Lots depend on how you project your company through your website, which is possible only with the use of the right web design elements and principles.
Use responsive design
Responsive design is built using CSS media queries and flexible grids. Each produces a dynamic website that can adjust its content so that it’s best displayed on various sized devices. It basically complements mobile first concept with the bonus of allowing businesses to build a single site that delivers to devices ranging from small-screened mobile phones to big-screened desktops.
Besides, Google now boosts rankings of websites that have its content optimized for mobile devices. Internet users are also more attracted to mobile-optimized sites for its improved browsing experience. So sites that don’t meet these standards have limited traffic.
Unique photos
No longer are users interested in stock, canned photos. Web designers and brands have to be careful about the images used on their site and hire professional photographers to shoot pictures the way they want. It’ll be some time before stock photography disappears from the blogs. We might see more and more websites moving away from stock photography.
Increased use of rapid prototyping tools
Rapid prototyping tools like UXpin and Marvel are today a necessary tool for any web, UX and UI designer. These tools help them quickly create working prototypes of sites, without writing a single line of code, to gauge its usability and aesthetics.
Some tools also let you design in the browser and then launch the site so that you can instantly experience how the end product feels and looks like. This saves time, resources and potential setbacks and minimizes unnecessarily complicated conversations with the client.
Use of bold colors
While brands have always stuck to using web-safe colors today they have become bolder in their color usage approach. Designers now use bolder colors to attract the attention of users and to move away from previous safe bet’ color practices.
Mobile friendly
Mobile phones are now considered to be the primary devices used for browsing the internet. Companies these days design their websites to effectively deliver content to a mobile’s small screen. It’s possible to place only a limited amount of content. This is why the web design should constitute only important and necessary information. While the additional bells and whistles are left for larger screened devices.
Increased use of consistent UI Patterns and Design Frameworks
There is an increasing number of both UI and UX patterns that make many websites look and function similarly. Though they may all look alike. The consistent UI and UX patterns make the web a more user-friendly place with a unified experience across platforms and device sizes.
More bespoke pictures and bold typography
Illustrations are important and necessary to engage the user of a web site. Talented illustrators can easily create personalized illustrations, customized iconography and animated visuals that meet the brand and site’s tone.
Typography is another important visual medium that helps create personality and evoke emotions in the user. The improved resolution of devices helps to create a sharper type that’s easier to read. The present market consists of oversized type along with dynamic text and image layering working with parallax scrolling.
Animation helps
Advanced browsers and languages see websites adapting novel ways of engaging users’ attention using animations. These animations come in different shapes, styles, and sizes. Ranging from small loading SVGs that entertain users while content loads, to rich, full-screen animations used as the site’s focal point. However, animations should be used only to enhance and not distract the user’s experience.
Video is now king of content
While a picture may tell a thousand words, videos tell much more. Moving images captures the user’s attention towards the brand’s narrative and message. Video has its advantages over traditional photography.
It is more dynamic with its sound and movement and appeals to the users’ senses to hold their attention for much longer than static images. Not only is video used for marketing purposes. It’s also famous in the social media through live-streaming services.
Card Based Design
Though there is an increased use of UI patterns one that is increasingly seen across the web is the use of card-based UIs. An essential Google’s Material Design principle. These cards were made well-known by Pinterest and other social media sites like Facebook and Google. The texts, videos or images are broken down into individual cards for the user to surf through.
This lets brands show more content on a screen at once in manageable chunks for users to quickly scan and decide what’s appealing to them. The card-based design also lets brands build stronger and more customized content and organize systems. So that users can filter and customize based on their individual needs.
