6 Annoying Web Design Trends Which You Need To Stop Now

The first impression matters the most in any business. Especially, when it is an e-commerce website attracting new visitors daily. Just like a brick and mortar store is decorated to impress the customers, an online store should be embellished with elegant web design. It should look so attractive that even the first-timers are drawn to explore more.

While designing a site, most of us make a mistake by going with the trend. Because we don’t have a clear idea of which design elements can annoy the viewer. We tend to imitate other site designs and end up creating troubles for our own audience. Poor site design is one of the chief reasons for low conversions.

So, in this article, we have researched and noted some most annoying web designs. Keep reading to know these elements and create a user-friendly website!

Preloaders

The attention span of internet users has reduced dramatically. We become frustrated when a site takes too long to load. Ultimately, most of us prefer to leave the site rather than waiting for it to open. To save this huge traffic collapsing, websites have come up with innovative preloaders.

 These preloaders can be animation, rotating dice, or loading dots. They are to keep the viewer engaged until the site opens. Unfortunately, most of the antigens don’t like this feature much. Because it signals them that the site is not going to load quickly.

Why is it used

Many webpages have a lot of graphics and content which can not be loaded at once. Preloaders try to divert the attention of the visitor from a long loading time.

The cons-  Visitors get frustrated by seeing a preloader every time they click on a site. It makes a not so good impression.

Leads to-  High bounce rates, low conversions

Solution- Instead of putting a preloader, upgrade your settings and optimize your page speed. So that it takes just four to seven seconds to load your webpages.

Annoying popups

We often bump into unwanted popups while scrolling through our favorite blog. They surprise us by coming out of thin air at the middle or end of an article.

Why is it used 

Besides consuming content, a website expects much more from you. For example, for further communication, a pop up will urge you to subscribe to their weekly newsletter. Or the website will demand you to like its social media posts. Popups also emerge to ask you permission for using cookies. But all these become heavily annoying when you have not even read the first line of the page.

The cons – Most of the popups are made large-sized to get better attention. But unfortunately, it works the other way around. Huge pop-ups tend to hide the actual content on the webpage. That is why the audience faces difficulty in viewing the content on the full screen. The problem gets bigger when people are surfing your site through their smartphones. Popups take away all the fun of reading an article. The viewer is disheartened and searches for the cross button to close the popups. If this hunt turns unsuccessful, he shuts off the site itself.

Leads to- Poor conversion, Tarnished brand image.

Solution- Instead of displaying popups in between a read, program it to appear when the viewer is leaving the site. And minimize the popups for smartphone users. Never show a popup just at the entrance.

Push notifications

This is another disturbing element similar to pop-ups. It always appears alongside popups asking permission from the viewer to receive notifications.

Why is it used

Websites want to keep reminding you of their existence. So, they will keep sending you notifications about the latest offers and updates so that you again visit their site.

The cons- Notifications start popping on your screen even when you are not using a particular website. That is really annoying when you are performing another task and a notification comes up.

Leads to – Decreasing interest and trust in the visitors for your site.

Hamburger Menu

Yes, we are talking about the 3 horizontal lines you see at the top left corner of your phone. The websites set this as their menu buttons.

Why is it used

Smartphones have a smaller display compared to a desktop. So, a single menu button saves the space and stores all the navigation keys inside it.

The cons- It is annoying to only the desktop users. Because all the important information gets hidden behind the hamburger menu.

Leads to – Poor user engagement, unsatisfactory user experience

Solution – Don’t use the hamburger menu in desktop view. Instead, show all the navigation buttons on the header as there is sufficient space.

Complicated captchas

Sometimes we encounter captchas that are difficult to decode. The fonts are confusing and each time we enter a response it says, the captcha entered is incorrect.

Why is it used

Captchas protect the website from spams and bots.

The cons- Many automatically generated captcha are confusing to decipher, sometimes they don’t function as well.

Leads to –  You will actually lose many of your qualified customers because your captcha system was poor.

Solution- Upgrade your captcha system to some better tools like Recaptcha, Akismet to prevent the malfunctions.

Infinite scrolling

Some sites have this feature-loaded. Here scroll as much you want, but you will never reach the end of the page.

Why is it used

 It especially suits the smartphone users. They don’t have to click a button and the page scrolls seamlessly, without any pause.

The cons- The viewer can’t get the contact info, login id which is commonly present at the footer.

Leads to – The audience is dissatisfied as they don’t get access to the information present in the footer.

So, this was the list of the most annoying web design elements. We would like to tell you some other obstacles like sticky headers, the notification for similar stories that make site viewing a less enjoyable experience. Another one is a button for Google plus which is of no use to the common audience. Still, it is in there just for the sake of Google SEO.

Conclusion

We will recommend you place user experience at the top while designing a website. Have a clear-cut structure of different elements that people can easily understand. It is not a good idea to crowd the webpage with unnecessary share buttons. Popups highly distract the audience from reading your content. So, use hyperlinks inside the text instead of popups. At last have a design that is interactive enough! Now that you know which elements to avoid, put your efforts to create a stunning design