Most Used and Abused Web Design Trends of All Time
The year is 1999. You’ve just watched the Matrix, and it’s blown your mind. You sit down in front of your computer to work on a web design and then create or download an animated Matrix background for your Geocities website. You’re so cool. Fast forward 10 years, and you say to yourself, yikes, what was I thinking?! We’ve all been there. As a matter of fact, I’m personally guilty of copying many of following trends.
Trend isn’t a bad word in web design. In fact, the items on this list inspired an entire generation of web designers. All of these ideas were so huge that they created a mass following. That’s a good thing. The problem comes when we’re happy to create a clone of a great design and let it rest at that. Great designers push themselves to be ahead of the trends, or they twist the trend into something uniquely their own. The problem isn’t that you were inspired by the Matrix, it is that you didn’t re-imagine your inspiration into something different. As you look through this list, remember the reasons why you may have once loved these web design trends. It will help you understand why they were so popular, and what you can learn from them.
Reflective Text or Objects
Mirrored objects are one of those web design trends that seem to constantly resurface. We love it for the sense of realism and dimension it brings to a static 2D image, but most of the time it’s done incorrectly. It takes more than simply flipping an object upside down to make a mirrored image.
Aqua Buttons
There’s no way this list could exist without the prominent mentioning of aqua buttons. These shiny, glassy, light blue buttons gave the impression of 3D even though they took less than 10 minutes to make in Photoshop. Amazingly simple, aqua buttons were a ubiquitous trend that finally died down around 2005.
Flourishes
Unfortunately this web design trend is still in its 14th minute of fame. These embellishments are often created to emphasize an artsy site, and can be done very well, especially if the designer is particularly gifted in graphic art. The problem is that this look has been seen in an obscene amount of sites, and is no longer fresh or unexpected. The flowers are dying.
Desktop Design with Coffee Cup
Don’t forget the coffee stains somewhere in the design. I’ve never quite understood the perspective on this design. Is the viewer supposed to be standing up and looking directly down at the desk? That’s the only way this view makes sense. This trend must be stopped.
Animated Globe
Fortunately, this web design trend has come to an end for most websites, but it died a long death. This popular “rotating” earth was usually attached to the site’s logo. Most businesses which displayed it weren’t even international. It was your local mom and pop shop showing they could have a fancy animated gif, too.
Comic Sans Font
There was a time when Comic Sans was everywhere and, despite its name, it wasn’t funny. Comic Sans was the font many misguided designers used to convey a sense of playfulness on their websites. Comic Sans has stirred an unholy amount of hatred over the years, and yet it continues to exist as a font. Fortunately, every designer knows to steer clear of this font like the plague.
Overused Stock Images
How many business sites have we visited where there’s one of these images on the front page? Of course, clients request these types of stock images all the time, but as designers, we have to show them what else is possible.
Torn Notebook Paper
It’s nice to see realistic elements on websites, but the paper look lacks originality. The overwhelming amount of paper textures and tutorials make this a definite trend to avoid for a trend-setter.
Polaroids
There was a time when everyone incorporated Polaroid-type objects into their design. This retro trend has outlived its usefulness. Polaroids may be a fun throwback, but it’s doubtful that anyone born after 1990 has ever seen one in person.
Oversized RSS or Twitter Icons
We get it. You want us to subscribe and follow your random thoughts. We want to, but putting up a huge RSS icon that’s half the size of your web page is just obnoxious and insults your visitors. The same goes for Twitter. Keep these icons classy and non-obtrusive.
Auto-played Music
Music is awesome, but it’s wrong to impose your music selection on your visitors. What if they’re listening to their own music? Unfortunately, there was a time on the internet when bored office workers had to surf on mute for fear that they may enter the wrong website. Fortunately, most designers have dropped this trend, but it still seems hot in Eastern Europe.
Counters
Here we have the sad web design phenomenon of visitor counters. In the early days of the internet, web designers used counters as a way to (sadly) collect visitor data, but more often to impress visitors with an impossibly large amount of web traffic. These counters were notoriously inaccurate and everyone knew it, because no one believed you had over a million visitors into your Homestead account. Fortunately, the web counter trend is dead, and happily so.
Marquees
Scrolling text across any part of a website is considered a marquee. Marquees were so cool in the late 90s, but soon lost its seem once designers realized that websites are not headline news networks. We all seen way too many marquees in Comic Sans font.
Frames
Frames. Frames are probably the saddest trend on this list. The only thing that saved us from frames was the supreme importance of the search engine. Designers started realizing that it was no longer optimal to have five or six pages to incorporate one home page. Frames were ugly, difficult to deal with, and had way too many moving parts.
Splash Pages That Make You Choose
Flash or HTML? Old site or new site? Full screen or normal screen? Your visitor does not need to face these crucial choices before entering into your website. This trend is still popular amongst designers who don’t realize how to effectively manage both old and new, html and Flash. By the way, no one likes full screen. Keep it simple. Don’t give your audience these types of choices or they may choose to leave.
