Successful organizations invest heavily in well-designed websites that attract traffic and ensure it keeps coming. Good web designs impress potential clients and make websites unique.
Well-designed websites are easy to use, compatible with all devices, and appealing to users. Good web development involves avoiding outdated web design trends and elements that can ruin the customers’ experience and lead to business losses.
Here are seven outdated web design trends to avoid if you wish to convert your web visitors into customers.
Overusing Obvious Stock Images
Although a picture is worth a thousand words, overusing typical stock imagery makes your website look unoriginal, lame, uninspired, and boring
Stock images look pretty with attractive people and staged backgrounds but can only serve as placeholders for real photos.
Most people are already familiar with stock images, making their application ineffective. It is not uncommon to find stock images on several other websites; hence they do not help your website to stand out.
Overusing cliché stock imagery makes visitors ignore your site as they are under the impression that they have already seen the content.
Use these only if:
- They are high quality
- They are unique
- They are the only option
Stock photos are an outdated trend that does not represent your brand, content, and personality as real photos do.
Annoying Aggressive Pop-ups
Web designers create pop-ups as optimization tools for call-to-actions, such as to invite visitors to follow their social media platforms, subscribe to newsletters, join competitions, open personal accounts or chat with a live representative.
However, overly aggressive web ones only annoy website visitors and can ward off potential customers.
Some pop-ups, especially by third-party advertisers, can put your visitors at risk of data theft and online fraud. Despite this, they are still common today.
Therefore eliminate excessively aggressive ones and focus on developing websites people can enjoy using. One strategically timed is more effective.
Non-Mobile Friendly Web Designs
Recent research indicates that over half of all internet users browse the internet on their mobile devices. That means websites not compatible with smartphones and tablets are missing out on a vast opening to acquire a new customer base.
Non-responsive web designs are facing extra crises after Google announced that it would introduce search-result penalties for websites incompatible with mobile devices.
Too Many Fonts and Outdated Style Elements
The correct fonts and good style elements capture the visitors’ attention and make your website and brand memorable. However, too many fonts and old-fashioned style icons make the website look cluttered.
One of the factors that increase web page bounce rate is hard-to-read content.
Fonts affect the readability of content, and if overdone potential customers might leave the site without searching for relevant services or products.
A good web design that boosts user experience integrates 2-3 stylish fonts to enhance the design that appeals to the audience without looking stuffy and overwhelming.
Poorly Designed Landing Pages with Numerous Widgets or Sidebars
It is a recommendable achievement to appear in search results in front of the ideal potential clients.
However, you will require a well-designed landing page to convert this interested internet user into a client. An effective landing page must be attractive, simple, and provide precise information at a glance. On the flip side, crowding the landing page with multiple sidebars and widgets complicates navigation.
A good web design preserves widgets and a sidebar on the landing page for essential services or functions. For better optimization of space and use, sidebars must prioritize vital information to the users.
Minimalism
A time when minimalist websites were popular is long past. And for obvious reasons, this worked because users wanted a less complex page to navigate.
But with competition, this trend has become boring and commonplace. Today, websites that appeal to users incorporate bright color schemes, asymmetry, non-standard styles, and neutral backgrounds.
Excessive Use of Auto-Play Media Elements
Auto-play media elements are videos, music, or games that automatically begin to play when a visitor accesses a website.
Auto-play media can cause disturbance when the user is in a public space. Not counting, they are irritating and unnecessarily consume a lot of users’ bandwidth.
Modern websites avoid excessive auto-play media as they send traffic away faster than anything.
However, multimedia content is crucial for online marketing and should be integrated into the website appropriately, with options to play videos.
Conclusion
A website is a brand ambassador for a specific product or service. In most cases, websites make the first impression.
A well-designed website makes the web visitors feel the same as the store visitors- it displays the company’s uniqueness and promotes more conversions.
To represent your brand well, you must avoid outdated web design trends on your website.
Take a look at some web designs we love and why in this article.
