There are so many guides and quick tips on how to create an About Us page for your website that it’s hard to find something new. But if you consider yourself a progressive business person/designer you should pay attention to this subject.
So we decided to have some fun and to create a list of 10 bad web design ideas to people who are planning to create an About Us page of a website.
Bad Idea #1: Disregard Fresh Trends of Web Design
Forget about web design trends – they are just bugging you and distracting your mind from a masterpiece creation. You have a strong vision of how your About Us page and the entire website should look and nothing can change this vision you.
Your target audience’s needs and preferences also don’t matter all that much. They must follow you, but not make you adapt for them. Remember that it’s you who rules the market supply, so you know better how and what to do.
Bad Idea #2: Write Big Chunks of Boastful Texts
It’s a fact that people only care about you, they don’t care about themselves. So follow this rule and talk about your company as much as possible. People should know why your mom doesn’t like a guy from your sales department. Your history from the first step till today’s morning meeting should also be displayed on the About Us page of your corporate website. The more information you give the more trust you get.
Bad Idea #3: Color the Truth
Use general phrases to describe your goods/services without saying anything clearly. Emotional speaking with a lot of adjectives in the superlative will also work well. Act like a politician – people like promises about better living and the highest quality.
Don’t say things your audience wouldn’t appreciate. Some facts are better to be kept secret – perhaps nobody will catch you.
Bad Idea #4: Tell People How Much You Need Them
When your business goes down don’t feel shy to ask for help. Your About Us page is a perfect place for it. People like sad stories about loser companies just like soap operas, so let them know how much you need their attention! Perhaps some visitors will feel sorry for you and will buy something or at least give you a ‘Like’ as a sign of sympathy and compassion.
Bad Idea #5: Don’t Show Your Contact Details at All
If you want to talk with someone you will contact them yourself. Don’t let accidental site visitors interrupt you with silly emails and phone calls. Who the hell do they think they are to annoy you?
And don’t bother answering people’s questions and queries. Their feedback is unnecessary because it’s always full of negative thoughts and complaints. People are not inclined to say compliments on the web. So live a positive life without all that mess.
Bad Idea #6: Use As Many Site Wide Links as Possible
Google likes site wide links, so if you want to make your site easily visible on the web try to fill your About Us page with them. You should also use a lot of keywords in each sentence to let search engines understand what the page is about. Never mind the keywords density, exact match keywords, etc. Leave it for those dummy site owners who don’t know how to run their business on the web.
Be sure that after these manipulations you’ll be safe from a Google penalty.
Bad Idea #7: Use Rich Colors Palette
When you create an About Us Page (or any other site element) don’t be afraid to use a variety of colors. 8 or 10 tones will probably be enough, maybe more if you’re a big corporation – you can try to overcome all the expectations and to use even more colors on one design.
And one more thing: use gradient effects and textures (even on texts). It’s trendy!
Bad Idea #8: Use Pictures from Google Images
Is it illegal to use pictures from Google Images? Everybody steals pics from the web, so don’t worry. In case of any claims from the picture owner you can always say that you found it on other site and know nothing about it.
Moreover your business is more important than some copyright claims from people you don’t know. As long as nobody’s suing you – you have nothing to worry about.
Bad Idea #9: Create Lots of Testimonials by Yourself
Testimonials are something that people are looking for every time when deciding to make a purchase. They work like personal recommendations of good friends, so people are inclined to believe them.
If there is nobody around to say something good about your business – just go ahead and do it yourself. Don’t be shy to lie and write like a professional journalist. Use hyperbolas and write in superlative degree. You’ll get the most creative and natural testimonials ever. Site visitors will line up for a chance to read your testimonials. So let’s play big! Create even more testimonials to prove that you are oh so cool. Thus potential clients will trust you more.
Bad Idea #10: Add Advertising Flash Banners to the About Us Page
Don’t be afraid to confuse site visitors with excessive animations. Make your About Us page colorful and informative. Thus people will see who your partners are and will click the banners to know more about them. And don’t believe those weird people who say that banner blindness is real! The more obtrusive your banners are the more people will appreciate them.
So don’t think for too long when somebody wants to place a banner ad on your About Us page – it will increase the page’s bounce rate. Moreover people will see that you’re worth working with.
Now that’s all! We hope you enjoyed the list of bad web design ideas. Of course the only reason we put so much emphasis on them is to make sure you never follow these ideas. Also, we just wanted to entertain you and give you some info to make a good use of. Let us know if it was interesting for you.
What Next?
