Since the beginning of the time of the existence of human beings, the power of trends is undeniable. In today's digital age dominated by social media, memes and an audience with an increasingly limited attention span, trends have become a part of life on the Internet.
As the web is constantly changing, the design of web pages is also subject to changing trends. The continuous development of design and development technologies shows us that trends in this sector appear and disappear quickly.
We are going to see some of the worst/negative web design trends that we have seen in the entire history of the Internet, many of these luckily are not so common at the moment.
A splash page is the image of a website that a user sees before navigating to the main content of the site. These splash pages are used to promote a company, product, or service, they are also used to inform the person of the type of software or browser that is necessary to use to view the other pages of the site.
In these splash pages, animated graphics and sounds are usually found that attract the user's attention to explore the content of the website. Some of these splash pages take you to the home of the site automatically, and others require the user to click on a link.
Hoping to make a good first impression on the user, websites that adopt this practice of displaying a splash page certainly make an impact on the visitor. Although as a general rule this impact is excessively negative.
Splash pages waste time and delay people from accessing website content. Typically, the user hits the "skip" option, or in some cases, can't even find this option and decides to bounce somewhere else instead of waiting.
Conclusion: A good website must have a good information architecture and a content strategy to improve the user experience. Don't waste your precious time showing users useless filler content.
The rounded corners, reflections, shadows, and gradients tell us something: 2005.
As the web moves towards a flat style, don't let your site get stuck with a dated look.
Nowadays including dimensions and shadows in the design can be tempting, but making use of these details for the love of this style does not achieve anything, other than confusing the viewer with an overly complicated design.
All this can be improved. It is only necessary to make the designs simpler to make user/friendly interfaces and lean towards UX (user experience).
Conclusion: Although some argue that flat design is not correct, the main technology companies such as Apple, Microsoft, and Google among others, bet on this design. The reality is that this is what users expect from the web and they are the trends for 2022.
Good stock photo sites are places to find images, but they can be quite expensive.
Not-so-great sites show lifeless photos of people who are smiling on the outside but crying on the inside.
If you need photos on your site, try making these photos yourself. If this is not possible, be selective with stock images. Use a critical eye to determine if the inclusion of images will actually improve the look of the website or make it look like a joke.
In the mid-2000s, the average savvy user on the web is defined by the amount of personalization on their MySpace profile.
Some designers caught on to this trend, over-designing their sites to the point of complete chaos. It could also be that the website was designed by a team of 10 different people, or an eager designer wanting to prove himself by adding all sorts of layouts, elements, texture, animation, etc, on a single page.
The Flash's strength is also his weakness. Although animations and motions enhance the look of a site and draw attention, they are also incompatible with many web devices (eg iOS).
It's time to move away from Flash and get on board with HTML5, CSS3, and JavaScript which do many of the same things as Flash but with fewer compatibility and performance issues.
Some web designers want to awaken the senses of the visitors, so they add some songs to connect with the traffic. If you are thinking about this, you should keep two things in mind:
1. Most of the users have their sound disabled and therefore they will miss your amazing melodies
2. Those who have the sound connected probably do not want to listen to that song or are looking to listen to something in particular.
Not to mention the possible problems with the loading speed of the site, the issue of licenses, user experience, etc.
Note: Unless you are a DJ or a radio station, do not use music.
We've all experienced the frustration of loading a web page and immediately being bombarded with dozens of pop-up windows. This certainly negatively affects our experience of the site and makes us think twice before returning.
Remind, Ads are part of society, and they are an important way for many sites to generate revenue. Although nobody likes an advertisement that is excessively harmful, we must find a way to minimize the impact of its use.
Just like any other trend, what's popular in web design comes and goes with the times. If you have a strong development and design team that incorporates current trends you can make your site look fresh and relevant.
Remember that all trends have a shelf life, and you need to be prepared for when it's time to make a change. What's hot right now?
For those who are more risk-averse, it's best to focus on evergreen design ideas that always look professional and are effective.
