We love to follow different industry trends, as these help our clients keep up with their competition. However, if I could give one caution regarding web design trends, it’s that trends in web design come and go.
The decision to follow a trend must depend on the needs of your users and your business. The decision should never be based solely on what everybody else is doing. Fads fade–need we mention bell-bottoms and furbies? Furthermore, a site built only on trends quickly becomes out of date, unless the ‘trend’ is actually a shift in the industry, stemming from a necessity or usability standpoint.
Here are some of the web design trends of 2016 that should be followed with caution:
Infinite/Parallax Scrolling
Many users like the idea of infinite scrolling because of how smooth it looks, and from a usability standpoint, it’s much easier to scroll on a mobile device than to click through to countless pages on a website.
BUT, because scrolling sites tend to only be one main page, there’s usually little in the way of content that can be crawled by the search engines. This means that there is little to no SEO, a huge factor when it comes to being found by potential customers! Also, load times tend to be very poor on mobile devices, due to the heavy use of JavaScript.
It’s also important to point out that if users have to scroll too much to get to the information they are looking for, chances are they will end up leaving your website and moving on to another. Like with many things, parallax scrolling can be implemented successfully–you just have to decide whether the trade-offs are worth it to your business.
Replacing Text with Videos
Yes, video is HUGE right now in the world of content marketing, and studies have shown that using visual content is effective at grabbing the attention of potential customers, thus making them quicker and more effective than text at communicating key information.
However, search engine crawlers don’t view a website in the same way that humans do. Crawlers utilize code, alt tags and text to determine exactly what content is contained on your page. Without text content, your site will not be easily crawled by search engines for keywords, meaning little to no SEO.
We recommend using the right balance between videos and text. Consider using your visual content on website homepages and landing pages where the aim is to hook a customer, making them want to learn more. Then, link from your visual homepage to pages with more text content, explaining further about your product and/or service.
As web designers, our job is to make our clients’ customers as comfortable as possible when navigating on their website, allowing them to easily use them. When web design trends are used without careful consideration, businesses can end up with a website that never improves usability and goes out-of-style quickly. Two things that no business should have to deal with!
Contact us today for help designing a website that will be in style for many years to come.