While creating this post we couldn’t decide what kind of About Us Pages to showcase here. The worst pages seem to be a suitable variant. But it’s not good to say that some sites or pages are really bad just because we think so. We don’t want to offend site owners, so we’d like to show you some impressive and memorable About Us pages, the good examples to follow. Authors of these pages took into account all good wishes of experienced web designers, other site owners, current and potential clients and created these amazing designs. Learn from them and design good and useful pages. Good luck!
1. Tumblr
Let’s start with Tumblr. As you probably know this site allows us to share all types of content (photos, texts, links, icons, fonts, quotes, music, videos, etc.) – so it’s a social network in a way. The upper part of its About Us page clearly explains what the site is all about. Below there are also additional interesting facts that will draw visitors’ attention.
2. Pulp Fingers
This orange single page website has a small About Us section that is yet quite effective. It is well highlighted with contrasting colors. There is a minimum of text, so it can be read in a few moments.
3. Pursuit Yourself
Here is an About Us page of the online store that sells business, wedding and casual suits and accessories. A good combination of creative images, texts and texture backgrounds make the whole thing look rather impressive, it’s definitely worth viewing.
4. Eight Hour Day
This About Us page will bring a romantic feeling into your working life. This page simply describes people (husband and wife) who you’ll be working with if you choose their ‘design boutique’. That’s a great example of a storytelling type of page.
5. Less Films
You will hardly forget this About Us page once you see it. The photo of a huge wrestler with a tattooed body and a painted mask decorates website pages and it will impress you greatly. Vivid impression is a good start for the further cooperation.
6. I Shot Him
Original hand-drawn images of this page will please you a lot. Information about this design studio is split between About Us page and the home page where you can find a ‘Who We Are’ section.
7. Andrew Reifman
Here is a graphic designer’s About Us page created in gray tones. Short and laconic texts can be read (even scanned) in no time. Several animated elements (social media icons, CV) make the design look just lovely. Moreover, this freelancer made a good use of his own photo, so that his online business look more personalized.
8. Get Me Fast
A bright background with a drawn header illustration brings an adorable user experience. It is divided into sections like “who we are”, “what we do”, “our values”, etc. This surely helps to scan information quickly and easily – which is exactly the goal of any About Us page.
9. Pro Security
Here is another design with a large background photo. The black color is very prominent for this kind of business and it even helps to tell more about the company.
10. Gummisig
This About Us page combines several interesting elements to engage visitors and make sure they read the info to the very end. Here you’ll find nice textured background, designer’s photo, creatively written text and testimonials from satisfied clients.
11. MotoCMS
At first glance this About Us page surprises with a lot of text and a couple of similar images. However a creatively written copy makes it quite complete. Visually structured text paragraphs favor you to scroll down.
12. Joe Payton
This web and graphic designer demonstrates his skills on every page of his portfolio website. Perfectly drawn design elements and the guy’s own portrait look incredibly great and help build initial connection – and that’s not an overstatement. A user-friendly copy completes a good design.
13. Toby Powell
Toby Powell uses a delicate palette to design the About Us section of his single page portfolio. The great thing about this page is that all you need to know about the freelancer is written in several short paragraphs. Thus you can see that a proper info presentation does matter.
14. Ghost Horses
“Less is more” – this phrase perfectly matches this About Us page. Light and dark gray tones are mixed in this design so there is nothing distracting site visitors from actually reading the content. Small paragraphs, bulleted lists and different type faces increase texts readability.
15. H-ART
A full-screen background photo gallery decorates this About Us page. While scrolling down you’ll find a lot of interesting facts about the company and their work.
16. Mostly Serious
This About Us page is probably one of the most remarkable ones. It showcases a team of professionals in a quite creative way: cartoonized portraits of employees turn into real photos with descriptions when you click every single picture.
17. Fifty Three
Large typography of different formatting pleases the eye. Scroll down further and you’ll see website designers. It’s a good way to show people who stands behind the project.
18. Oliver Russell
Beautiful typography and warm colors make all of the on-page information neatly categorized. Moreover, the pastel tones please the eye and favor cooperation.
19. Trailer Park Truck
Here you’ll find a retro look of the About Us page. Recently it was quite popular to place texts on a photography background without any bottom layers. Here is an example of this kind of design. What’s also interesting is that this page looks differently from the entire website look.
20. Blind Pig Design
A well done photo of this site founder leaves a lasting impression in visitor’s minds. The ordinary picture brings personalization into the design. There is also a nice right side bar menu with a cute mascot.
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