5 ms·

Ask HN: What are some design trends that have died out in the last 2-5 years?

10 points by at-fates-hands 11y ago

I bring this up since our industry moves so fast, and I'm curious what others saw come and go either with a lot of fanfare and or nearly none at all, or something that didn't get a lot of attention fade away. The one that really hits me now is Parallax Scrolling. I remember everybody scrambling to use this in their sites less than a year ago and now almost nobody uses it anymore. What's your observation?

debacle 11y ago
Modals. They're used properly now, to a good extent, but 4-5 years ago everything was a modal. Hover states are also mostly gone from good design. Fixed-height layouts were a fad that I think is on the decline, for good reason.
- pducks32 11y ago
  I think modals and hover states to some extent were a response to bloated sites—at least on the web. They needed a new way to grab your attention. They used everything in their arsenal already and needed to drive your focus. Thankful—as Hagel would appreciate—the synthesis was to turn down the crazy flashing, colors, super explosion that many websites are—and sadly many remain.
- pjungwir 11y ago
  Hover doesn't work on mobile, so I'm not surprised it's disappearing. One trend I miss is the textured, paper-like backgrounds. It seems like they were everywhere a few years ago, and then they disappeared. I think Stripe had a background like that until just recently, and I thought of them as one of the last hold-outs.
deleted 11y ago
[deleted]
Raed667 11y ago
Metro design, I remember it was a big hype when Windows 8 was announced. I guess it was just a step towards Google's material design.
- at-fates-hands 11y ago
  They just renamed it "Microsoft Design Language" and is still very much around with their Windows 10 Platform: https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/stories/design/ https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/stories/design/ http://www.neowin.net/news/from-metro-to-microsoft-design-language-2-a-side-by-side-comparison http://www.neowin.net/news/from-metro-to-microsoft-design-la...
  - Raed667 11y ago
    But it used to be on bootstrap themes and WordPress templates and everywhere. Now It is only Microsoft.
tmaly 11y ago
its a little longer than 2-5 years but I remember https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bauhaus https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bauhaus was popular around 2001
MalcolmDiggs 11y ago
* Rounded corners * Gradients on buttons * Text shadows * Superfluous drop shadows * Videos as background images * Fading in, fading out * Sliding in, sliding out * And like you said, parallax. I'm so glad that's dead.
- J_Darnley 11y ago
  > Rounded corners They moved into the browser instead.
- jhildings 11y ago
  >* Rounded corners >* Gradients on buttons >* Text shadows >* Superfluous drop shadows Basically all of those were replace by "flat design" stuff right?
  - at-fates-hands 11y ago
    Almost every framework - Bootstrap, Foundation, Semantic UI, Skeleton and Gumby (which is dead now) all continue to use rounded corners in their buttons.
Nadya 11y ago
Scrolljacking. Smoothscroll is terrible, no I don't want to use it, thanks. I'd leave it enabled if that is how I wanted to scroll. The worst are the sites that decide if I want to scroll at all, I need to scroll in full-page intervals as if I had used the "Page Up" or "Page Down" buttons with a smooth transition.
amk_ 11y ago
Helvetica
jhildings 11y ago
What about the video backgrounds on webpages? Haven't seen them the last 8 months or so compared to early 2014 when everyone from Spotify to web agencies used them
BorisMelnik 11y ago
< 800 pixel width websites. I don't know this as a fact, but it really seems like a lot of older websites had very thin layouts, most likely due to older CRT monitors and non-widescreen monitors.
- shermanyo 11y ago
  I appreciate it for half-screen references, but good reflow / resizing is still the better option.

debacle 11y ago

Modals. They're used properly now, to a good extent, but 4-5 years ago everything was a modal. Hover states are also mostly gone from good design. Fixed-height layouts were a fad that I think is on the decline, for good reason.

pducks32 11y ago
I think modals and hover states to some extent were a response to bloated sites—at least on the web. They needed a new way to grab your attention. They used everything in their arsenal already and needed to drive your focus. Thankful—as Hagel would appreciate—the synthesis was to turn down the crazy flashing, colors, super explosion that many websites are—and sadly many remain.
pjungwir 11y ago
Hover doesn't work on mobile, so I'm not surprised it's disappearing. One trend I miss is the textured, paper-like backgrounds. It seems like they were everywhere a few years ago, and then they disappeared. I think Stripe had a background like that until just recently, and I thought of them as one of the last hold-outs.

deleted 11y ago

[deleted]

Raed667 11y ago

Metro design, I remember it was a big hype when Windows 8 was announced. I guess it was just a step towards Google's material design.

at-fates-hands 11y ago
They just renamed it "Microsoft Design Language" and is still very much around with their Windows 10 Platform: https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/stories/design/ https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/stories/design/ http://www.neowin.net/news/from-metro-to-microsoft-design-language-2-a-side-by-side-comparison http://www.neowin.net/news/from-metro-to-microsoft-design-la...
- Raed667 11y ago
  But it used to be on bootstrap themes and WordPress templates and everywhere. Now It is only Microsoft.

tmaly 11y ago

its a little longer than 2-5 years but I remember https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bauhaus https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bauhaus was popular around 2001

MalcolmDiggs 11y ago

* Rounded corners * Gradients on buttons * Text shadows * Superfluous drop shadows * Videos as background images * Fading in, fading out * Sliding in, sliding out * And like you said, parallax. I'm so glad that's dead.

J_Darnley 11y ago
> Rounded corners They moved into the browser instead.
jhildings 11y ago
>* Rounded corners >* Gradients on buttons >* Text shadows >* Superfluous drop shadows Basically all of those were replace by "flat design" stuff right?
- at-fates-hands 11y ago
  Almost every framework - Bootstrap, Foundation, Semantic UI, Skeleton and Gumby (which is dead now) all continue to use rounded corners in their buttons.

Nadya 11y ago

Scrolljacking. Smoothscroll is terrible, no I don't want to use it, thanks. I'd leave it enabled if that is how I wanted to scroll. The worst are the sites that decide if I want to scroll at all, I need to scroll in full-page intervals as if I had used the "Page Up" or "Page Down" buttons with a smooth transition.

amk_ 11y ago

Helvetica

jhildings 11y ago

What about the video backgrounds on webpages? Haven't seen them the last 8 months or so compared to early 2014 when everyone from Spotify to web agencies used them

BorisMelnik 11y ago

< 800 pixel width websites. I don't know this as a fact, but it really seems like a lot of older websites had very thin layouts, most likely due to older CRT monitors and non-widescreen monitors.

shermanyo 11y ago
I appreciate it for half-screen references, but good reflow / resizing is still the better option.