By Business owners should always be keeping updated with the latest web design trends. Why? Because implementing new web design trends is one way you can stand out from your competitors. Businesses that look modern and appealing inspire trust in new customers and greatly reduce bounce rates. Businesses that are the slowest to adapt to new web design practices receive the least benefit from them.
In saying that, a new web design trend does not necessarily mean you should implement it! They are new, not proven and you shouldn’t assume they are going to improve user experience. If you have tested web design elements that are working well, don’t ditch them. Making a lot of new changes at once will leave loyal customers very confused and will tempt them to seek your competitors if unwilling to adjust to your new web design.
What’s important is that you keep informed with web design trends so you give yourself the opportunity to implement new ones where appropriate. Here we’ll discuss five web design trends business owners should know about in 2020.
- Background Animations
Background animations are one way your website can become one of the most memorable user experiences on the internet. This can be anywhere from using background animation to guide users towards different parts of your service, or just some motion pictures or animated videos amongst your usual scroll. Animation is a lot more eye catching and approachable compared to a website that is text heavy.
When done right, background animation will save users time. If implemented poorly, you’re left with a poorly designed website that is clunky and frustrating to navigate. A good example of background animation done right is Prior Holdings, who use animation to help customers learn more about their services. It’s important to acknowledge that this sort of background animation will dominate your entire website—it’s not a small layout change that can be made for split testing.
- Chatbots
Chatbots have been around for a while now and you’re probably already aware of them. Chatbots get mixed reviews, sometimes they’re extremely useful for customers and provide a unique source of data collection. They give customers something to communicate with outside of office hours and can also be used for advertising purposes. Other times they frustratingly conversate in circles with customers, leaving them frustrated. Chatbots are only as good as their programming. Chatbots are there to quickly answer FAQs that customers have, securing leads and sometimes even creating conversions.
Although the idea of AI chatbots being able to answer complex questions about software, they’re not quite there yet. For some businesses whose FAQs are quite complex or perhaps don’t have any FAQs, a chatbot will be too limited and therefore unproductive.
When we think of chatbots, we are usually thinking of live chat, which is usually some window or bot, who pops up in the bottom right corner of your screen and says something like “Welcome! How can I help?” There are two more forms of chatbots. The first one are banner bots, as you can assume, they can appear wherever there is a banner in your design layout. They are used as pop-up windows where you display discounts or use it as an opportunity to help customers understand your product more, or help them see the value in it.
The other form of chatbots are full website bots. Instead of a traditional homepage, these websites’ first impression begins with a conversation, this is very far from becoming mainstream and it will be interesting to see how this concept develops.
- Custom Typography
Text is your major source of information for websites, striking a balance between appealing graphics and meaningful text is where excellent typography lies.
Too many businesses just choose a typeface they think looks good. Typography is a very deliberate practice and each typeface should consider the emotion, personality, neutrality, practicality and legibility involved in its use. The feeling a typeface conveys contributes to how well you can hold the reader’s attention.
Why would you want a custom typeface?
- Custom typefaces help you build a brand image and make you more recognisable
- Your website gains more consistency: your brand voice is easier seen across your entire website and your print publications
- Typeface ownership saves you money in the long run—licensing costs!
- If expanding globally, your typeface is more adaptable to different languages
- Stand out amongst your competitors, customers pay attention to things that are different
- Custom typefaces are more flexible, you can alter them (size or boldness) to adapt them to different parts of your business, from a button, to a new app to a billboard.
- Voice Search
The use of search assistants are on the rise, Apple’s Siri, Amazon’s Alexa and Google Home are all technologies that we’ve heard of, but many of us still don’t regularly use. This is mainly because we’re not accustomed to it and using them isn’t necessarily faster than doing things manually. This has changed now: voice assistants and are a lot more accurate than they were in the past.
Voice search is a trend that both businesses, web designers and web developers need to be aware of. Some even said that by this year, voice search would make up 50% of all online searches. Whether that’s accurate or not, it’s indicative of a trend at least and aligns with the ever increasing trend for mobile conversions and the importance to ensure your web design is mobile responsive.
Voice search will also impact businesses’ SEO ranking and change what we consider keywords. As stated earlier, the earlier you adapt to web design trends the better. When implementing voice search you’ll need to include schema markup content, screen reader content and an organized XML sitemap.
- Asymmetrical Designs
Symmetrical grid-based web design website layouts are very popular and aren’t going anywhere.
When done right, asymmetry is beautiful, natural and eye catching. It’s one way you can draw attention to certain parts of your website through difference. If you separate your website layout into different sections, it becomes easier to envision what part of your website you would like to make asymmetrical and what you’d like to accomplish.
Asymmetry can be achieved by:
- Using a larger than normal amount of empty space compared to the display of your product or service
- Using large images that carry a lot of visual weight and steal attention away from other parts of your website. The point here is to grab customer attention strongly enough so that the initial image grounds their interest in your website, in which they then explore other webpages.
Asymmetrical web design is tricky to pull off, so many designers don’t bother, but it’s a great skill designers need to develop going into the future. When hiring web designers for asymmetrical design, they need to be reputable! Asymmetry gone wrong can be a lot worse than symmetry gone wrong. If looking for dedicated offshore developers, one globally trusted web development company is CodeClouds.
Your Future Awaits
Getting your best chance of success and gaining an edge over your competitors means keeping up with web design trends. Some trends like background animation, chatbots and asymmetry should only be implemented when appropriate to your business, while other trends like voice search will unavoidably become more important. Custom typography is almost always beneficial and cost-effective in the long run.
