What’s hot in the world of website design is constantly changing, making it vital that your team is constantly checking and rechecking your website, and staying up-to-date on growing trends. Failing to do so could result in a design that flops — which means fewer conversions, fewer leads and fewer profits.
You might not know it yet, but web design plays a huge role in your marketing efforts. A good user interface and user experience — on a desktop and on mobile — can help boost your marketing efforts. If users don’t have a good experience with your web design, you’ll have fewer conversions.
It’s also vital for content marketing, giving you a visually appealing and effective place to showcase all of your content and information. And don’t even get me started on its effect on social media marketing.
In short, web design matters for marketers. And you need to understand why before it’s too late.
We’re only three months into 2018 but new trends have already hit the ground running, changing the way we use websites to engage with audiences and market our brands.
We’ve compiled a list of the five biggest web design trends for 2018 — are you already following them?
1. Mobile-friendly design
First and foremost, you need to ensure your website can be viewed across all mediums — from laptop screens to tablets to mobile devices. There are few things quite as frustrating as opening up a website on your phone to have it glitched.
Walmart’s mobile website design is an excellent example of everything you should implement: cohesive branding, easy navigation and seamless checkout on a site that loads quickly — everything that customers want and marketers thrive on.
Mobile-friendliness is a growing trend in web design, and it’s only going to continue to grow in 2018. Users spend an average of 69 percent of their media time on smartphones. With so many consumers using mobile devices more frequently, and in some cases more than they view websites on their desktop, it’s vital that you have a responsive web design that’s pleasing to all audiences on all devices.
And 57 percent of users say they won’t recommend a business if its mobile website design isn’t up to par. That’s a huge chunk of the population that you might be missing out on by not staying up-to-date.
If you’re a marketer, that’s huge! You need to be able to interact with all audiences, and you don’t want your design to turn them away.
2. Interactive animations
Do you want to quickly grab attention, please viewers and add depth to your website and your brand? Then interactive animations are a great way to do it!
Maybe you have a lot of information to convey, maybe you’re trying to take data and turn it on its head or maybe you’re trying to make a dry topic more fun — the best way to do that is to give users an interactive and immersive animation that they can interact with. Even something as simple as a layered GIF — a la creative agency Young Blood — can set the tone for your brand identity and captivate consumers.
Content that contains images has a 650 percent higher engagement rate than content that doesn’t, and it’s a known fact that images and animations stay with users longer than simply text alone. So including these design elements will ensure not only that users will want to engage more in your content, but that they’ll also remember it long after they’ve moved on.
3. Captivating video
A good video is one of the easiest ways to keep people engaged. Especially when the video plays seamlessly, is clear and cohesive, and tells a compelling story. Many brands, such as Huge Inc., have opted to replace their header images with a video that plays as soon as a user enters a site, or gives them something to immediately interact with when they get there.
Users are 4 times more interested in watching a video about a product than simply reading about it. And they are 85 percent more likely to purchase a product after watching a video about it as opposed to just reading about it. This means that video can affect users and leave more authentic and lasting impressions than simple text along.
If you’re not using video to inform and inspire, your competitors will.
4. Minimalism
Minimalism is a trend that has taken the design world by storm recently — and for good reason. Promoting sleek, clean lines, minimal color and a simplified experience, minimalism in web design give users quick, easy and efficient access to the services or information your brand can provide.
Good design keeps up with the times, and with a number brands jumping on the minimalist bandwagon — popular minimalist websites including Why We Explore, Bear Creek Distillery and Apple — if you don’t start incorporating some of these elements into your own web design, you’ll quickly be seen as old, outdated and unequipped to handle modern audiences.
Minimalism is a powerful and influential tool designers can use to pull users in and keep them engaged. It can help your design achieve visual harmony, lulling users into just the right state to interact the way you want them to.
Using design trends like minimalism to your advantage can be a huge asset. It shows consumers you understand them and know what to do to engage them.
5. Bold typography
Content matters but so does how it’s presented. That’s why bold, varying typography is vital for web design that sells. It’s not something that should be overlooked or forgotten.
A big and bold copy can pull viewers in. And playing with typography in this way can create a clean, enjoyable user experience that’ll have more people flocking to your website.
Lead UX designer at Artnet Jon Peterson has this to say about the importance of typography:
Not only does it play a huge role in readability and usability in terms of thinking about the contrast ratio between your type and your background, it’s one of the first things I can tell that sets apart a good designer from a bad designer. Typography is one of the most clutch aspects of design and one of the most important, and also one of the hardest to learn because it’s a very old field (and) there’s a lot to absorb there. I really think that’s one of the big pieces.
The 5 Best Website Design Trends
By taking advantage of these blossoming website design trends, you're solidifying your website’s place in the future. You’re ensuring that your design will grab attention, inspire engagement and drive results — whether it’s click-through rates or sales. Use these tips to your advantage:
- Make sure your web design is mobile-friendly
- Integrate interactive and fun animations
- Create a video that’s captivating
- Go minimal
- Be bold with your typography
A good web design can be your biggest marketing asset. It can convince users to make purchases or interact with your content. It can give you a phenomenal place to showcase that content and it can show users what kind of brand you really are.
Web design is a marketer’s best friend — so let’s get creating!