Intro with No Skipping Option
This design trend forced visitors to sit through an impossibly long (no matter the length) introduction to your site with no means of escape. The trend supposed that every visitor to your site was a first-time one, and never took into account the possibly of repeat visitors.
Black Backgrounds
This is a delicate subject, but black backgrounds are an overused trend. Dark is nice, especially if you find surprising new colors to re-interpret a mood such as a deep blue or a hazy gray, but black is out.
What do you think this list is missing? We’d like to hear from you.
About the Author
Jacqueline is an artist and a writer who spends an inordinate amount of time playing Super Nintendo and watching Star Trek. You can find out more about Jacqueline on her website, and follow her updates on Twitter.
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208 comments
Enrique Ramírez
October 5, 2009Awesome list. Made me remember the old days (p.s., those were definitely NOT THE days).
Have to disagree on the dark background, though. White is most used at the moment. Not that that’s a bad thing, though. It just seems to be more popular than black.
Also… http://www.missbellowsfallsdiner.com/ <– OMG!
El desalmado
October 5, 2009hey, you can wear any tshirt you like as long is a black tshirt
don’t mess with the darkness
everything else is okay =D
Chris
October 5, 2009“Let’s take the shake hands picture and show everyone that our business is trustworthy” LAME!
Great list but I you forgot “animated Bart Simpson” in 1997 every website had those
Adrian
October 5, 2009Hmmm… I clearly need to update my website!
Kate Allen
October 5, 2009Excellent list Jacqueline, I still see the mirror image and auto-playing music more thank I should.
Look forward to seeing the next generation of web design abuses.
Vasily
October 5, 2009Excellent post Jacqueline! Enjoyed reading it a lot. Nostalgic and spot on. Looking forward to seeing more of your articles.
Bones
October 5, 2009An excellent post. However, there is one glaring omission from the list of past crimes: the spinning logo! Far more common than the equally awful spinning globe. Thankfully rare these days, but still crops up occasionally.
tobiCOM
October 5, 2009Very Nice Topic! Also enjoyed the Reading
ekrem
October 5, 2009great article
comic sans must be banned!
2stGeorge
October 5, 2009I don’t think ie. black backgrounds or other elements are bad if they are used in appropriate way. It’s the unappropriate use os such “trend” (and overusing of course) which is bad.
I’d add the “twitter bird” – you can see it all over the place now, especially on designers own websites. Maybe they don’t realize, that their target audience are NOT other designers and that their target audience has (well most of the time) no clue, what that bird is and what it means.
@jrosell
October 5, 2009What’s wrong about Reflective Text or Objects, Aqua Buttons and Flourishes?
Carlos Zambrano
October 5, 2009Great post… a think the biggest ternd of our days its the right or left side Advertisement!!!!
Carlos Zambrano
October 5, 2009Another trend was the Gif’s animations… in the backgrounds, in the icons….
Lauren
October 5, 2009On polaroids: “…it’s doubtful that anyone born after 1990 has ever seen one in person,” -Great Scotts! You’re absolutely right! Shudder. Wow, I suddenly am a bit more aware of my age! I enjoyed reading this very much, hilarious and nostalgic look back on the web. Great job. Long live flourishes! lol
Vladimir
October 5, 2009Great post!! Like it a lot
Toni
October 5, 2009Great post! I’m a web design n00b but thankfully have only committed one crime on this list so far. Time for those Polaroids to go I think!
Marco
October 5, 2009Really useful… I Gotta go, Time to open PS and resize my Twitter/Rss icons!
Adrian
October 5, 2009Ketchup or mustard. LOL!
bibox
October 5, 2009As the marquee one, I can see at this time some websites with the , still exist unfortunately.
Great post !
Stu Greenham
October 5, 2009haha awsome post! some classics right there!
SEOux Indianer
October 5, 2009Ah at the moment my most hated design component are the faceless white and glossy characters .. example here: http://suchmaschinenoptimierung.wingerter.be/ | I’m tired of them!
RK
October 5, 2009Another annoying trend I see all the time…
On portfolio websites, in huge type, “Hi, I’m a web designer. I make high quality websites.” Or insert some other type of work..but it all begins with HI, I’M A…
BebopDesigner
October 5, 2009What a brilliant article! A great way to look back a little (with better educated eye I guess)
Thanks for posting
LLtooljay
October 5, 2009Curious…I don’t have anything (I can reach to) that references what I once learned of years ago – but isn’t a black background [with reversed sans serrif type, i.e. white text] deemed MOST READABLE in study after study of users? If more recent studies have shed light on more updated behaviors/outcomes – I would love to learn more.
Michael Wilson
October 5, 2009I love it!
I think the whole ‘iPhone app site’ is going to be a big trend in the coming months. Every site that is advertising an iPhone app at the moment looks exactly the same!
kevin
October 5, 2009Unfortunately huge rss and twitter icons are far from dead. Even on sites about webdesign! Good post, dont agree though with the last point.
si
October 5, 2009lol the only thing this list is missing is diagonal lines and fat slab serif typefaces.
