Updated April 2023
Each year, website design trends shift, and what was once popular becomes stale and outdated. It’s important to keep your author website’s style and technology current with the latest trends to give your content more validity and make it easier for visitors to navigate the information. But with so many options and new developments, how do you know what to keep and what to toss? The experts at Web Design Relief pay close attention to what’s hot and what’s not. To ensure your author website is on trend, consider updating any outmoded design elements.
Say Goodbye To These Author Website Design Trends
Clip Art: Those illustrated symbols, images, and pictures preloaded on your computer may be your go-to favorites (they’re just a few quick clicks away), but clip art can make your author website look old-school—and not in a cool ’70s-retro way. There are better ways to incorporate images and art on your website. You can use your smartphone to take high-quality photos, purchase stock photos, or hire a freelance artist to create custom artwork. Check out this article about banishing clip art.
Multiple Font Combinations: Yes, Google now offers countless fonts to choose from, and it can be difficult to select just one or two. However, using multiple fonts—especially a mix of serif, sans serif, and decorative fonts—can look unnecessarily busy and amateurish. Instead, we recommend sticking to one font or font family to make sure your website meets professional standards and current design aesthetics.
Infinite Scrolling: While having all of your content on one multi-leveled page was once very popular, scrolling…and scrolling…and scrolling is now falling out of favor. Many web designers realize it’s not as efficient and organized as using separate pages—plus having one large page can increase loading time, causing impatient visitors to bounce.
Autoplay: Have you ever been busy working or web browsing (or been web browsing when you should be working)—and suddenly unwanted audio blares from your computer, smartphone, or tablet? Autoplay videos and audio are annoying (and potentially embarrassing) to visitors who simply want to view your website’s content without unexpectedly hearing your voice echoing through the library or your favorite song suddenly serenading the entire office. If they want to view your videos or listen to your podcasts, they will! In addition, having autoplay content can cause unwanted data usage for mobile websites.
Separate Locations: Many website owners initially kept their main website content separate from their mobile sites and blogs. This multisite approach is becoming less popular than having a more convenient all-in-one website that allows visitors to easily find all of your content and establishes a strong brand identity.
Too Many Widgets: Widgets can be extremely helpful, but using an overabundance of these applications will make your website harder to navigate and can interfere with its functionality. It is possible to have too many widgets. Instead, use as few applications as possible per page, whether social media widgets, mailing list, chat bot, etc.
Splash Pages: A splash page is a logo, image, or message that launches your website prior to your interior pages. While these pages were once considered a great way to establish a brand identity, they are often slow to load and keep website visitors from getting to the content they came for. To keep your audience interested and engaged, speed and efficiency are key!
Not Having A Pleasing Color Palette: Two color trends are quickly making their exit: One is cramming as many colors as possible onto a website; the other is using monochromatic black and white. The first is much too distracting, while the second can be too boring! Instead, thoughtful use of complementary shades with pops of color can make your website look professional and appealing. Check out some color combination ideas here.
Animations: While animations can draw attention to certain spots on your website, they are losing their place on modern websites. Animations aren’t mobile-friendly, and nowadays most people view web content using mobile devices. Nothing looks as tacky and dated as an unresponsive graphic.
Default Themes: Default or standard website themes may look nice, but they aren’t an effective marketing strategy. They do not show the uniqueness of who you are as a writer or what you create, which can hurt your brand identity. A custom website is a marketing gold mine!
No Contact Form: Having your e-mail address on your author website is a big no-no—it’s a dangerous security risk that opens your e-mail and your website to spam. Communicating via contact forms is the better alternative. Always keep your website and your web visitors safe.
Customized Cursors And Scroll Bars: Does having a cursor of a book or a scroll bar shaped like a pencil seem like a good idea for your author website? It would be, if it were still 1995! Custom-designed cursors and scroll bars are now considered awkward and unwieldy, and they can divert the attention of your web visitors from what you actually want them to be noticing.
Keeping up with the latest trends will help you maintain a fresh, professional-looking author website—one that your readers and fans will visit again and again. If your website features some outdated elements, now’s the time to update and give your website an overhaul. Or, schedule a free consultation and let the experts at Web Design Relief create a new, great-looking author website for you!
Question: What website trend are you ready to say goodbye to?
My ethnicity is Mexican/Navajo Indian, grew up in American culture. I was founder & publisher of a
smallpress many years ago. (LaReina Press).
I write memoirs and stories.