The concept of many design trends can be decent, but their execution is often flawed. Sadly, when everyone around us is doing it, we don’t take time to think whether it’s right for us or not.
After all, it can’t be all that bad if it’s so popular, right? Wrong! This Phoenix web design company is here to remind you of the most useful advice in high school – don’t give into peer pressure!
We get why so many companies opt to blindly follow these trends. We are social creatures and no one wants to be left out of the party. Don’t get me wrong, it is completely fine, nay, necessary, to keep up your web design with the times to avoid getting obsolete. However, when it comes to implementing a new web design trend, companies often tend to overlook important details like effects on usability.
Here we have compiled a list of some of the toxic web design trends making rounds on the internet that actually kill conversions. Make note and steer clear.
Hamburger Menus
The hamburger menu is a name given to the menu icon that consists of three parallel horizontal lines, suggestive of a list.
They appeared when rising mobile browsing created a need for designers to simply certain elements of a website like navigation menus to help reduce clutter and keep the user’s attention focused.
Now however, we are starting to see hamburger menus being implemented into desktop sites. This causes unnecessary friction by creating an additional step for the users in the process of finding the information they need.
Typography
While striving to make our websites aesthetically pleasing, we often forget that typography has more roles than just looking pretty. Its main objective is to make copy easy to read.
Deviating from that objective and opting for fancy type can increase your bounce rate by up to 30% and drastically decrease the time on site. Usability problems will cause your customers to be annoyed and frustrated. You can then bid your conversions goodbye.
Background Videos
Sure, they look flashy and innovative. But how long do they take to load? A few seconds of added load time is enough for visitors to abandon your site.
In fact, it has been studied that 47% of users expect a page to load in under 3 seconds. This also makes any written content on top of the video tough to read. From a UX standpoint, background videos are not that great.
Pop-Ups
Who isn’t annoyed by these pesky little pop-ups that come up on your screen before you have even had a chance to interact with the page? Or the ones that are hard to close and come back without fail on every single page of the website? It can hurt your brand and scare visitors away for good.
Remember that pop-ups are supposed to be intuitive and solve visitor pain points by appearing at just the right time. When it comes to pop-ups, make sure you they have value and are relevant. Track them with cookies and think carefully about the timing and placement of your pop-ups.
In conclusion, remember that there is nothing wrong with following a trend if it has a purpose. Being blind to the issues that are confusing or frustrating your users can be terrible for your brand that you have worked so hard to build.