Hawke
October 5, 2009I’d say the handwritten titles or websites are an overly used trend. It was cool at first because people would draw sketches and put them online, which was a fun combination of media.
Now, there are fonts and elements made directly on the computer to look sketch-like and artistic.
It’s a great skill and style in moderation, but now it’s just everywhere.
Matt
October 5, 2009This was an excellent list. It made me laugh a few times. Funny how most of the bad trends were all popular around the same time, which happened to be when I was getting into web design haha.
theComplex
October 5, 2009Great post! The marquee and frames gave me a painful chill up my spine. Lol.
Kiley
October 5, 2009I have a comment about the stock photography.
As designers it is our job to show clients the value of professional photography, but if they don’t have the budget what is the next best solution? You can’t help that some clients (80%) will not be able to afford a photographer.
Louis
October 5, 2009Nice list. I think many of these weren’t too overused, but would definitely fall into the category of “bad design”.
However, you definitely should have included “rounded corners”!
Louis
October 5, 2009Nice list. I think many of these weren’t too overused, but would definitely fall into the category of “bad design”.
However, you definitely should have included “rounded corners”!
Tom
October 5, 2009I think the marquee is going to be retro-coolness!! We have to wait till Apple is going to use the marquee-tag. Or maybe I’d need to use it first so I’ll have the most cool website on earth.
Oreana
October 5, 2009Great list
I think a trend that is newer but starting to get annoying is the huge radial gradients/ fuzzy lights effect in the background at the tops of pages.
Another is pages that have a sky at the top, some stuff in the middle, and maybe a city or an underground view at the bottom. Or, sky then sea. Etc.
Catherine Azzarello
October 5, 2009Love the Polaroids comment! I used Polaroid “frames” in a print piece back in 1989. Before that, Crate&Barrel (I did their ad and catalog production work) used Polaroid “frames”, circa 1983-4.
My oldest was born in 1989…and maybe he remembers our Polaroid camera–or not. It’s truly a throwback to another generation!
Travis
October 5, 2009Another annoying trend:
Static webpage footers!
Narrow columns that make you have to scroll infinitely down to read an entire article!
Yes, I’m looking at you!
retrogaming
October 5, 2009Good list, but what I like the best about this article is that Jacqueline plays the Super Nintendo.
Matt
October 5, 2009The whole ‘Mac look’ is starting to get a little played out…soft gradients, the letterpress effect.
I can see that being as banal as some of the things on this list 5 years from now (or less).
Corinne
October 5, 2009Awww I actually like flourishes BUT they have appeared quite a lot in many websites. To be honest, I haven’t seen some of these (frames, marquee, comic sans, counters, splash pages) in a long time. Thank goodness!
I think everybody else is finally catching up with the rest of us.
Nick Mattern
October 5, 2009How this site is an authority on what NOT to do is a joke.
Banner blindness anyone?
Jho
October 5, 2009uhmmmm, can you give me some advise?
I’m using MS Expression Web, any advice for me?
Jay
October 5, 2009THANK YOU for mentioning the enormous RSS/Twitter icons. That trend has got to go.
Another trend worth mentioning are “Superfooters”. Don’t get me wrong I like them, but I’m starting to see them get a bit out of control.
It’s fine to have stuff like tags, sitemap, and new posts, but people have a tendency to put way too much down there. Nobody wants to see your last.fm station, flickr feed, last 5 tweets, current mood, and what you’re having for dinner on every page.
Balis Wendell
October 5, 2009Sites that break articles up into 5 or 6 pages with a paragraph or two on each page. It’s a pain, and a sleezy way to try and inflate page views.
Sites designed by marketing professionals who know squat about the web. Typically they make brochure sites, any corporate web site that is little more than a web version of their generic company glossy brochure. It tells you the company has no clue regarding the Internet. Often these type of sites use colors and layout that is based on a print piece.
Rahul - Web Guru
October 5, 2009I remembers the yester-years when I just began web designing and were doing the most of them listed in the article.
Nice compilation.
Ron Graham
October 5, 2009Honestly, I’m surprised there’s no mention here of the Dreaded Lake Applet.
jamEs
October 5, 2009This is a pretty mixed list. You start with new trends, then bag on trends that have generally been dead for 5+ years (frames, resolution choosing splash pages, counters). I was sure before I even reading the list you would mention rounded corners.
existdissolve
October 5, 2009One word: SUNBURSTS.
devans00
October 5, 2009The only problem I have with this list is that most items are written as past tense. Unfortunately my biggest gripes, Auto Play Music and Flash Pages with no Escape, are still common and used a lot.
I think you should include the unnecessarily narrow columns that make you scroll forever in your next list on this top.
Squaregirl
October 5, 2009I love that this ad randomly loaded for me at the top of this post: http://bit.ly/k39SA
That is “torn notebook paper”, no?
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