In this video, learn how to create a timeless website that stays relevant and visually appealing by avoiding fleeting trends, focusing on your unique branding, keeping designs clean and spacious, and following essential accessibility guidelines.

Make your website stand the test of time with my expert tips!

Transcript below!

00:01 Hello welcome back to the Calibrated Concepts channel, my name is Ellie. I am a geek who is obsessed with Squarespace, Shopify, and a lot of other simple systems in your businesses like Sana Devsado, and I spent a lot of time over here talking about that.
00:20 I fell in love with website, website design because I find that a really strategic website acts as such a base in a core system in your business and then you can connect it to so many other systems in your business to streamline, simplify, create consistency, and so that's where I fell in love with websites
00:39 . Today I want to talk about how to create a timeless website or a website that doesn't go out of fashion or trend really, really quickly.
00:51 So the thing about websites and in all design is that there will always be trends, there will always something that is in style for the moment, visually things that move on over time.
01:07 Millennials have a certain style for their homes, their fashion, etc. Gen Z is totally different, Gen Alpha is different again after that, and that goes the same for websites.
01:18 There's rules in website design around how you structure things and how you space things and how to make sure things are accessible and good for SEO, but at the same time, occasionally these rules should and can be broken if it makes strategic sense for your business.
01:37 Let's start. So the first thing I want to mention is avoiding trends. Trends come and go in website design so fast.
01:50 I've been designing websites for the last 5-6 years and some of the ones I've seen come and go super duper fast would be loads and loads of animation, really heavily relying on handwritten script fonts.
02:04 Now I have one of those on my website but again that's been strategic and I use it really minimally. Lots and lots of overlaid elements which I think looks so messy.
02:18 And yes it's visually fun but as far as how that works for accessibility, how that works for screen readers, how that's going to be working for things like SEO, it is a little more complicated and it just looks it with people maybe with visual impairments in their their struggling to see all those elements
02:39 . other things like really bright colors sometimes, lots and lots of colors, lots of motion, parallax scrolling was really big and it's having a bit of a comeback, so there's a lot of things that come and go.
02:51 None of these things are wrong and there's no bad thing about incorporating some of these elements if they really fit well with your brand.
03:01 I also remember when I very first got into website design, there was a lot of these really beige coach websites.
03:08 There were just loads and loads of these very, very beige, Neutral designed websites, and you're seeing less and less of those because you can't stand out if everyone looks the same.
03:18 So, I would, I'm going to show you a couple of examples, not of any one specific website because I don't want to call anyone out like that, but just of some general things.
03:27 So let's hop over to that and take a look at some of these.
03:32 Alright, so this is a really old website, and there's still a few of these websites that just exist really well into the years, but you can see how everything here is really, really cluttered, they're using loads of different colors, there's no space, and it makes it feel really, really dated.
03:52 The images are not great quality, so just, that's one way, one thing to kind of, we're going to get into more of these elements, but some of these things are what I mean.
04:02 There's another old website, for kind of an odd thing, but you can see they've gotten images of background, like for the whole site, which used to be a really big thing, loads of bright colors that aren't super easy to read, animations, and a lot of these older sites had, actually had audio and things
04:17 like that as well, so there's a couple of older examples of sites, but here's some more modern things, so this is just Pinterest, and I want to show you without calling anyone at all specifically.
04:28 Some of these things that, some of these websites at the top are really really timeless, and I love that, but you'll see as I scroll, there's a lot of websites that have a lot of things that are like layered over each other and kind of hard to read, you'll see there's a lot of websites that, are busy
04:45 in ways that don't, will not stand up to the test of time, you will also see that there's a lot of websites that are just kind of hard to read because of, again, script fonts or squished together elements, And yeah, they might be really fun or have lots of personality, and if it suits the brand, sometimes
05:06 that's really good, but you have to be so, so careful. Alright, and some of them, and even Squarkspace, they have loads and loads of really good templates.
05:19 They have almost 200 these days, and uhm, they have some that feel really nice, and like they'll stand the test of time.
05:27 And then they have some that are really busy, or really bright, or have loads of these overlapping elements. And, to be honest, I don't think they will be the type of websites people are using in a few years.
