Web design trends, why should we follow them
by balqanPersonally when it comes to clothing, I never felt the urge to follow the latest trends and to be fashion oriented. I rather prefer to dress up in clothes that express my personality, or mood, rather to follow blindly one or another designer. I’m sure most of the people are thinking more or less like me, of course there are always exceptions, those who think that everyday life is a catwalk and those without any personality (I’m being sarcastic here).
When it comes to web design though, I try to be up to date with the latest trends and I also encourage everyone that has a website, to keep a close eye on what happens NOW, and what is cool NOW, on the Internet.
Why the difference?
There is fashion in technology, just as in clothing. The whole principle of gadgets is built around this, I don’t need that, but I want it because it’s cool and because it makes me feel and look cool.
Let’s take for example the iPod, this must-have gadget that makes you so proud when you stick in your ears those white ear phones. Should you have the option to chose between a first generation iPod with 10G of capacity or a second generation iPod Touch with 8G, I’m sure 9.8 out of 10 people would go with the later.
Why is that? Purely from a pragmatic point of view the first one had a bigger capacity and you can listen to more music with it, but the Touch, has a touch screen and you can play games, and even go online if you are in a Wi-Fi area. It became much more than just a simple music player.
I’m writing about the iPod and I did not mentioned the iPhone yet.
Apple understood that with technology you always have to redefine your product and never stick purely to the initial purpose. Expand your product not in a linear way, but in three dimensions. Add more features to it, not just improve the existing ones.
Same goes with websites, especially websites that are designed to be live for several years, are never finished. You might have some milestones, that are there to help a project manager define deadlines, but these are possible only because you postpone some features to a later version.
If there is always a version 1.0, 1.1, 1.2… etc., where you add a space on the homepage at the request of the marketing department, that they forgot to mention in their initial requirements, or you add little tweaks to the layout, a button here, a sub-menu there, there should be a version 2.0, 3.0… etc.
These are major changes: where you will rethink the whole layout and structure of the website, where you expand your features beyond a linear improvement.
Why follow trends, rather than standing out with a unique design?
When it comes to change and major milestones, it’s important to be aware of what is going on now on the Internet and if possible identify those elements, be that a new technology or a new way of UI design, that will make sure that your website will be outstanding and will keep it’s cutting edge aspect for the next year or so. If you fail to do that, you might end up jumping on the next major version, earlier than you can afford (change involve costs), just because you overlooked the trend.
Trends are your best friends as a web designer, if you follow them, your visitors will have an easy time navigating your website. They will adopt it faster and will trust it, because they know how to find the information they are looking for, faster than on a website with a unique interface.
I’m not arguing against innovation, introducing new concepts, experimenting with new ideas is important, but these should not scare your visitors away.
My 10 years old website looks great, why should I change it?
So, your business has several years of online presence, great!
What you have to ask yourself, is this website still representing what you stand for? How is it compared to your competition’s online presence? An outdated website design, even if it was trendy at a time, won’t create nostalgic feelings in your visitors, the therm vintage can not be applied to this field. Whatever you earn with the credibility of your long online presence, you risk loosing by being ignored, avoided and forgotten.
Montreal based graphic designer. Check out my online portfolio at adamsofineti.com Read more from this author
Great post. This is an often overlooked topic, especially for sites that have been around a long time. It’s sometimes difficult to part with a site design that has been successful, but keeping your site up to date with the current standards makes it feel fresher and usually provides a better browsing experience.