Websites are one of the most crucial investments a business owner can make. They serve as a platform for your consumers to learn more about your brand, view your products or services, and even make a purchase.
But, building a website is not always as easy as it seems. It often involves a lot of time, effort, and thought in order to create a site that is optimal for your business.
Part of optimizing your site is incorporating current design trends. These are proven to be popular, and can greatly benefit your company by enticing more people to interact with your site.
Not sure where to start? Read on to learn about the top web design trends that you need to look out for in 2018:
Lock Things Down
In today’s age, security is a huge concern.
People are constantly having their identities and bank account information stolen from them.
Many times, this can be traced back to user error. Sometimes, people who browse the web don’t take the extra step to determine if a site seems secure or not.
On other occasions, it’s not the consumer’s fault at all.
Like we saw with the Equifax breach, it’s possible for someone to have their personal information stolen due to security flaws the host website has.
To alleviate consumers’ concerns (and prevent them from being worried in the first place), take an extra step. Make sure visitors know your site is secure.
If your site deals with sensitive information, it should always use Hypertext Transfer Protocol Secure (HTTPS) encryption. Most sites show this off by having a green padlock icon next to their URL.
Furthermore, you should have an easily accessible privacy policy that states how consumer data is collected and used.
Pay Attention to Typography
Typography appears to be making a comeback. Site owners are beginning to put more and more effort into how their text looks on their websites.
Certain fonts evoke certain emotions from users.
For example, typography that incorporates a lot of Gothic elements creates an atmosphere that feels old and vintage.
Modern typography, on the other hand, helps your brand seem sleek and innovative.
Most of the heavy-hitter brands of today, such as Facebook and Intel, incorporate modern typography.
At first glance, typography may not seem like much. But, it’s a subtle thing you can add to your website design to make it more compelling to your users.
2D Design
Flat, minimalist design is projected to be one of the most popular web design trends of 2018.
This often includes simple (yet satisfying) images that are created by hand as opposed to stock images pulled from a repository.
Flat design also provides a huge benefit to mobile users. With less complicated images, websites will load faster on mobile devices.
Even for desktop users, flat design will help the pages load faster. Page loading speed is absolutely crucial when looking to attract new customers.
We live in such a fast-paced society that our short attention spans are only getting shorter and shorter.
It’s not uncommon at all for someone to leave a website because the page took more than a few seconds to load.
While aesthetically pleasing, the main benefit of the flat design trend is that it allows consumers to access your website faster.
But, your site doesn’t have to have 2D images in order to be optimized.
The bottom line is that you should keep your site’s design simple and sleek so that your customers can easily navigate through it. Click here to see a great example of how simplistic design makes for easy accessibility.
Communicate with Chatbots
Chatbots seem to be everywhere these days. Chances are that you’ve been on a website and had a chat box pop up.
It usually asks something along the lines of “how can I help you?” and portrays the message as being from someone who works in customer service.
While the initial message is not actually from a human, any response a site visitor makes is flagged and will get the attention of an actual representative.
This provides a fast, easy way for site owners to interact directly with their consumers. It also prevents visitors from having to go through a “contact us” page in order to have their questions answered.
Some AI is actually so advanced that it looks for keywords in the consumer’s message and generates the appropriate response.
Under most circumstances, however, this level of automation is not necessary.
Out of the upcoming web design trends for the next year, expect chatbots to be on of the more popular.
Accommodate Voice Search
It’s no secret: people are getting lazier and lazier. But, it’s because they have the convenience to do so.
With innovations like Apple’s Siri and Amazon’s Echo, people are beginning to use voice search far more often than ever before.
In 2018, you can definitely expect to see people prioritizing hands-free searching over conventional typing.
The issue here is that people tend to type queries with just keywords but speak queries like conversations.
Therefore, the text on your site should reflect what people would ask their voice search program in addition to the keywords they use.
As a result, SEO for your site may experience a slight change. But, SEO services can help you find the next step.
A great way to accommodate voice search is by typing more conversationally when you put content on your website.
Let’s say your company operates in a highly professional industry (such as the medical field). In this case, use less jargon and more terms and phrases people would speak out loud.
It’s unlikely that voice search will fade out, so it’s better to adapt now than have to catch up in the future.
Web Design Trends Are the Future
The great thing about the Internet is that it’s always changing. And so are those who use it. But it’s important to see changes as they’re coming so you don’t get left behind.
Keeping an eye out for the web design trends of the future will ensure that you’ll be able to adapt and stay competitive.
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