Sometime you feel your site look out-of-date and you want to bring a fresh air to your site design? Here is the list of 6 UI elements that you should consider to change, which can help you create a new-look for your site. It can improve user experience and boost your conversion rates also.

#01 “Flat” Buttons

Flat design is a new trend in recent years, but a big problem of flat design is that everything was… flat. This makes some users difficult to distinguish and made interactions.

How to improve: in this case, “Almost flat” and “Flat 2.0” seems to be a good solution, it can help users find and interact with UI elements easier. You also can add a hint of animation or a hover effect to give a flat-style button a little more emphasis.

#02 Links for Small Events

Normally, users need to click (tap) within website to see additional information, but it’s a thing of the past. Today, the websites (or the apps) needs to have a more convenient feature, which allows users can see information at a glance without losing their initial browser locations. If you have a solution to display information in a way that does not cause users to navigate away from the original source for these divots, let’s do that!

How to improve: you can use popover; it is a small UI element that relates to a specific bit of content. Popover is a touted function in Apple OS X and it provides function without navigation. When the user activates the action an almost-notification style element emerges (and then disappears as well).

#03 Flash-Based Anything

Just only thing to say about Flash: please stop using flash if you still using it for anything on your site. It’s an old technology with many problems.

How to improve: HTML5 will be a perfect substitute for flash. HTML5 can provide all the functionality you need to play audio, video and other bits of multimedia and it also works perfect across all devices.

#04 Icons with Long Shadows

This is an outtake of flat design, but just for a short-lived. And today, the icons or buttons with long shadow seems to be out-of-date.

How to improve: you can design a button using flat design style add some hints of shadows or texture. It will make your button easy to “see” than an element is designed to be interacted with. And still keep a simple aesthetic but doesn’t detract from other visuals.

#05 Mega Menus

A mega menu will help users can easily to navigate on website with a lot of content. But, the problem is some oversized menus can make users feel overwhelmed and don’t know to do next, then probably abandon the site.

Another problem with mega menu is that the big menu can cover up much of the screen when active. This can cause confusion for users and further distract users from why they came to your site.

How to improve: you should use mega menu reasonable. Use the analytics to find user flow and patterns from page to page to help create strong page relationships. If you feel that you need to use a mega menu, consider using a full-screen slide out menu which active when clicked on and can easily to be hidden.

Use strong in-site linking to lead users through bits of related content instead mega menu. Create a design which can help users to find content and navigate easily.

#06 Too Many Social Media Icons

The importance of social media in business today is undeniable. But, put many social media icons into your site is not a good idea. Today, the users very smart and they know how to share content on social even there is not social icons. And a worst case is the social media icon can destroy your design when the different social network has the different colors and shapes.

How to improve: put the social media share buttons to your header or footer and keep them off individual content. Use the social share buttons with a subtlety design and make sure that it will not distract users from the design and actual reason for visiting your website.

Source @designshack.net