Navigating The Trends In Web Design And Branding
Fads and trends, some are great, some… not so great; and like most things they come and go. Why is this important when making design and branding decisions? Like many of these trends you don’t want your business or impact to come and go. It’s important to have something that can convey your message and be timeless through whatever trends happen to be surfacing.
This means that when you see something “cool” like a new filter or wild animation technique don’t be so quick to adapt it to your designs or website. You might ask yourself “But why? This is the new thing!” Sure, it might be the new thing or part of the latest and greatest but remember how many of these trends came and went with the blink of an eye. Let’s look back at the heavy drop shadow and 30+ filters applied to text. Sure it seemed to make your site pop out but then like many things it became over saturated and an eyesore as flames and sparks were flying from every text and font combination possible (excuse me while I shower to rid myself of these memories).
Less is more! Like in many things the focus of your design is to convey a message and something that you don’t necessarily want to be changing every season like the Kardashian’s wardrobe.
Now, this doesn’t mean that all trends are bad. The use of full width websites, grid based layouts, and my personal favourite, parallax scrolling have all been trends which enhance the user experience and I would say are more so trends that became an evolution in how we view and navigate websites while adding a touch of depth.
In the end, you don’t want your end user to be turned off from your website or business collateral because of a biased opinion to a certain trend or because the trend has already passed. Unless you follow these trends and do regular research it can be really hard to know what will last and what will be of value to you and your users.
Do you have questions about your future website or design project? There are many facets involved in creating not only a visually stunning website but a great user experience. Let us help you craft those into an efficient and targeted experience for you and your clients.
