Design Trends To Avoid In Your Web Design

You have created or invested in a website for your business, but your sales are still at the same level as before. It seems like you have done everything right, but obviously, something is missing. Web design trends are changing year by year. This is not necessarily good or bad because some of those trends will help you increase the website traffic, but are all of them as useful as they seem? Some of these trends may be popular, but in fact, they are outdated and better avoided. We created a short list to help you realize which web design trends you should avoid, so look carefully and prepare for some surprises!

Sliders Without Clear Call to Action (CTA)

According to some researchers, website visitors are not that happy to see sliders. Chances are, they will probably miss your message by fast scrolling and, in fact, only 1% of people actually click on the slider. So, you should keep it simple. Sliders will occupy valuable space on your website. Auto-forwarding carousels can be especially annoying, and many users can’t find the content they are looking for because of that. Over the years, different studies confirmed the same – you should definitely avoid sliders.

Hamburger Menu

We agree that designing your websites for mobile is important, but they should be kept on mobile devices. Many users still prefer using desktops or laptops for online searches, and when they can’t find the menu because it is hidden behind the hamburger menu, they get pretty frustrated. It looks like a sort of mystery navigation, and people simply don’t like that. Even mobile users prefer menus with clear indications on what the button is for.

Flat, Monotone Graphics

This kind of design became popular very quickly. The main problem with the flat design was that you can’t find out where is the button, because everything looks the same. It seemed like there was no interaction, and users were getting confused. The best example of this is the design of Windows 8’s Metro.

Stock Photos Which Are Used Everywhere

We can’t say that using stock photos is bad in general, but you should avoid using the ones which show up everywhere. Just try finding the ones which look more realistic and unique and avoid the sites which are overly used like DeathToTheStockPhoto.com. There are many other websites which offer great visual content for free.

Web Pages With Infinite Scrolling

It is wrong to think that the user who doesn’t have to constantly click the next page to see more content is a happy one. Endless scrolling is frustrating and evokes a sense of discomfort among users. This might be a good option for artistic sites like Pinterest, but unless your website is an artistic one, you should stay away from this trend.

Stale Fonts

The growth of Google fonts expands the use of typography. Years ago, web designers were limited to Arial, Helvetica, and Times New Roman, and if you wanted to use something else, you needed to format your text as an image. This wasn’t a good solution, especially because search engines can’t read the images. Today you have many options, so everything can look more fun and interesting. Still, you should be careful about adding too many different fonts on your website! So, next time you start questioning yourself why no one is coming to your website, maybe you check your website for design and development mistakes, not your brand. Contact West Palm Beach web designers today to get you back on track. With us, you will easily avoid bad web design trends, and help you stay atop of your competitors.