Tired trend: About pages

You're probably thinking I'm crazy. Did I really just assert that About pages are tired? Why yes I did.

Don't think I'm crazy. I'm not suggesting that everyone has to ditch their About pages. What I am suggesting is that people have gotten to the point where they include an About page by default when they are planning the architecture of a website, and I believe that automatically adding an About page, without considering whether it is truly necessary to your site, is lazy site planning.

In a continued effort to promote simplicity, specifically simpler websites, I would suggest that you seriously consider whether you truly have things to say—that people actually want to hear—on your About page.

So often I see websites that include a summary of the company on the home page, and the exact same content (or nearly the same content) is repeated on a second, separate About page. If you don't have more to say—and remember, the qualifier here is that you need to have more to say that people really want to hear—then you just don't need a separate About page. If you have just a little more to say, there are other ways to solve that problem, such as a modal window or a callout on a complimentary page, that would offer the additional information for your audience to read, in a more appropriate format.

Next time you plan a site, stop and really consider what you need to say about your organization—and what people really want to know about it—before you add an automatic About page.