Remember that time when we discussed the reasons your website may not be generating as many sales as you would like? At the top of that list was the design. And since we already looked at the future digital marketing trends in last week's post, it's time to pay a little more attention to the top web design trends for 2019 & 2020. Whether you are a web developer, a person who likes the challenge of creating their website on their own, or simply someone with zero technical knowledge, this article is for you. Keep reading.
#1. Personalised UX & Dynamic Content
For several years now online marketing has been shifting towards more and more personalised everything. From the way we communicate with prospective or established customers, to the design of websites and branding elements. In the next 2 years this trend is only going to go deeper. Personalised UX relates to the user experience when they visit your website. It's built based on their unique preferences, age and/or gender. For you to be able to design a good website with really well personalised UX, you must know your target market and audience like the back of your hand.
Dynamic content is part of a great personalised UX. In simple terms, this is content that changes based on who is looking at the page. Therefore, two different users can be on the same page of a website, but the content of that page will be different for each of them based on their preferences and unique features.
What should you do: Before designing your website, study your audience and target market. Create a Penn portrait of your ideal customer and build a site that would impress the buyer persona.
Think about introducing members' area on your site. It will make the inclusion of dynamic content much easier. Also, it could be a great step towards introducing subscription services at a later stage.
#2. Voice User Interface (VUI)
Audio controllers are changing the way we search the web. One of the digital marketing trends is voice search optimised content. Take it further. Increase your chances of becoming a leader in your industry and think about designing your website with VUI. It's a new technology that not many companies have yet adopted, but it is expected this to be the new normal by 2020.
What should you do: Research web developers and agencies who can design websites with voice user interface. Then go for it! It will make your website extremely easy to use and interactive. If that's not a sales magnet for most of the online shoppers, it's hard to imagine what would be.
#3. Fast-loading and Simple, but Trendy Design
Ok... too many conditions. But if you think about it, it's not that hard to achieve. Your website speed needs to be under 3 seconds to ensure lower bounce rate, higher user engagement, and ultimately, what we all care about - more sales! Don't clutter your web pages with unnecessary content and too many animations. That said, visuals are extremely important and should be a part of your website. Static sites will likely become obsolete before the end of 2019. Find the balance!
What should you do: Invest in good quality images with high resolution, but always optimise them for web before you upload them to your site. There are some great free stock photography websites where you might be able to find what you need.
Use big and dramatic fonts that don't look too complicated. It's all done in the name of readability and better user experience.
#4. Augmented Reality (AR)
This isn't a new trend, however, it's strengthening its position for years to come. For online fashion, jewellery and perhaps, even beauty retailers, this is a must! You don't know what augmented reality is? This is a type of technology combining a computer generated image with your real-world view. Have you ever played the Pokemon Go game? That's augmented reality right there. AR and VR (virtual reality) help online shoppers make a faster and better decision when buying products online.
What should you do: Enable a 'virtual mirror' on your website so that your potential customers can "try" clothes, shoes or accessories at the convenience of their home before proceeding to checkout.
#5. Sticky Elements
Social engagement is key for your SEO, which means its key for your online sales. One of the best ways to prompt users to share your pages on social media is to have the share buttons as sticky elements. These are icons or blocks that are constantly shown on the web page even if you scroll up or down.
What should you do: Turn your social media buttons, newsletter sign-up bar, chatbot icon and video blocks into sticky elements.
#6. Chatbots
Speaking of chatbots, they are one of the hottest web design trends right now and will continue to grow in the future. Why? They provide instant answers to some of the users' questions, can collect feedback and improve themselves, and can remember users' preferences. One step closer to a great personalised UX.
What should you do: Ask your developer (or research how to do it if you are building your website) to include a chatbot on your home page. You can set the bots to serve various purposes:
Make a reservation or booking
Provide answers to FAQs
Deal with complaints
Assist users with some issues
#7. Process Spectrums
Process spectrums are specifically helpful to busy individuals who are looking to buy a product online or completing an application. Amazon, for example, has a process spectrum on top of the page, showing you how many steps you have left until your purchase is complete.
What should you do: Learn from the best. If you are selling a product or service online, introduce a process spectrum with steps or percentage to ease your customers. Same applies to longer forms or an online job applications through your website.
#8. Grid Layouts
You know Pinterest is one of the fastest growing social media platforms. This has a lot to do with the content layout. All posts on Pinterest are structured as blocks. This now has become a growing trend in the web design. Industry experts claim that by 2020, websites will finally find the balance between visual content, text and white space on web pages.
What should you do: Organise most of your content on the home page as grids. Include square images with little text and then link those blocks to the relevant pages on your website where visitors can read more about the topic. Be generous with the white space. And once again, go big with your fonts!
#9. Illustrations and Geometric Shapes
Apart from high resolution real-life images, trendy websites now include creative illustrations and geometric shapes. What's more, animated videos continue to be a hit and by having one of those on your home page you are 53 times more likely to turn up on the fist page of Google.
What should you do: Include circles, triangles and squares in your web design. Invest in infographics, illustrations and animated videos as part of your website content.
#10. Accessibility and Security
The accessibility of a website relates to its ability to integrate with assistive devices. These devices are usually used by people with disabilities, such as visual impairment, dyslexia and so on. Before 2020 it is expected all reputable and well-performing websites to be fully accessible.
Security is no less important. In fact, that may be one of the top priorities for the majority of online shoppers. You want to make sure your customers and their personal and financial information are protected while using your website.
What should you do: If you are using Wordpress to design your website, look for plugins that will improve its accessibility and will allow it to integrate with screen readers and other assistive devices. Alternatively, ask your web developer to work on a such feature.
Purchase an SSL certificate. This lets users know that your website is secure and their information is protected against unauthorised access by third parties.
How many of these web design trends are present in your current design? Do you think it's worth adding the rest?
What NOT to do
1. Give up on the parallax scrolling websites. They load slower and that results in a bad user experience.
2. Do not be tempted by the sleek design of the one-page websites. They were quite a hit, because they seem easy to navigate, however, they're really hard to optimise for the search engines.
3. Less is more. Do not over-complicate your design. Minimalism and simplicity should be your leading thoughts when you design your website.
In need of a great, responsive and trendy website? We can help. Get in touch with your requirements and leave the rest to us.
