Squarespace website design features that I feel need improvement or are needed
Squarespace to its credit has, in a short time, unveiled many features that have really improved the product. Going from 7.0 to 7.1 has been a game changer for versatility. Now that they’ve added the Favorites section, which allows you to save your section for future use, creating new pages has been relatively easy.
The scrolling banner: This is just a personal dislike of design elements that seem gimmicky. A scrolling set of words is a distraction at best. I prefer a simple design that allows the user to focus on the message, not lose focus. It’s a symptom of our society needing more and more stimulus in order to feel engaged with any object on a screen.
Current accordion section: The biggest weakness of Squarespace’s accordion section is that the content below the dropdown section is limited to text. This section should be able to hold content that is anything that’s part of a standard page. I want to mix in photos, forms, and other blocks besides text.
Lack of file uploader on forms: This is a big request I get from clients. People need to upload resumes, diagrams, and other documents when they communicate with a business. The current hacks are not ideal.
Pinned Sections: It’s nice to have certain sections stay in a fixed spot as the user scrolls through a website. You can use the wonderful add-on tool Squarekicker to pin certain sections while other sections scroll, but Squarespace does not have this feature yet in its base feature set.
Removing underlines for links: In Squarespace 7.0, links were indicated with a subtle color change and effect when hovered over, In 7.1 links are underlined, a clear indicator, but not as aesthetically pleasing.
Fluid Engine responsive issues: There is a lot to like about Fluid Engine, Squarespace’s latest (in 2023) editor which allows for content blocks to be resized and overlaid on top of each other. But content blocks do not lock properly to render well across a range of device types, which is essential with the variety of devices people use these days to view websites
The lack of header layout option to have the logo or title in the center and navigation items on both sides: This omission seems odd because many people would like to have their brand name centered on their site and the way Squarespace 7.1 currently works, you can have all the navigation items to the left of the logo/title, but not equally balanced on both sides.
For now, these are my complaints. But what’s hopeful is that Squarespace developers continue to evolve, releasing improvements at a frequency that is admirable. For example, Parallax Scrolling was initially missing in the release of 7.1 and now it’s thankfully back! Let’s hope we see more missed features from 7.0 return to 7.1.
