The web design trends are always changing, bringing about new ways to create better customer journeys and increase your sales or leads.
The appearance of your brand is important when it comes to web design, but it also affects your bottom line.
If your website is outdated and does not resonate with your target audience, then you could be waving goodbye to extra revenue.
Your bounce rate will increase, and you will send potential customers straight into the arms of a competitor with a better looking and easier-to-use website.
Responsive Design
If your website isn’t already responsive, then there’s no better time than now to get that changed.
Having a mobile-friendly website that responds to whichever device or screen your customers are viewing on is a vital part of perfecting the usability of your site and ensuring customers engage with your brand. It is not pretty much a necessary part of any modern website, rather than something that is a “nice-to-have”.
Mobile-First Approach
While this isn’t applicable for every business, more and more brands are taking a mobile-first approach whereby the content on the site is designed with mobile devices in mind.
Many websites design with tablets or smartphone users in mind, which have restricted screen real estate due to the smaller size of the screen. This means any content that isn’t necessary is stripped away, and can be added it when it is scaled to desktop.
More of the public are used to prompts used in mobile experiences, such as the hamburger menu, so this is often found more and more on websites when visited on a desktop.
Card-Based Designs
Google’s Material Design has meant that more websites are adopting a card-based design, as it has become more common on mobile devices and the public has gotten more used to it over time.
Content is broken down into individual cards which the user can navigate through, allowing you to represent large quantities of content on a screen in manageable chunks. This keeps it easy to scan and keeps the necessary content visible on the page.
This also helps with designing responsive websites, as they move around according to the screen size and can easily scale up to desktop screens.
VR Experiences
Despite the fact a good VR headset is an expensive commodity most people cannot afford or warrant, cheap VR headsets such as Google Cardboard or Samsung’s offerings means more of us are dipping our toes in the cheaper end of the VR pond.
More brands are making the most of this by creating interactive solutions which involve the user, such as a guided tour through their place of work in VR, or perhaps experiencing a product first-hand in a virtual world.
While technology will develop in the future, there are more brands creating interesting ways to leverage simple technologies to create immersive experiences for users.
Good Quality Content
If your website looks great and works great, then another integral part is ensuring the content across your website is of the highest possible quality.
This isn’t just an integral part of your digital marketing, in terms of SEO and content marketing, but having slick content for your headings or banners all plays a part in the overall web design.
Presenting the content on your product or service pages is also critical in any good web design, ensuring it’s easy to read, quick to scan and gets the message across quickly. The same goes for your blog or news sections, as this all needs to be presented in a way that entices users to interact with your content.
Having your social media profiles and your content update live on your website is also a great way to update your site for SEO purposes, and proves you are topical and relevant in the eyes of your customers.
Photography
Say goodbye to cheesy stock images, as more and more businesses feature incredible illustrations and photography that capture the imagination of its audience.
Authentic photography allows your brand to stand out from the crowd. Hiring a professional photographer to take shots of products or other imagery that reflects your brand can really capture the hearts and minds of potential customers.
Whatever your business, your website would most likely benefit from a visual element. Even text-heavy websites can benefit greatly from more reliance on images.
But make sure you don’t use too many cheesy stock images that make your website seem old-fashioned and just like everyone else. If you can’t take your own pictures or create them, then at least source images that are unique and help to actually inform your customers, rather than being there for the sake of it.
Illustrations
Bespoke illustrations are a great way to add fun to your website, add personality to your brand, and can be fully tailored in order to ensure it matches the core message at the heart of what you are doing. The beauty of bespoke illustrations is that it can flow through your website, ensuring the images across your site is consistent and looks great.
Bold Typography
Marketers know the power of typography, and this is leaking over into the web design world more and more.
Typography can be utilised as a powerful medium in order to evoke emotions in your customers, set the tone of your website and create a personality around what your brand stands for.
Video Content
More businesses are making use of video content on their website. Whether it’s a video on the home page such as in a banner, or within product descriptions.
Videos offer a whole range of benefits for businesses, and keeps customers engaged on whichever page it is featured on.
A moving image of any website page captures the attention, and draws potential customers into your brand’s story. You can get your message across in a crafted message and constructed narrative.
However, it is worth considering your target audience, as videos are not necessarily the best bet for every single business and industry.
