keyword stuffing and writing content with keywords in mind will actually get you penalised and is the wrong approach to SEO in 2014. Now website owners and web designers need to create content which is very informative, user-centric and easily understood. Obviously it needs to be written for your target market and therefore any content should be something they connect with but you need to be clear on your message when writing content and build up on your brand and service your users rather than focusing on SEO copy exclusively. Naturally, you will include keywords within content anyway but, providing you have not stuffed them here, there and everywhere, you will not be penalised.
Old school pay-per-click
Changing rapidly, pay-per-click advertising now comes with a full range of new technology which helps us to really define our marketing and to target out ads at a very specific sub-section of consumers if necessary.
You can now narrow down and find your exact customer so instead of focusing just on pay-per-click there is a requirement to include contextual advertising, online video and targeted product ads.
It is possible to target individuals by geographical areas, who listen to a certain type of music and are of a certain age amongst other factors. You can really tailor your campaign in order to provide a better advertising experience for your market.
Embracing flat design and moving beyond 200ppi
Our final trend to wave goodbye to is 200ppi and embracing flat design – visually, web design is changing and many devices are opting for retina displays. Unless a web design follows suit and tailor their visuals for these displays by increasing their resolution the overall quality presented will be poor.
The days of designs below 200ppi are gone; retina displays have changed the game for designers. However, the change doesn’t stop there – recently Apple, a huge driver of technological advancements and trend setter, released iOS7.
Apple ditched “skeuomorphism” in favour of flat user interface. This meant getting rid of the traditional look of it’s mobile apps which mimicked real world objects – skeuomorphic design.
It was believed that computers and mobiles should be so simple to use that a complete beginner could master them based on instinct alone. For example, users could drop items into the “trash” which was an icon in the shape of a bin. It required very little knowledge in order to work out how to delete items – it was simply the bin! It is this idea which is known as skeuomorphic design
This means no more gradients and shadows to create a 3D look but rather web design was adopting more of a flat interface. The industry was heading towards this direction anyway, ditch the gradient and embrace clean, simplified designs.
Rightfully some trends have now gone out of fashion, web design is always changing and if you don’t change with it then you will simply be left behind.
Wave goodbye to these old trends and when you’re ready to take the next step and get an amazing web design come and speak to our friendly team at Access by Design – you won’t be disappointed.
