It’s 2012, and with the recent additions of responsive websites, it seems that the web world is getting a lot more simpler. From Ipads to Iphones, Android Phones, it seems that if your website is not mobile phone ready, then you are behind the curve. This brings us to the 5 things that are wrong with interactive web design.
1. Websites with Flash Animation
Though there is really nothing wrong with flash design, because you can do some really exciting things with flash design, but it all comes back to being mobile phone friendly, which flash is not. Actually, I don’t ever anticipate it being mobile phone friendly. In my opinion, in a couple of years, flash and web design will cease to exist, at least when it comes to sites that are going to be viewed on a mobile level. *Sidebar* Flash for Educational sites for children is incredible! (Maybe a future blog!)
The reason why flash is becoming so unproductive is because it has its own platform, it acts as an imbed, rather than a coding language. The answer to this as of late has been the introduction or the revival of Jquery, Json, and all of these other client side coding languages that are taking precedence over flash, because they’re doing the same exact thing, but with coding languages, and this not only is mobile phone friendly, but SEO friendly, not that flash can’t be SEO friendly, but is it truly SEO friendly, probably not! I’m truly convinced that flash animation will never go away, but I do believe that we will have to get a little bit more creative when it comes to using it in the future.
2. Unique and Innovative Navigation
Though on a regular desktop or laptop platform, this distinctive GUI for unique navigation can “WOW” your users, but the actual benefit of having them is most likely, next to none. The problem is because most websites being viewed on a mobile scale, will minimize the navigation to a small box in the upper right hand corner. So the solution really, is a standard navigation. You really don’t have to reinvent the wheel, there is plenty of standard navigations seen on a large scale that will give your website style and class, and on a mobile scale will degrade rather nicely.
3. Creative & Abstract Design
Websites can be creative, and still carry the business and professional feel that you desire. You don’t have to be so abstract. Matter of fact, abstract websites, carries the potential to push your customers away, rather than generate business. You want your website to work for you, and most consumers are used to doing things a certain way, like surfing the web. *Helpful Hint* Consumers don’t like change! * Don’t try to change things around so much, that you create a usability issue. Remember, you have about 8 seconds to impress a customer. If they can’t figure out how to navigate through your website within the first 8 seconds of their visit, you’ve lost a potential customer.
4. The Absence of SEO
Many people, and many companies have no clue what Search Engine Optimization is. Matter fact, many people think that it’s just this magical thing that happens when you place your website on the internet. As many of you all know, SEO takes much and perpetual work. Now the absence of SEO, doesn’t really have anything to do with what’s wrong with interactive web design, but it does have something to do with the sole importance of having a website. Why do we have websites, to create an awareness of our products or services, and if people can’t find you, how will they ever know what products or services you offer.
The answer is that we should tag everything that should or could be tagged, attach keywords to our blogs, and web pages, and do relevant searches on the words that you are using. So whether you are being viewed on a major platform or mobile platform, you will be able to be found, and efficiently viewed by the consumer.
5. Static Vs. Interactive Websites
Just because your static website is not attached to a content management system, or have some kind of flash in it, doesn’t mean that it can’t be as creatively effective as the ones that are. Remember your javascript and jquery is still supported on the mobile platforms, so your website will still degrade rather nicely. Be aware of this though, that you are not using a lot of scripting languages such as PHP, to power your website, so proportion your website strategically. Make sure that if you are going to load your websites with pictures and text that you do some research on what pixel sizes work better on mobile platforms.
Closing
So as you can see, there is nothing really wrong with interactive web design, but too much of anything is not good. This may be an old cliché, but less is more. With normal scale websites, you want to draw attention to the product or service, and not beat around the bush. So maybe we can take something away from the uprising of mobile websites, by designing strictly to the product or service, rather than trying to fluff the site up, giving the impression of more, when there isn’t, and there doesn’t really need to be.
God Bless!
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