Modern Website design has gone through many phases. After a lot of experiments and tweaks with elements, it is the simple and clean design that remains the winner. With Website design continuing to evolve at a fast pace, you have to learn new things at every turn of the road. To keep up with the pace of this change, one needs to give the site a fresh design at least every 2 to 3 years.
While it is equivocally agreed by most Web marketers and Web application development companies that you need to make your site mobile friendly, there are few other design elements that are also getting attention these days. Here we have picked the 10 most crucial elements of Web design that every marketer needs to know now.
1. Unique Typeface
The typeface used in your Website makes a first impression on the visitor. There are few considerations in this respect. First of all, the typeface should be appropriate to deliver the right message for your brand name and image. Secondly, it should be scalable enough to fit on any device screen. Thirdly, create the right mood with the font, whether you have serious things to say or indulge in some light-hearted fun.
2. Plenty of Space
Modern Website design requires you to offer a clutter-free, clean and readability optimized interface. You cannot do this well without a lot of white or negative space. The empty space around content helps set our vision and create room for the eyes to breathe. Besides enhancing the readability of text such, empty space also helps to make images prominent as well.
3. Faster Loading Time
Loading time is crucial because of the proliferation of mobile Web. As mobile screens are smaller and used extensively for browsing on the go, any amount of delay makes a negative impression. Moreover, with information sharing picking up pace, instant access has become a general Web standard now. Slow loading is OK as long as you can afford to put up with high bounce rate, which you probably can’t.
4. Personalized Content
Websites that are truly sincere about enhancing business conversions should always try to deliver personalized content for typical buyer personas wherever applicable. Based on your interest in previous products and on your browsing history, a retail site can suggest you contents and products to select from. Similarly, based on your recent searches, a music site can suggest you some albums or genres of music.
5. Full-Blown Hero Images
Large images are used extensively these days in Websites and have become a standing design element preferred by many designers. Images are increasingly shaping the look, feel and relevance of Websites. Large, full-blown hero images, when they are placed in the background with overlaid text, help to tell the story of your brand intuitively and often without relying too much on text. A couple of important things to ensure are the relevance of the image as per your brand story and the responsiveness of the image to offer optimum visibility across all devices.
6. Using Background Video
Videos being played automatically in the background are great to tell your brand story and make an instant connection with the user. It also helps tremendously in reducing the volume of content you use to tell about your business. It is a smart, intuitive, less space-consuming and more engaging way to tell about your brand and business.
Background videos help quickly grab attention and entice visitors as soon as they land on your Webpage. They quickly reveal the key aspects of your business and orients visitors without them needing to read a single sentence. Videos are remembered better as they are processed more quickly than other types of content.
7. Conversion-Focused CTA
Converting Website visitors into business leads and customers is the ultimate goal of your Website. But to offer people you content, products and services, you need to guide them to actionable areas called calls to action, or CTA. CTA buttons should be designed with a proper color combination and contrast. Similarly, all clickable links should be placed prominently to avoid getting lost. Thirdly, CTA buttons should be finger-tap friendly and scalable for all kinds of devices.
8. Vintage Look and Feel
Suddenly, many Websites are offering an old-world charm with a vintage look and feel. Though such a look is not a fit for every Website or business, when applicable, it can give the Website a notion of reliability, solidity and quality just as vintage cars do. Businesses in areas from fashion to automobiles to unique items to designer boutiques to many other markets can find the vintage look more glamorous than contemporary splashy colors.
9. Semi-Flat Design
Flat design is already old, but with the majority of big players still opting for flat design, it is not likely to retire from the Web anytime soon. Flat design over the span of last three years has continued to evolve, and now even with design convention, you can find an array of different design elements to create professional looking Websites.
One of these evolutions is semi-flat design with the use of subtle shadows and dimensions. So, while flat design will remain popular, it might be less flat from now on, and other design experiments will take prominence in the months and years to come. Flat design became popular because it helps the visitor get access and understand your content quickly. Just by adding a little depth and dimensions, design can be made livelier.
10. Bold Use of Colors
Color, as we all know, has a tremendous psychological impact on the way we behave and interact. The right color combination and perfect contrast helps to connect customers quickly and encourages them to stay on the page. There are many ways to do it. For instance, perfectly balanced contrast between the color of foreground text and backdrop color or image can help make text stand out as prominent. Moreover, bold colors work great for enhancing the CTA buttons or highlighting certain areas to guide users there.
Keval Padia is a Founder & CEO of Nimblechapps, a fast-growingandroid game development company that also provide ios app development services. The current innovation and updates of the field lure him to express his views and thoughts on certain topics.
