Old Web Design Trends That Need to Go
The internet has been around for about thirty years now, and many web trends have come and gone through the years. However, there are a surprising number of trends that still cease to disappear from the web (ones that should have gone long, long ago). Below are some of the web techniques that are outdated and should be avoided.
Auto-Playing Music or Videos
It is surprising how many websites still use auto-playing music or videos, and for many people it can be a frustrating experience. Not only is it disruptive to what you’re doing on the web, but it can be difficult to track down the source of noise and stop it. Auto-players also severely slow down the loading speed of web pages, making the experience even more frustrating.
Excessive Number of Fonts Used
When a website has too many different fonts, the look of the site often appears chaotic, and the significance of the different fonts becomes less apparent. A good web design practice is to limit your font choices to two or three fonts. Using one font for the body text and another for the heading text makes the website clear and understandable, and gives the site a clean and professional look.
Website Content Placed Inside Images
Sometimes, a website’s content will be placed inside an image rather than as text on the webpage. Although this might make it easier to place and format the layout of text in some cases, it makes the text unreadable to search engines. Not having text for search engines like Google to crawl can significantly hurt your page ranking, making it more difficult for people to find your site. It also makes it more difficult for visitors to copy the text, or print it in a print-friendly format.
Unresponsive Design
According to a January 2014 CNN article, “Americans used smartphone and tablet apps more than PCs to access the internet”, so the need for a responsive site is crucial. If your site is unresponsive and looks the same on every browser, visitors may become frustrated with constantly having to zoom in on tiny illegible text.
Busy Background Image Behind Content
Having a background image can look nice if used in the right place on your site, but if you have a background image behind your text that has clashing colors and patterns, it can make text very difficult to read. If you are going to place a background image behind your text, make sure that it contrasts with the text color, and is faded enough to make the text readable.
There are plenty of other web design trends that have become unpopular, but the ones mentioned above are some of the most crucial trends to avoid. Avoiding these outdated trends will most likely result in a better user experience, and will leave a more positive impression on website visitors. If you feel that your website is outdated and needs a makeover, feel free to call us to discuss your design needs.