Featured article by Jelena Dinic, Creative Writer and Blogger at Podroom Creative
Staying on top of web design trends is very important for improving user experience and the overall effectiveness of your website.
However, trends come and go, so it’s vital to know the difference between something that will become outdated in several months, and a design that will make your website look fresh and modern for at least several years.
Some of the following design trends have recently come into the spotlight, while others have been around for a couple of years now, and they’re not showing any signs of decreased popularity.
Here’s how to follow them and make your website sleek and modern in 2019 and beyond.
Speed Up Your Website
Speed is the most important factor for improving your website.
According to a study by Akamai and Gomez, a one-second delay in page response time can result in a 7% reduction in conversions. The same study shows that 40% of users will abandon a website that takes three or more seconds to load.
Another Akamai research shows that this number jumps to 53% when it comes to mobile users.
This means that you have less than three seconds to create a good first impression, and compel visitors to stay on your website.
People want instant results when looking for something online. Waiting forever for your pages to load will only make them move on to your competition, never to return again.
Moreover, Google prefers fast-loading sites so, by increasing your website speed, you’ll also increase your SEO ranking.
There are many ways to speed up your website and reduce your page load time, so make sure it’s your number one priority this year.
Optimize for Mobile
This is just as important and website speed. Making websites mobile-friendly has been the talk of the entire SEO world for years now, but there are still websites that aren’t responsive.
Now, Google rolled out yet another one of its ranking algorithms – mobile-first indexing. It means that Google will prioritize content and links from mobile web pages.
So, making your website mobile-friendly won’t be enough this year, although it is essential. You’ll need to redesign your website, starting with mobile users in mind first, and then creating a desktop version of the site.
That way, not only will you attract more potential customers, but you will also significantly improve your SEO ranking.
Implement a Minimalistic Design
A minimalistic, or flat, design will make your website look sleek and modern. Minimalistic doesn’t mean simplistic and boring, but rather clean and inviting.
It’s all about usability and removing the clutter – helping your visitors quickly and easily find what they’re looking for. When there’s no clutter, your website will load much quicker, so both Google and your users will love it.
That’s precisely why minimalistic designs are becoming more and more popular. They remove all the distractions and help you focus on what matters. They create an excellent user experience, and entice people to stay longer on your site and convert.
Spice It Up with Video Backgrounds and Micro-Animations
Video backgrounds on websites are all the rage these days, as they can make a site look truly captivating.
Many people don’t think that they work well with a minimalistic design, but you can make it work with slick video backgrounds that instantly grab people’s attention.
Now, you might think that a video background will negatively affect your website speed, but it doesn’t have to if it’s really short. What really matters is that it will increase conversions.
The same goes for micro-animations. They’re very eye-catching, and can greatly enrich user experience. For instance, users find it very satisfying when they click on various elements, or only hover above them, and their colors change.
Integrate a Messenger Chatbot
Chatbots are completely changing the way consumers interact with brands. They’re available 24/7, and can instantly provide relevant answers to users’ questions in real time.
Chatbots are powered by AI and machine learning, which helps them carry out intelligent conversations. They can fully understand the context behind every query, and even use empathy and other emotions to interact in a completely human-like fashion.
If you haven’t yet, you should definitely jump on the chatbot bandwagon and join the revolutionary ride. Find the best AI chatbot platform, create a bot that will significantly enhance your user experience, and integrate it into your website.
You don’t need to be tech-savvy to create a chatbot. You can easily create a messenger chatbot and deploy it on any channel you want with just a few simple clicks. For instance, you can create chatbots in Line messenger, and make it available on any other communication channel you want.
AI chatbots are definitely here to stay, and they’ll only become more and more advanced. Therefore, don’t lose an opportunity to keep the lines of communication open between your brand and your customers. Create the best AI chatbot and take your website, and your messaging channels, to a whole new level.
Making your website look sleek and modern is definitely not a one-time job. You need to constantly work on improving it, and keeping up with the latest trends is absolutely your way to go.
Following the aforementioned trends will improve the usability and performance of your website, and make it look fresh and enjoyable, not only in 2019, but also for many years to come.
