Features in website design are quite fleeting in
nature. Some of the features are regulated by necessity like mobile-friendly
responsive designs. With the rise of the smartphone users in the world, it is
obvious why you need a responsive design for your site, one can easily fit any
screen. But before you follow or discard a trend, you should think about your
audience, their needs and requirements and how it can impact your business.
Let’s talk about three features which are quite ‘cool’ and are making quite a
noise; but it is for you to decide whether you should use it for your business.
The use of the hamburger menu
It is quite a common feature in websites these days.
Designers are trying to simplify the navigation process and all the items in
the menu are hidden under the hamburger menu. This may look appealing, because
this makes the site look clean and tidy. But this may not be very beneficial
for news sites and e-commerce sites where the topics need to be discovered to
grab the attention of the users. In fact, studies have proven that using a
hamburger menu can distract the audience and may cause unnecessary friction.
This is not desirable for websites, and many website design company has
voted against it. In fact, if studies are to be believed it is said hidden
navigation can create a feeling of alienation among users. How do you know if
the hamburger menu is for your business? If the users do not fathom the menu,
they will not stick around for long. And if they are not clicking on the
hamburger menu for details of the site, you should know that something is
missing.
Should you use parallax scrolling?
More and more websites are using parallax scrolling.
With this technique in place, the foreground and the background scroll at
varied speeds, creating an illusion of depth. This can work wonderfully for
some sites. But users have pointed out certain issues. Most texts tend to be
embedded in the graphics in case of sites which use parallax scrolling; leaving
very little text that can be searched by search engines. This is not really
conducive for SEO. Due to the use of heavy graphics and complex things like
Javascript, these pages can often get clogged and takes longer time to load
resulting in impatience among its users. This creates problem for mobile users
where the sites which use parallax scrolling take a mammoth time to load. Ask any
website designing company and they will elaborate more on this.
Avoid using complex typography
It is always better to limit the use of typefaces to
not more than two. Too many of the typefaces can result in confusion. The site
also looks cluttered which may be a problem for the users. Also, come to think
of the readability factor, the text will be a chaotic jumble. If you are really
keen to use typefaces, you can experiment with the fonts so that the
presentation is clear. Nothing works like a clean presentation which also
increases the impact of the brand. The typefaces and fonts should complement with
each other; they should not jostle with each other for the user’s attention.
Think about the requirements of your business and
decide on what aspects of design will work best for you. Not everything is
meant for you, but there will be certain techniques which will work wonders for
your business.
