Staying current on web design trends is crucial to the success of your website. A lot changes every year regarding visuals, algorithm updates, and best practices.
It is all about delivering on user experience (UX): web trends will prioritise speed and mobile-first design, eye-catching, simple designs with geometric shapes & asymmetrical layouts, and chatbots.
Speed
Did you know you have less than three seconds to make an impression online?
Think about it. How often did you click an ad or a web link only to click away immediately after the web page didn’t load fast enough? You’re not the first one.
A speedy website is critical if you want to avoid losing any prospects.
But there’s more. Google and other search engines love a speedy website. If your website loads in the blink of an eye your website will rank higher in the search engines. This in turn means more web traffic.
So more traffic and web visitors are less likely to click away in the first three seconds! Clearly, you have a need for speed. But how to get this? With a flat web design.
Flat design
A flat web design means you have a clean, minimalist design which makes your website easy to navigate.
By getting rid of clutter, your website will load faster. With fewer web pages, simple imagery, bright colours, lots of open space and bold typography for improved readability and focus, you get your key message across to your audience without ending up with a boring website.
Even though a single-page design may be less ideal for search engine optimisation (SEO), it is perfect to create the optimal design for user experience, mobile use and speed. Plus it is easy to manage and looks good on all browsers.
Whether you end up with a single-page design or not, it is absolutely vital to have a mobile-first design.
Mobile first
In this digital age, we have always connected thanks to our mobile devices. Currently, we already spend 60% of our time on our mobile and this will increase to 63.4% in 2019.
Mobile is now shaping how we do our research and decide what products or services to buy. That means we need to first look at the mobile design before considering what it will look like on a desktop or tablet.
Geometric shapes & asymmetrical layouts
Geometric shapes have become very popular as web design, navigation elements, framing components or as a way to draw users’ attention to specific parts of the website.
We used to see mostly rectangles and circles in web design, but now other geometric shapes, such as triangles and hexagons, have entered. It gives you the opportunity to not only create an effective website but to stand out from your competition.
Geometric shapes are part of asymmetrical layouts, which create balance and harmony even though two sides of the design do not mirror one another. It is an attention-grabbing technique that is interesting and thought-provoking. This layout fits in perfectly with a flat, minimalist design as you create balance through space, using the right colours, and geometric shapes.
Chatbots
Finally, a trend that will continue to evolve, is the most widely implemented form of artificial intelligence, chatbots. Chatbots are automated tools designed to simulate conversations with human users online. Absolutely perfect if you want to provide great customer service but keep your spending in control.
Chatbots are quicker than humans in giving any data-related answers and taking requests, plus they are available 24/7. More importantly, they deliver the right message at the right time & at the right place, something we humans have not yet fully mastered.
