Great website design used to include a fair amount of flashy animations and effects. Why? Because the dawn of the internet was new – business websites were a new idea. It was absolutely mind blowing that someone could somehow turn pixels into a visual effect in the way we had access to from our own homes.
Flashy animations and effects meant big money – if a company could afford a designer who could do that, then it undeniably equaled authority and trust.
However, those days are gone. Adding animations and effects looks more like a middle schooler’s PowerPoint presentation these days than it does a professional business. Why is that?
Great Website Design
Great website design focuses on functionality and user experience above anything else. When websites lose sight of their user experience, they end up with a website that looks more like Barney Stinson’s video resume than it does like a sales or informational tool.
Confused about the reference? For your viewing pleasure:
All flash and no substance does not impress or fool today’s consumer who cares about one thing and one thing only: what can you do for me?
Unless your flashy animations and effects add to the bits of your website people find important, it’s honestly best to leave them in 2008 (or maybe even earlier) with ol’ Barney.
Website Features Consumers Care About
- User-Friendly Interface
- Responsive Design
- Fast Load Times
- Engaging & Clear Visuals
- Relevant & Compelling Content
A great website design balances these features together for a website that is both user-friendly and visually appealing, no flashy animations and effects necessary.
Why Great Web Design Focuses On These Areas
When visiting your website, consumers first and foremost care about a user-friendly interface. All great website design needs to be intuitive and easy to navigate. A clear and well-organized interface allows users to find what they need quickly and efficiently. Flashy animations or effects tend to interfere with what your visitor is trying to do and may frustrate them more than it captivates them.
Mobile devices are making up more and more of the percentage of devices used to access websites. Because of that, they expect websites to be responsive and adapt seamlessly to different screen sizes. A mobile-friendly design ensures a positive user experience, regardless of whether they’re using a tablet, phone, or computer to access it. It’s difficult to scale many intricate effects or animations across screen sizes and will undoubtedly interfere with the user experience.
Today’s consumer has very little patience for waiting for websites to load. They expect pages to load quickly and efficiently. A lightning fast and responsive website is going to increase conversions and user experience much more than a flashy visual can. Great website design needs to prioritize efficiency and optimization over clunky animations.
Engaging, rather than flashy, and clear, rather than impressive, are vital to convey your message, products, and services. The quality of your images, videos, and graphics are imperative to the quality your website conveys. Websites with bold, beautiful photos perform better than those that have no photos and better than websites that have loads of distracting imagery or videos.
This may be the point that underlines the Barney Stinson video more than anything: relevant content that’s compelling impresses visitors much more than anything that carries a lot of bang and no substance does.
Striking A Balance
This is not all to say that you have to forgo animations and effects altogether. Striking a balance between visual appeal and value to the customer is vital to a website’s success. You can do this by adding subtle effects to draw attention to important information. A clever animation here and there also moves the eye through to the flow of information in the proper order. Flashy effects often overpower the user experience and ultimately affect conversions and bounce rate.
The Bottom Line
Polarity Design Team is an experienced graphic and web design company well-versed in beautiful, functional, effective website design. Their designers can advise on the use of animations and effects and create a balance within your site that is visually appealing, user friendly, and most importantly, effective. Reach out when you’re ready to start!
