From clothing to home decor, trends change over time – and the world of web design is no exception! By staying aware of changes in functionality and design trends, you can ensure your WordPress website Dallas stays up-to-date visually and always performs its best. This helps your brand provide the best possible experience to current and potential customers.
5 Trends to Avoid on Your WordPress Website Dallas
1. Parallax Scrolling for Everything
A popular trend a few years ago was “parallax scrolling.” This refers to the effect in which, when you scroll on a page, the background images move more slowly than the foreground images. When done well, it creates a unique illusion of depth that appeals to people visually. Unfortunately, parallax elements are often overused to the point where they slow down load times and make the website difficult to navigate.
If you want to feature parallax scrolling (or other similar elements) in your web design in Dallas, make sure to use restraint. Experienced website designers will know how to increase visual interest with your parallax elements without overdoing it, so you get the benefits of the effect without lowering your website’s user experience.
2. Sticking Strictly to Grid Layouts
Your website design needs structure and order – and this standard is not going to stop anytime soon. The old design trend of using a grid layout was started to help websites achieve that much-needed sense of order; now, it may hold your website back from reaching its full potential.
If you have to work entirely with a grid to structure your text, images, and other content, it can stifle your creativity and lead to an unimpressive design. Do not be afraid to think outside the box with your website’s structure. There are plenty of ways to get creative with your website design Dallas while still presenting your content in an orderly, understandable way.
3. Boring Typography Choices
When choosing typography styles to add to websites, designers used to have to work with the “web safe” fonts that were already available on most peoples’ personal computers; if not, the font often would not load. That is why many websites feature the same typography styles. Now, you do not have to tie yourself down to a specific font list when making your web design in Dallas.
There are thousands of quality serif, sans-serif, and script fonts that can be featured on websites. As such, if your body copy and headings all look the same, your website can feel dated. Instead, incorporate different typography styles and variations for your headings, subheadings, and body copy. This will add visual interest to your website and help you better showcase your unique brand identity.
4. Non-Responsive Site Layouts
Websites were originally designed to be viewed from a desktop monitor. Now, people can visit your website from a computer, phone, or tablet. Still, many websites are only built with one screen in mind. People can still view those websites on any device; unfortunately, they may run into one of these issues:
- The website may adapt to smaller screen sizes without any layout changes. So, for example, the mobile version of the website may just be a shrunken-down version of the desktop website.
- The website may pull directly to the smaller screen sizes without adapting, only showing a zoomed-in version of the desktop screen. Viewers then must drag around the screen to see more.
Both scenarios are bad for user experience, and they make your website look out-of-date to anyone on a mobile device. To remedy this, you need a responsive website. These designs automatically adjust to any screen size, so they look great and perform well for all users.
5. Ignoring Online Accessibility
This issue is not so much a trend as it is an oversight. In the past, people often did not consider accessibility when making websites. This makes it more difficult for people with mobility, visual, hearing, and cognitive impairments to navigate the design. In addition to providing a poor user experience, if your website is not accessible, your business is non-compliant with ADA standards and the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines.
There are many ways that you can make your website more accessible to all of your visitors. For example, you can include alt tags on your images so people using screen readers can still get all the information you share. Experienced design teams create modern websites with user accessibility in mind and can help you adapt your current website to better meet the ADA’s accessibility standards.
Create Your Website Design Dallas with myheartcreative!
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