More than anything else, a company’s website is the public face of their business to the world. Consumers are doing more research than ever before when looking to buy a product or service; and when doing that research, if a business does not have a website they will typically loose any potential business from the customer because consumers are finding businesses without websites unprofessional. Just as important as customers being able to find your website is for them to be able to easily navigate it and understand your value proposition quickly.
To make sure that you portray the most accurate and professional image to potential customers online, while also making their experience easy can be a challenge. However, popular web design trends are making achieving this easier than ever before. The infographic below from Bowen Media breaks down the top five web design trends for this year and why they are important to users:
1. Mobile Friendly Websites
While this may seem like an obvious design trend, there are still a lot of websites that are not mobile optimized. I know that almost each day, while on my smart phone, there is at least one website I visit that is not mobile friendly. If you are like me, you don’t stay on that website very long. Rather, a competitors website quickly wins out because I don’t have to zoom in-and-out constantly just to view the website. Still not sure if you want to invest in creating a mobile friendly version of your website? These statistics might sway your decision:
- 57% of consumers will not recommend a company whose website looks bad on a mobile device
- Google reports that 48% of users feel that a company doesn’t care about its business if their website does not work well on a smart-phone
- 67% of consumers are more likely to purchase on a website that is mobile friendly
Check out more mobile friendly website statistics in the infographic below.
2. Interactive Scrolling
There are two types of interactive scrolling, parallax and infinite scrolling. Parallax scrolling is used to catch the attention of visitors, showcase products in 3D, and guide visitors down a specific path. In comparison, infinite scrolling is where the next section of content on the page loads automatically when visitors approach the bottom of the page. It’s designed to help visitors read through more content without additional effort. Additional benefits of infinite scrolling pages include decreased page load time and its mobile friendly design.
3. Flat Web Design
Flat design is a type of web design popular with professional web designers because it incorporates open space, crisp edges, bright colors, and two-dimensional verses three-dimensional illustration to create a cleaner look. There are four main benefits to using a flat design for your website; it gives your website a clean polished look, it is easy to use, works great with responsive design, and decreases the page load time.
4. One Page Websites
Being an inbound marketer who loves content, the idea of having a single page website was a little difficult for me to grasp at first. However, there are definitely clears reasons why visitors are leaning towards condensed websites. The main reasons that one page websites are growing in popularity are:
- Easier to navigate
- Content is condensed, scannable, and attractive
- Very mobile friendly
- Allows you to quickly communicate brand value
- Focuses on visual storytelling
5. Clean and Simple Website Layouts
In website design, more is definitely not better anymore. Instead, it is more important to create a user experience that will guide them along their desired path of action. To create a clean and simple website layout you will want to focus on using high quality photography to tell your brand’s story, remove any unnecessary (low traffic) pages, and simplify the navigation.
Check out more web design trends and tips below:
