Hello there! Welcome to this blog where we talk about traditional web design, its pros and cons, its alternative and some of the trends that are now popular in the web design world. There are basically two kinds of web design: traditional and mobile web design. A traditional website design is the classic way to tackle website design, whereas mobile websites are, for the most part, accessed on a smartphone or a tablet whilst on the go: walking down the street, shopping, eating out, etc. Browsing conditions are therefore different for mobile users compared to traditional users when surfing the Internet.

Traditional web development refers to the act of taking a web framework such as HTML, ASP.NET or PHP and building a website from the ground up. This includes setting up everything from database connections, to setting up database tables, creating separate files for your Contact Us and Products page, and the list goes on.  A traditional website generally hosts a lot of information and many pages; it is accessed either from home or the workplace.

Simple forms or marketing examples of websites, such as classic website, a five-page website or a brochure website are often static websites, because they present pre-defined, static information to the user. This may include information about a company and its products and services through text, photos, animations, audio/video, and navigation menus. Each page is coded in HTML and displays the same information to every visitor. Static sites are the most basic type of website and are the easiest to create. A static site can be built by simply creating a few HTML pages and publishing them to a Web server. Since static Web pages contain fixed code, the content of each page does not change unless it is manually changed by the webmaster. This works well for small websites, but it can make large sites with hundreds or thousands of pages difficult to maintain. 

A traditional website is a self-contained project with a well-defined finish line, as opposed to ongoing efforts. A traditional web design is familiar and it is what most people think of when they think of website design or redesign and thus is considered the safe option.These traditional websites can be accessed only via a computer and no other devices. This is what makes it better for smaller businesses starting out with few customers.

There are many disadvantages to traditional website design:

1. Large Cost – Even though it is a single expense, it can be a large one-time payment! This payment is usually up front and a huge amount.

2. Change Not Accounted For – Extra features and unforeseen requirements can create cost increases or timeline alterations. Additionally, if any changes are needed once the site is complete, you’ll pay for those new, unplanned features.Design timelines and project scope can shift if your requirements change mid-design.

3. Traditional Web Design Results Are Not User-Driven – The project will have a lot of input from the agency, the designer, and the client, but little will be based on the actual user, how they interact with the site, or what they want.The usability of the website is compromised.

4. Website Redesign Takes a Long Time – The visitors will be met with the “Under Construction” graphic on the website for a few months. This situation is not ideal for business as a major platform of communication will be down. If your customers cannot access your website, they will feel discontent and frustrated.  A traditional web design will begin going obsolete as soon as it’s launched.

To add to the point for traditional website design, conventional or traditional web design is the right option for some brands. Those companies that have brilliant marketing momentum and an old fashioned website may choose to invest in a traditional web design approach. If they have more than 10,000 monthly visitors and exceptional marketing assets that don’t include excessive paid search, traditional web design might be the right choice for them.

Now what is the alternative option to traditional web design? A newer inbound approach to website design called growth-driven design. This approach helps get rid of or overcome the cons of using a traditional web design. Traditionally, web design was often a long and drawn out process, where every feature was considered, planned for and then rigidly built into a site, with no room for flexibility or changes. However, growth driven design (GDD) has risen to challenge that, taking on board lean and flexible principles to create a new approach to website design.

With growth driven design approach, you design your site in phases using an agile approach and get a launch pad website up in one month. It is from here where you can immediately measure impact of the new design and evaluate user behavior and data over the first month. Then you can work on your design and content monthly based on consumer behavior of your target personas to make your site better and more efficient, making small, gradual changes like landing page optimization, word choice changes, Call to Action (CTA) buttons, premium content placement, etc. Along the way you also build a prioritized wish list of additional items you would like to apply  to your design that take into account new changes to your business or additional requirements. 

One of the primary advantages growth driven designs over more traditional web design is the speed at which the business can get their new website up and running. By focusing on getting a launch pad site completed first, with only the business-critical functions implemented, the business can have a new and different looking website up and collect data much faster than with a traditional, website design.

