If a prospective client landed on your website today, would they be impressed?
This is an essential question you should be asking yourself every year because trends, standards, and technology change continually. What was working for your website last year isn’t anymore. As possible customers land on your website, the last thing you want is to lose conversion because it doesn’t meet the latest standards or looks outdated.
What does the next year hold in store for website design?
Spoiler Alert! It looks like it will switch to a dark mode mixed with media and 3D elements and change the focus on user experience and page speed.
There are web design elements that never go out of trend, like data security, user-friendly navigation, and fast page speed. Still, new standards come and go as technology evolves, and customer preferences change.
Staying up-to-date with website design standards and trends is crucial for any business, and partnering with a web design agency can help you meet these demands effectively. By leveraging their expertise, you can ensure your website not only adheres to industry standards but also incorporates cutting-edge design elements to captivate your audience and stay ahead of the competition.
Here are the latest standards and trends to check if you #redesign your #website in 2021. Click To TweetPage speed and website load time
All web design agencies will tell you that a critical web design standard is mega-fast load time. Speedy loading times have been important in SEO and UX since the beginning and continue to be a priority for web pages that want to convert and rank better. 1 in 4 Internet users abandon a website if it doesn’t load in 4 seconds, and 46% of them don’t revisit it if they had a bad experience.
Think about your site’s speed as a sliding scale, where if you’re the faster player, you get the most benefits. Statistics show that websites that load within 2 seconds have an average bounce rate of 9%, while those that take longer than 5 seconds have bounce rates higher than 40%. Website performance directly affects a business’ bottom line.
Customized content
To understand how to customize your website content to attract readers, put yourself in your web visitors’ shoes. You’ve probably accessed web pages, and when you came back a few days later, they displayed different content. Then you used another device or browser, and there was the original content again. Why is this happening? Advanced websites track people’s locations and browsing history and customize their content to meet their specific needs.
In 2021, create dynamic content based on your customers’ past behavior. Personalized content created for clients returning to your website for a second or third time can boost conversion.
Customized website content is vital for e-commerce websites that should display liked, saved, viewed items for each buyer to increase conversions. Also, highlight abandoned cart contents for returning purchasers to grow the conversion rate. People expect to get personalized website content, and in 2021, it’s a standard all websites should meet.
Progressive lead nurturing forms
Online lead generation forms are paramount features of a marketing web page. You want to know everything about your visitors, but you cannot ask too many questions while they’re browsing your products. What you can do is place progressive contact forms on landing pages to track their journey.
You don’t want the form to include too many fields, so adjust it according to the information you already know about your clients. The average form includes the name, company, and email address for the first conversion, and then the company size, phone number, and company revenue for the second conversion.
Use a CRM platform to store your leads’ information and integrate the system with the website to recognize them when they return and showcase form fields on the landing pages that will give you the information you don’t yet know about the buyer.
Availability and accessibility
Accessibility and inclusivity are more than trends, but there is a crescent demand for website redesign to factor in people with disabilities’ needs. In 2021, it’s essential to build a website everyone can visit and use. Availability and accessibility improve customer experience, increase conversions, reach a broader public, and improve SEO.
To improve your accessibility
- Create a strong contrast between the background and content
- Add focus indicators like rectangular lines that show up around buttons and links
- Include instructions and labels
- Use functional alt tags for pictures
Interactivity
By having interactive sections on your web page, you encourage visitors to engage with your brand, provide them with better value, and learn more about them.
Let’s say you sell insurance and add an insurance policy calculator to your homepage. You’re offering value to people interested in buying premium while you learn about them based on the data they provide to calculate a home insurance price. Some examples of interactive content include contests, calculators, surveys, polls, and assessments.
Dark mode
A few years ago, all websites used white in their aesthetics; in 2021, they should switch to a dark mode for multiple reasons. On the practical end, a website designed in a dark mode is more comfortable to the eye, something more and more visitors are looking for, due to the extended time they spend using screens. On the aesthetic end, a dark design makes a page look modern and sleek.
The dark mode facilitates element creation for website designers because they can easily highlight a button or section by making it lighter than its surrounding elements.
Interactive 3D content
You want your website to stand out from your competitors. You can achieve this goal by including innovative features like 3D elements in the website’s design. Internet users love 3D elements because they’re interactive and catchy. When adding a 3D element to your homepage, the result is breathtaking because it immediately captivates the user’s attention.
Colors to evoke emotions
If you redesign your website, use colors mindfully to evoke emotions you want to associate with your brand. Marketers have been using color psychology for years to produce content that impacts the public’s feelings and emotions. For example, eco-conscious companies use green because it denotes nature.
In 2021, use colors mindfully to evoke the feelings and emotions that converse leads.
The bottom line: People expect websites to be clean, intuitive, user-friendly, and have visual elements that enhance their experience.