In the field of graphic design, we are hired to create fresh content for the web. Sometimes it feels like the cyber world makes it easy for anyone to be a web designer with the templates available on sites like WordPress and Tumblr. Anyone with basic web knowledge can create their own blog or website. What we can do is draw the eye to our clients’ sites by creating fresh branding and content. There are thousands of posts about how to keep content fresh but it is just as important to know what to stay away from to make your clients stand out among the sea of web templates. Here are the design trends we never want to see again.
- FuturisticWe get it, this is the Internet! There are tons of cyber things happening here. Who knows what robots actually control the web? The problem with the futuristic theme is that we have learned how the internet actually works and are knowledgeable enough to know there isn’t a mastermind robot controlling it all. We have also moved past the computers of yesteryear and while the green computer-type font used to be cool, so did the computers that typed that way. Molly Ringwald is no longer sitting in the library receiving orange and green messages directly to her computer from the cute boy behind her, so we no longer need to use the one font that was available to her in 1986.
- Minimalist
This has become one of the most popular web layouts because it looks great but over one million people on Tumblr alone have this theme. Some of the most popular Tumblrs, in fact, use this theme which, besides its looks is probably why it has sprung to popularity. The immediate thought in using the Minimal theme in web design is “so many sites have so much clutter! If I simplify the site, it will draw the eye.” This is true, but if you do the minimal theme it’s important to also keep it unique. The theme has been especially popular with fashion blogs as those fashion types like to keep their web presence sleek like their style.
- Solid Blocking
This is another that has been made easy to use with a Tumblr template and now has been made officially overdone by the new Windows Phone 8 that uses Solid Blocking as its home screen. While blocking can be colorful and stylish, adding a bold touch, the trend will now be associated immediately with windows because of their ever-so-clever campaign. If Gwen Stefani organizes her whole life with the Windows Phone 8 Solid Blocking home screen system, I WANT ONE!
- Carousel/Scrolling Image BannerThis trend is not functional, in fact it’s frustrating. It’s kind of cool to have tiny pictures scrolling at the bottom of a page but then ah! They move way too fast and then I can’t get back to the one I actually wanted to click on and before you know it, I’m just not using your website because it’s annoying.
- Nostalgia
Avoid anything and everything that looks like a Polaroid or an old film crackling on the screen. Instagram already has you covered bro. After an app banks so much on the hipster culture’s admiration for nostalgia, it’s not so hip anymore. The Polaroid and old film design seems to be especially popular with band websites, probably because of the hipster factor but once something has hit the masses, it just ain’t hip anymore.
I hope our list was helpful in what to avoid so as 2012 comes to a close you, the web design community, can come up with fresh ideas for 2013!
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