Back in the day, web design revolved around wild and creative ideas, the most daring sites could only be brought to life through programs such as Flash. These overly creative web designs were focused on winning awards and bragging rights amongst the artistic community. If you think about it, in 1998, having a website was more of a bragging right. A lot of companies thought that wowing perspective clients with movement, sound, and graphics heavy sites was a legitimate way to earn their business. While these websites were entertaining, clever, and full of creative design ideas, they didn't exactly achieve business goals, and usually had no call to action.
Now that Flash is out of the picture, and HTML5, CSS3, Bootstrap, and amateur programs such as Squarespace and Wix are more common, it's obvious that web design has lost a small sense of creative appeal in exchange for functionality and convenience.
However, while web design may be growing more standard, it's also growing more and more intelligent. Web design is still about creative design and appealing to one's audience, but it's also more about creating conversions, meeting marketing goals, and remaining accessible across any device. Mobile technology is here to stay and it's imperative that web design keep this in mind. Websites most certainly must now be responsive if they want to survive in today's world. This requires designs to be more fluid, a little less fantastical, and built on a more strategic framework.
The end user has also become more experienced with the web. Through extensive research, we also now know a lot more about what an engaged web user will respond to on a website. Stripping some of the “fluff" to get our users the content they want quicker and frustration free usually means a higher conversion rate on your marking goals. This is a win - win. The end user gets a good experience and the website owner gets a better ROI.
So while current websites may look "the same" to some extent (slider/content block/content block/call to action/footer), there's no doubt that they are much more well-researched, planned, and structured to achieve a more complex end goal. Websites have become so standard to business that it's almost impossible to succeed without one. Luckily, there is still plenty of room for creativity and high-class design, which is why it's important to work with a qualified web shop when developing your website.
At Pixel Perfect, we are proud to be able to offer creative web design that is also functional. Our main priority for our clients is to help them achieve their marketing goals, not just to build them a pretty website. We believe that your website can and should be one of your top sales tools, and we would love to help you meet your goals.