Modern Website Design: What to Avoid!

Everyone has a high-end brand they keep an eye on, whether it’s clothes, shoes, sportswear or games.

And if that brand is well out of your price range, you simply wait for the sales, right?

Sales bring the price down to your level, whilst the quality remains high… You just have to be patient.

But it's not the same with website designs - you might unknowingly pay full price for a really dated design. 

Nobody wants to pay through the nose for a website that looks like it just time-travelled from 1992.

So let’s take a crash course on website trends to turn you into a seasoned, steely-eyed pro.

The Evolution of Website Design

The first website was published in 1991 (23 years ago unbelievably!) and back then websites looked a lot like Word documents, without the images;

It was a grim time for website design…

The first picture on the internet only appeared online a year later in 1992! 

Websites didn't change much in the next few years, until the introduction of Macromedia Flash (known today as Adobe Flash) in the late 1990s. 

Thanks to Flash, websites all turned a little naff.

Having been limited to quite basic layouts until now, everyone went a little crazy with Flash, adding in dancing characters, animated text and visitor counters.

The visitor counter is the true mark of a 90’s website.

It was only really in the year 2000 that websites started aiming for a more professional and visually pleasing look.

The introduction of CSS let programmers finally separate web content from web design, so websites rapidly evolved to something much more recognisable.

Navigation bars moved to the top of the page, where we’re used to seeing them today, and drop down menus became the best thing since sliced bread!

Drop down menus grew in popularity from 2000 onwards.

Forms also became the main way to gather user information.

And 2000 also saw a massive rise in popularity with user-created content. If you were a teenager in the year 2000 you probably had a blog or livejournal, which was essentially an online diary.

It was 2008 when mobile access to the web exceeded desktop access for the first time, so websites started getting designed more with mobile devices in mind. Think dedicated mobile websites and responsive design.

Which brings us right up to today!

Visitor counters, excessive use of animation, flashing images, and garish colours should now be a thing of the past.

Today we’re seeing more and more responsive websites…

Modern Website Design

Mobiles are actually overtaking desktop computers now in terms of internet usage, so website design has naturally adopted a strategy that will accommodate computers alongside mobiles; responsive design.

A responsive website is one which responds to the type of device it’s being viewed on, whether it’s a mobile, tablet or laptop.

It will respond by rearranging the areas of the website to fit the size of the screen it’s viewed on. 

The Lickley Proctor website above is responsive.
On the left is the desktop version of the website and on the right is how the website rearranged itself when it's on a mobile. 

Typically everything moves into one column for mobile devices, whereas for laptops it can spread out into 3 columns.

Compare the old grey website below, with the modern responsive website below it. 

Amazon's old website from the 1990's was a lot less inviting than it's current version. The grey background is very dated and there is too much text which can be off-putting to first-time visitors.

The latest Scottish Shutter Company website is almost live, and features a responsive design. 

As you can see, over the course of 23 years, website design has definitely evolved! 

How Websites Have Changed in the Past 23 Years

1. The colours are much brighter and more engaging.
2. There is a clear call-to-action for website visitors.
3. Initially you see a lot more imagery than text.
4. Menu bars along the top became popular after 2000, but they're fading out a bit now as you can see in the modern site above. 

So to conclude...

Things You Should Avoid in your Website Design

1. Garish colours that make your website look like a disco.
2. Over-use of animated text; unsurprisingly... text that moves around is notoriously difficult to read.
3. Animated images, full stop. 
4. Visitor Counters, unless you're trying to look vintage.
5. Anything else that makes your website look like it's from the 1990s.

I hope you now feel a bit more prepared to get your own website! With some visual examples of dated websites and sleeker modern versions, it should now be much easier for you to distinguish between the trendy modern design and the website-design rejects!

Get in touch with our team here at Vital Hike if you're interested in getting a website made for your business. 

We'll talk you through the process and craft a website that will impress your customers!

Scottish Website Design

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