Thoughts on modern web design

I have been surrounded by the internet for well over a decade, both leisurely and professionally, and I have seen my fair share of websites over that time. Design has definitely changed drastically, but our goals have stayed the same for the most part. We all still want our users to have a great experience navigating our sites, and we also want our points to transfer to our users effectively.

Modern web design has taken those concepts and muddled them. Most of the websites you interact with nowadays make you question if the animation-filled hero section is designed for your ease of use or if it is a showcase of someone's creative talents in Front-End design. There is a very fine line between design and animations intended to make the user's time on your website easier or if it's just a way for someone to show off what they can build for a website. Micro animations convey when something is interactable, thoughtfully revealing content to get your message across, Use of specific colors to drive attention to certain areas of your site. These are all methods that can be creatively used to create a UX that is clean and fluid. I have always thought modern websites would be minimalistic, clear, and easy to navigate. Spoiler alert I was wrong.

Websites are bloated and I am not talking about software bloat (ie. WordPress). Design bloat is everywhere. Dieter Rams has a principle that I have incorporated into my designs which is "Good design is as little design as possible". I see countless websites where they try to push bloated designs in the hopes of converting more people to do what they want. They bloat their website to try to get their messages across. You get messages across with the copy, the design should hold your user's hands by leading them clearly through the message you are trying to convey. This is true for landing pages, e-commerce stores, financial institutions, etc.

Modern tools allow us to quickly and easily add 'fancy' animations and visuals to websites. The animations that you can add to a website in a matter of a few hours using applications such as Framer & Webflow used to take you days to code before. Which does not mean that we should.

Now not all websites I come across are hyper-bloated. There are websites out there that feel extremely enjoyable to just be on. Those websites will always do better in every metric. I am also not saying that creative freedom on the web is a bad thing. We should push the limitations of our software and see what is possible with modern web development frameworks. I would even argue that personal websites are the perfect canvases for experimental design. Websites, where the user is expecting to get something done, purchase a product, or gather information, should not have design getting in their way of doing so.

Always build and design with the user in mind.