05:39 However, for the right type of business, it makes a lot of sense to have something with these moving elements, and these fun shapes, and big bold fonts, and things like that.
05:47 And there's still a lot of space, you'll notice, in this website. Still so much clean, open space. So there's still a lot going well for this website, as you'd expect from a professionally designed website by Squarespace designers.
06:03 But there's still a lot of this that will not stand the test of time, is I think what I'm trying to say.
06:10 So, here's some more rules for you.
06:23 Okay, so now that we've talked about avoiding trends, which is probably the number one thing, I want to talk a little bit more about how to do it right, right?
06:33 As opposed to just the things to avoid. So, how to build a timeless website, and caveat, there's no such thing as timeless as we kind of discussed.
06:43 However, you want to build a website that lasts ages, and doesn't feel like it's out of style six months later, a year later, this is what you do.
06:50 You focus on your own branding, your own message, and you know, your website, my website, is not, doesn't look like everyone else's.
07:01 It's not boring. It uses some trendy things, like it uses some non-traditional lines, at the page sections, it uses some script fonts that, although I'd say that's actually kind of gone the wayside, that's probably old news at this stage, but I kept it because it fits my brand.
07:18 I use some really big bold colors in my burgundy, but, I only, I use it, really, I don't use my yellow as much as I'd like because, again, I'm trying to keep it simple.
07:29 So, I'm very consistent in my own branding, I'm authentic to my own brand, I'm not trying to go and look like someone else's website, I'm not, you know, I'm using my fonts, my colors, my pictures, my style, I've even gone as far as having someone to do my, the illustrations on my website because, again
07:50 , I really felt strongly about them being all matching and being really in line with my brand. by going deep into what I have to offer, my own style, my own brand, what I want to convey and how I want to convey it on my website, as opposed to looking at the outside world, it's going to stand the test
08:09 of time because it's so deeply on brand. I think that really where you should go deep. And again, if when it's on brand, that's where you can break some of those rules.
08:22 Okay, the other thing that helps make a website feel timeless, and this is a biggie, is keeping things clean and spacious.
08:32 High-end websites don't have all that cramped There's stuff that website with all the bikes and things did. You have loads of open space.
08:41 You let pictures to say things, a picture's worth a million words. I can't tell you the number of times I put icons on websites to convey a point, to make things more skimmable.
08:53 You are really strategic with layout and design and what you're asking people to do and inviting them to take those next steps repeatedly.
09:01 But, again, you're keeping it open and clean and spacious. So that's thing number three. less is more on your website.
09:10 I think a lot of times people feel like they need to over-explain in their text. People won't always read all of that.
09:17 You need, or you might feel like you need to over-show if you are a designer or architect or something. But, again, visually less is more.
09:25 People want some really good examples of your work, but they don't need to see everything you've ever done. And thing number four for a timeless and long-lasting website is to follow accessibility guidelines.
09:40 This matters because a. you're going to avoid any lawsuits, b. you're going to probably more importantly b. serving a larger portion of your community, and you're also going to boost your SEO scores, and you're going to again be future-proofing your website.
09:58 So things that matter, this is just a real hit quick hit points, but are things like contrast of colors, making sure that things are readable.
10:08 Again, if you're going to pick a script font, make sure you pick a really readable one, or use it super duper sparingly in a couple of headings.
10:15 Making sure that your images are, have alt text. You want to make sure That there's keyboard navigation and all these kinds of things, that there's space around things, those overlapping, that's one of my pet peeve trends at the moment, but all those overlapping elements can be really hard to read.
10:35 Visually also, If you're read the website, then, as opposed to being able to visually see it, having all these overlapping images and things aren't gonna make it, make a lot of So again, use, if you're using these kinds of things, use them so, so sparingly.
10:50 Finally, that's it. Those are my main points. if you want your website to stay on the test of time, avoid trends, stick with your own branding and go deep on it, keep things open, clean, spacious, and make sure to follow accessibility guidelines.
11:10 If you found this video to be useful, please I'd love it if you could hang out here, like the video, follow it, leave comments if you have questions or additions to this video because there's a lot that goes into web design.
11:20 And if you, go ahead and take these forward, use them on your website, let me know if you do. And if you want some help on how to accomplish all of this, you can always book a power hour with me.
11:35 You can find the details on that in the description.