When it comes to design elements on your website, it can be tempting to fall for the latest trends. While they may look great, they’re not always the best choice for your business.
Here’s why:
- Web design isn’t about looking pretty: Of course, your website needs to look good, but a common mistake many brands make is that they want to feature the latest trendy look, just because everyone seems to love them. That’s where the issue is, they’re thinking of everyone, not their target audience. While their website might feature the latest animated icons that would catch the interest of anybody looking, they might not be delivering the experience that their customers want.
- You sacrifice function for fashion: Your website needs to work for your audience; that is its main function. Chasing the latest trendy feature could hamper this. Stick to the fundamentals that your customers want, because they are the ones interacting with your brand, and using your website. Keeping everything where it makes sense and is easy to find is more important than how cool your website looks.
- Your brand becomes confusing: Your brand needs to be cohesive for your customers. When it comes to your visual branding i.e, your logo, color palette, illustrations, and style, adding a new trendy design choice could completely discombobulate how your customers view you. Brand recognition should always trump trendiness.
- Your SEO could suffer: Trends might be fun, but that new slideshow, or a video that auto-plays could actually be affecting how you rank in the search engines. Your organic traffic gets reduced, and you might miss out on potential customers.
- Trends always change: The problem with trends is that they change quickly. To keep up with every trend and avoid looking outdated, you would have to assign enormous amounts of time to change with the trends. Stick to function instead, establish your brand, and listen to what your audience wants!
