420 Design Blog
Are you playing it safe with your website?
15 Feb 2008 | Angie H
We're web designers around here (duh) and of course, we need to kind of keep an ear to the ground in order to keep up with what's going on in the industry, both technology-wise and design-wise. Sure there are design trends that come and go and some that get beaten like a dead horse. But if there's one "trend" that I've noticed in the past couple of years, it's more general in nature than say, aqua style buttons.
The trend I'm thinking of is the richness, high-end quality and dimension in the layout and feel of web design. Just visit CSS Mania for 2 minutes and you'll get what I mean1. And to me, some of the best web design out there have this feel to them. (I say some because there's the uber-minimalist or simple yet elegant style that is quite appealing and much less common2.)
Unfortunately, I see a lot more sites that "play it safe" than go for a richer look and feel. I'm not saying every site has to have a 3D feel to it, layered elements, gradients, or some such "effect". There are beautiful sites out there with subtle details to them that, if taken away, would change the overall tone (again just take a look at CSS Mania and you'll see my point).
Instead, I see sites with overly simplistic layouts, such as the standard header, sidebar, main column and footer layout but with nothing to break up that obviousness. What's more, while the sites probably look fine they aren't memorable. And that's just a shame.
Let's be clear here though. Not every site design is going to be extraordinary and win a bunch of design awards or the recognition of web designers. There are business, project and branding parameters a designer must live within that drive the direction of the project. The point here, however, is not necessarily how far will the designer push (though that is crucial), but how far will you let him take you?
So what about your site? Are you playing it safe? Or is your next redesign going to take it to the next level?