Warning website design trends to reconsider

WEBSITE DESIGN CENTRE 

Leading Edge Business Options

Warning: Website Design Trends To Reconsider 

Like clothes, hair styles and makeup, website design trends come and go. While some 

trends are determined by necessity such as Google algorithm updates, others are just 

general shifts. Think carefully before blindly following the latest website design 

trends…it may not be right for your target audience, your brand or your business. 

Websites that are built purely on the latest trends will very quickly date and the need 

to update and redesign will arrive very fast, leading to a larger investment over time, 

in effort, money and time. 

Here are some website design trends that you might want to consider carefully before 

implementing: 

The Hamburger Menu 

As mobile devices become more popular and search engine algorithms demanded 

responsive design, navigation that was easier to use became important.


Enter, the Hamburger Menu and it’s not only for mobile versions of websites either, they 

have moved into desktop versions too. 

We understand the appeal – it makes the website sleek, clean, clear and visitors are 

already familiar with it but it doesn’t work for all websites and can impede 

discoverability. 

Forcing users to open the Hamburger navigation menu may, in fact, create unnecessary 

friction as it essentially hides topics and items. This may not be a great option for 

ecommerce and news websites. 

“Even if the global navigation is difficult to design and hard to maintain, most sites will 

still be better off showing top-level categories to users right away. It’s simply one of the 

most effective ways of helping users quickly understand what the site is about.” – Jennifer 

Cardello & Kathryn Whitenton


Front-page Carousels 

Carousels can create visual interest and reduce clutter but due to their rise in popularity 

they are falling the way of a ‘cookie cutter’ feel. Add to that, there are a few issues 

with carousels worth thinking about: 

They aren’t good for SEO – their lack of content ensures that it is tricky to get meta 

data information into the page. Now that Google isn’t crawling for meta keywords and 

takes the keyword information from the page it makes the slider headings and content 

below the carousel that much more important. 

They can affect performance badly – high-res carousel images that are underoptimized 

can drastically slow the load time. This is big no, no on your home page. 

They push content below the fold – okay, so content above the fold is not as important 

as it once was but it’s still not recommended by Google that you have your content 

lower down on the page. Just remember, often a carousel doesn’t offer much in the way 

of value to the visitor – it just looks pretty.


They tend to be inaccessible – studies have shown that only 1% of viewers click on 

carousels and many simply ignore the content they contain, all thanks to ‘banner 

blindness’. A sliding animation might be more useful and worth discussing with your 

website designer. 

Parallax Scrolling 

There are many websites that now make use of parallax scrolling – where the 

foreground and background content scrolls at different speeds creating the illusion of 

depth and while it can be used well it’s unsure if it can actually be described as 

providing good user experience. 

Again, this website design trend can have some issues: 

1) It may not be good for SEO – sites that utilise parallax scrolling are typically made 

up of just one page so there is little in the way of content for search engines to 

crawl.


This is particularly true where text is embedded in graphics. 

2) It can reduce performance – their heavy use of JavaScript and graphics can lead to 

a slow loading page and that’s of particular concern to mobile device users. 

3) It can negatively impact visitors – while parallax scrolling can be considered more 

enjoyable than non-parallax scrolling websites, some visitors experience a type of 

motion sickness and usability issues with sites of this type. 

4) If you do choose the use parallax scrolling for your website consider the story you 

want to tell and if it is worth a reduction in visitors due to the reduction in performance 

of the site. 

Complex load screens 

When visitors are greeted with either a loading video or a counter slowing climbing to 

100% they can become disenchanted easily.


When the page does finally load and is somewhat underwhelming, considering the 

wait, visitors are likely to click away. 

Ensure that your website loads quickly and then offers interest and interactive elements 

to ensure visitors stay interested. 

Too much JavaScript 

So, JavaScript seems to be everywhere today; social media plugins use them as do a 

large proportion of WordPress plugins. But too much, from a user experience 

perspective can slow down your site and visitors just won’t hang around and wait for 

your site to load. 

JavaScript can be extremely functional but overuse can cause more harm than good: 

1) Slow load times 

2) Mobile browsing can be adversely affected


3) It can affect functionality and break aspects of the website due to a bug 

4) It can be a security issue if not implemented correctly 

5) Since it isn’t crawled by search engines it can affect SEO 

Fussy Typography 

While there is a range of typography available it’s always best not to get too carried 

away and stick to a maximum of two. This will ensure the website does not appear to 

be cluttered and confused, and that readability and legibility is not adversely 

affected. 

With selecting typography there are a few tips to keep in mind: 

1) Try out different fonts but aim for clear and clean presentation that reflects your 

brand’s style 

2) Opt for typefaces and fonts that either work together or are different enough to 

provide a sense of interesting contrast.


3) If your aim is to be seen as traditional then serif is a good choice. If your aim to be 

seen as stable then sans-serif works well. 

Designers that only stay on-trend 

While website designers can be worth their weight in gold, ensure that you work with 

one that is prepared to overlook the latest trends in order to design a website that 

works for your target audience. Your designer needs to be across new trends that 

matter, like responsive design, and yet prepared to see trends from all angles before 

recommending you implement them. 

Leading Edge Business Options 

Address : Boronia Ct, Albany Creek, QLD 4035 

Phone: 1800 774 107 / +617 3102 7487

Warning website design trends to reconsider

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