Web Designs are Getting too Complicated

Oi, designers - quick yarn

Can we stop cramming every design trick into every website? I love a good animation as much as anyone. But using these award-winning sites is painful.

Let's be honest: you're designing to impress other designers, not users. And that's the problem.

When you shop online, you want to find the product, check the price, see delivery options, and buy. Simple. Instead we get auto-playing videos, excessive animations, aggressive pop-ups, and disappearing text. It's frustrating.

The numbers don't lie

Google's research shows users form opinions about websites in 50 milliseconds. If your site takes over 3 seconds to load, you've lost 53% of mobile users. Amazon found every 100ms delay costs them 1% of sales.

Yet here we are - the average website now weighs around 2.5MB according to HTTP Archive. That's heavier than the original Doom game.

Great design should solve problems, not create them. It helps people find what they need without friction. And you know what? Most of the best websites are visually boring but incredibly functional.

The human touch

Look, I get it. Being showcased in design awards, feels great. But user satisfaction, conversion rates, and accessibility scores matter more. Stop treating those awards as the ultimate success metric.

The websites that stick aren't the ones with clever animations. They're the ones that solved problems quickly and got out of the way. Good design is invisible.

The web exists to connect people and share information. Let's not confuse it with an art gallery.