Another benefit of growth driven design is that it allows you to begin collecting customer data about your new website quicker. The business will be able to analyse how the customers are interacting with the site, where they are converting, and which elements of the basic launch pad site have been working well. Whereas traditional web design would have companies are kept waiting longer before the launch of the site for all the functionality to be added, with growth driven design the company can begin making the website better, and quicker, as well as identify which areas the main focus should be on for improvement in future development sprints.

Growth driven design is mainly built around the idea of making optimisations after the launch pad website is launched. This means one can make refinements their priorities, plan out the direction of the website, and change based on the data collected or changes in priority, rather than being locked into a long-term plan with a more rigid website and web strategy. Rather than having an agreed upon a final point as in traditional web design, growth driven design plans to have development and design resources available to make these different  refinements, based on the data collected from the launch pad website, as well as the business goals. This gives a massive advantage to businesses to grow and improve their websites.

By keeping in mind how customers are interacting with the website, and where the company can make improvements in the web design, companies make their websites easier and more professional looking. Giving customers exactly what they want and need, you make the customers happy and content and encourage them to visit your website more often. This increases traffic on your website. This is always an advantage for acquiring new customers and keeping the old ones and increasing revenue.

As oppose to the traditional web design method of paying for the entire website, something that can be extremely costly, growth driven design focuses on getting a cheaper launch pad website ready first, then undertaking additional work after that. This approach helps in keeping charge of the budget as the decisions about which areas one would like to focus on are based on the predicted cost effectiveness of any changes made.

In traditional web design, a business would have to have their entire website redesigned on average once every two to three years. In the gap after launch to the release of a new website, changes can be much harder to implement, and leaves the business lacking behind on the latest trends in the industry.

Speaking of trends, let us look at some of the popular styles on trend now. Humans tend to have poor attention spans and impatient. In studies done by Akamai and Gomez.com, 50% of users expect that when they click on a site, it should load in two seconds or less and that they will abandon a site if it takes three or more seconds to load.

It can be seen, a beautiful site is a beautiful site, but if the design is so data-heavy that it takes too long to download, you could be losing loads of revenue due to no one sticking around to even look at your site. Even worse, with the Google Speed Update that went into effect in July 2018, Google has begun prioritizing rankings for sites that load faster than others, and it’s likely that other search engines are soon to follow. This basically means that websites need to be made faster and quick to load in order to make the websites easier to find. Making faster, quicker websites are now a popular trend!

Flat designing is another popular trend! In 2017, designers and developers began creating clean and simple websites for better mobile performance. This really provided a boost to using the internet on mobile devices. Since then, the number of mobile searches has gone ever-upward, and mobile-first design for websites is now a necessity, not just an option. Image-heavy websites load slowly and frustrate mobile users.

Clean, minimalist designs, or flat designs, are characterized by loading quickly and are currently trendy and desirable for two important reasons. First, both mobile users and desktop browsers can experience quick-loading websites. Secondly, they can hold high SEO value. Flat design helps a site fulfill a lot of the speed requirements that search engines are starting to require.

With mobile sites taking priority away from desktop sites, it’s obvious that mobile first design has become a trend. Mobile first web design is about changing the way that websites are designed fundamentally. Traditional web design used to be that a site would only be designed for a desktop or laptop computer and a mobile-friendly or mobile responsive design might be added as well. Mobile first design does just the opposite: it starts with designing the site for the mobile user first before creating a version that will also work for a desktop user.

This push toward mobile first design isn’t just based on ranking factors or SEO. The visual result is something that will first and foremost enhance the user’s experience with the website on the device that they will most likely be searching from. This design trend is meeting the demand that mobile users are requiring and will likely be the trend for a long time to come.

Traditions are not static. Instead, they are constantly evolving with time. New technology brings new thoughts, new ideas and new ways of doing things. These changes should be embraced, especially when they are so beneficial!