Outdated Website Trends
I Have to Click on Your Animated Home Page to Enter
In the immortal, albeit ubiquitous, words of Kimberly “Sweet Brown” Wilkins, “Ain’t nobody got time for that.” If the user has entered your URL into their browser, chances are they’re ready to view your site. Why would you want to put another step between your content and your viewers? If you’re showcasing your motion graphics abilities, you likely have legitimate examples elsewhere on your site, perhaps as part of a portfolio.
You’re Using File Folder Tabs in Your Web Navigation
Is this 2015 or 1995? There was a time when it was cool to create organizational structure on the web that resembled tangible items, like tabs and folders and folding books. But we’ve all gotten the point now that this can be done digitally, so it’s just not that cool anymore. There are plenty of mind-blowing techniques that more naturally suit the web, and which can’t be done in real life. Let’s celebrate those in the virtual world, and keep reading our musty old paper backs on the couch.
Lots of Cursive Text
This is a trend that simply refuses to die. Following this trend is a double whammy of ugly design. Not only does it make your site uncomfortable to browse and read through, it also tends to reflect many of the typeface woes of the 1990s. If there’s one thing you don’t currently want someone to say about your site, it’s that it looks like something from when developers with no real design experience were first beginning to apply basic styles to websites.
How Do We Avoid Dated Design?
It might seem like we have to be on eggshells constantly, worrying about whether our work has staying power. That’s partially true; we should constantly be scrutinizing ourselves and our work. But we should worry less about whether our work is trendy and more about whether we’re really fulfilling our duties as communicators. Truly evocative work is born not of trends, nor the avoidance of them, but of the persistence to create fundamentally sound, informed design. That will never become dated.
