"One of the most important things in making a great web design is to follow the latest industry trends."
That is terrible advice. In GUI design (yes, GUI, because we aren't talking about command line or some other non-graphical UI), as in any software design, you should follow patterns and strategies that have been proven over time, not chase whatever trend artists and suits happen to be drooling over at the moment.
Chasing trends is how we got buttons that look exactly like normal text, over abuse of padding that wastes so much screen real estate, infinitely scrolling pages that ruin reliable navigation, and a million other bits of cruft that look good in an artist's mockup but prove useless and even harmful in actual production. Just because some developers are jumping their sites off a bridge after the latest fad doesn't mean you have to follow them.
Thank you for your comment, Jay! We totally agree. It's not a good idea to blindly implement all the trends, but one should carefully choose the ones that are best for their product or website (if any).
User experience is above everything, we're not making products to simply look good, but for users to like them and to enjoy using them.
However, it's important to stay informed about the news in design, like in any other domain or industry. That's what we wanted to say :) We'll update this paragraph.
Hi Jay, you are right when designing an application for enterprises. Design should not impact usability for that matter. But websites on the other hand are usually for creating conversion for potential customers, which probably feel more intrigued by a new trend in design.
The same that you are probably more intrigued by this year's Nike shoes than last year's.
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"One of the most important things in making a great web design is to follow the latest industry trends."
That is terrible advice. In GUI design (yes, GUI, because we aren't talking about command line or some other non-graphical UI), as in any software design, you should follow patterns and strategies that have been proven over time, not chase whatever trend artists and suits happen to be drooling over at the moment.
Chasing trends is how we got buttons that look exactly like normal text, over abuse of padding that wastes so much screen real estate, infinitely scrolling pages that ruin reliable navigation, and a million other bits of cruft that look good in an artist's mockup but prove useless and even harmful in actual production. Just because some developers are jumping their sites off a bridge after the latest fad doesn't mean you have to follow them.
Thank you for your comment, Jay! We totally agree. It's not a good idea to blindly implement all the trends, but one should carefully choose the ones that are best for their product or website (if any).
User experience is above everything, we're not making products to simply look good, but for users to like them and to enjoy using them.
However, it's important to stay informed about the news in design, like in any other domain or industry. That's what we wanted to say :) We'll update this paragraph.
Hi Jay, you are right when designing an application for enterprises. Design should not impact usability for that matter. But websites on the other hand are usually for creating conversion for potential customers, which probably feel more intrigued by a new trend in design.
The same that you are probably more intrigued by this year's Nike shoes than last year's.