Whilst looking through some old bookmarks and, I hate to admit it, very old work, I was astounded at how far design on the web had progressed since the turn of the millennium. With this in mind I thought I’d compile a list of terrible web design trends that we’ve all been subjected to (or contributed to) over the years.
The glee visitors must feel when they arrive at a site only to be presented with a gauge saying ‘1% loaded’. At this point you have no idea what this 1% is, so you wait patiently. At 85% the anticipation is almost too much and you wish that your dual-bonded ISDN dial-up was just that bit faster. Then it happens. The screen flashes, some music starts (which you promptly turn off, if there is that option), some words swoosh around, then a logo fades in. What!? That’s it? Yes, that’s it.
Sounds obvious we know but for a while us designers thought it would be great to have all sorts of content popping out in to new windows just for the hell of it. Worst still, you visit a site and the second thing you’re presented with (when the onload kicks in) is an obnoxious pop up balbbing on about the latest offer, deal or way to leech your email address. Thanks to pop-up blockers this trend is well and truly over.
Now, I would imagine that most visitors to a site would be pretty annoyed if it re-sized your browser window. Just because the designer thinks that their site looks better full screen, with no address bar or tool bar doesn’t mean we do.
One thing that many designers forgot is that people have to read the content of a website, so the last thing a visitor wants to be presented with is a page full of 7pt pixel fonts. To add insult to injury many of them considered a low contrast between body copy and background to be the height of sophistication. To summarise, illegible copy was, at one point, “in”.
Being subjected to audio pollution is no fun, be it the “boom boom boom” blaring out of a 17 year old’s tricked out Peugot 206 or the muffled sound of a neighbours party that you weren’t invited to. Websites with unnecessary sounds are just as, if not more annoying.
