While there are web design trends to follow, there are also those you absolutely have to avoid not only because they do nothing for your website but they actually harm the ranking and effectivity of your business’ site.
Designers have differing opinions on what works and what does not work on a business website. Some are adamant that a website doesn’t have to focus on the aesthetics and the design elements as long as it is functional and it provides the information needed by the potential customers. Then, there’s another school of thought; one that seems to be pervasive in today’s highly digital world: websites have to integrate as many components as possible to make it easier to navigate, good to look at, and be able to engage well with the web visitors.
The truth is, it depends on what industry your business is in. If you are a cosmetics company, you cannot have a straightforward website that offers nothing but content in text and a few images. Instead, your site has to follow the theme of your business—from the logo to the fonts used. The symmetry between your company and your website should be obvious and it should strengthen your brand’s presence on the internet. On the other hand, if your site is merely a tool to disseminate information about secondhand items that are up for grabs like Craigslist and eBay, then your number one priority is to make it functional rather than aesthetically pleasing.
As a general rule, designers try to avoid these three “trends” in web design:
Small fonts
It used to be that the rule is to use 12px for your fonts size. Eventually, people found out it is hard to read this size and it is even harder to capture the people’s attention when they have to squint their eyes to see the text. When choosing fonts, don’t just focus on the size. Mind the font style, too. Arial’s 12px is not the same as Charter’s 12px. So, if one website uses a 19px font, don’t use the same size as another style because it might not appear the same on your website.
Moving sliders
Unfortunately, a lot of websites still use moving sliders to purportedly market their products and their services. Does it work? Is it effective? Most moving sliders don’t work and they were found out to be an ineffective way to present homepage content. They move too fast and web visitors don’t know what to do with them. Oh, wait, yes they know! They skip it and miss whatever message you are trying to send.
Poor line height for text
A lot of designers choose a font style, a size, the first line height they see and call it a day. Line height, however, has a big impact on the readability of the content and the site’s overall web design and appeal. Low line height makes the text look crowded and stuffy. People don’t like reading crowded text because they actually hurt our eyes. They tend to skip hard-to-read text.
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