2018 was an exciting year in the world of web development. We saw a lot of new trends emerge and buried a few that had outlived their welcomes.
Now, with the new year now upon us, there is a brand-new set of web design trends to consider.
Wondering which ones stand the best chances of helping your company?
5 Web Design Trends to Embrace in 2019
Every business is different, which means some web design trends that work for others may not work for yours.
However, the following five are worth thinking about no matter what industry you’re in.
1. Alternative Scrolling Options Help Your Site Stand Out
It goes without saying that making it easy for users to scroll through your website is an essential feature. Google has made it very clear that it puts a priority on website navigability. Just as important, users want a website that’s easy to navigate, too. All the organic traffic in the world won’t be worth much if those visitors can’t find their way around.
That being said, the first suggestion on our list of web design trends is to mix things up a bit with one of the most basic navigation features on your site: scrolling.
There are a number of ways to mix up your site’s scrolling capabilities. The question is, why?
Because adding something as simple as a fun animation grabs attention and can even help maintain interest, both essentials for convincing visitors to stay on your site.
Check out ACES’ website for one of the best examples on the Internet.
Given the agency’s field, representing professional baseball players, it’s not surprising that they only receive a few hundred organic visitors a month. It’s an extremely niche audience.
Nonetheless, ACES clearly understands the importance of keeping those visitors on the page once they arrive and making a first impression that primes prospects into becoming clients.
Best of all, the animations are mobile-friendly, so ACES isn’t potentially losing the majority of their visitors because their site doesn’t support those devices.
2. Video Backgrounds That Immediately Engage (and Even Sell)
Another way to effectively shakeup your website’s design so it can’t be ignored is to use video backgrounds throughout your various web pages.
Take a look at Ditto Residential’s website for a simple example of how to engage more visitors by playing a subtle video in the background.
Another great example comes from the Wild Renfrew website. If you’re in the market for a wilderness adventure, it will be hard to resist what this company has to offer simply because the equivalent of a commercial – albeit a very tasteful one – immediately begins playing the second you arrive on their site.
Just like with scrolling, though, be careful not to overdo it with this feature. These two web design trends could quickly work to your company’s detriment if they slow your site or otherwise stand in the way of visitors navigating your site.
3. Personalized UX for a Truly Customized Experience
The benefits of personalized marketing have been well known for years now. Among other things, more and more companies have realized that their websites need to adjust the content they offer based on the unique visitor.
And yet, one of the most underappreciated web design trends of the last few years has been doing the same with the site’s actual UX.
Expect that to change in 2019. As content personalization continues to become commonplace, personalized UX is where the real opportunity lies to stand out.
In short, choosing a website design that conforms to the unique user can help ensure visitors see the content they need to in order to make a purchasing decision. Likewise, it can remove any friction that would otherwise stand between them and that all-important-decision (e.g. distracting them with another webpage when they’re already prepared to buy). High bounce rates because the visitor’s initial assessment of the site is that it isn’t for them.
4. Chatbots Keep Visitors from Looking Elsewhere
Two years ago, one of the biggest web design trends was chatbots.
These conversational interfaces definitely found a lot of new fans, too. In fact, HubSpot went so far as to say the following about the future of chatbots:
“You’ve probably heard: Bots are the future. In fact, if you’re wondering today whether or not your business should create a bot, you’re asking the wrong question. Bot-powered commerce is our modern-day manifest destiny.”
This might seem like an extremely bold claim, but there’s plenty of reason to believe it. Back in 2016, messaging apps surpassed social networks. The implication seems to be that, when people want answers, they know directly messaging the company – even via a chatbot – is their best option.
If you haven’t already, now’s the time to add a chatbot to your site. It took a while for this trend to catch on, but now that it has, it will most likely become a standard in 2019.
5. Eliminate What Isn’t Helping for a Streamlined Experience
As we mentioned above, providing a customized experience through personalization is a good way to grease the wheel with your visitors, helping them quickly transition to becoming a customer.
However, remember that it’s also important to remove any obstacle that may be standing in their way, too. This is always good advice, as well. Each year, we’ll continue to see more and more web design trends, but sometimes subtraction is more lucrative than addition.
So, no matter what you change in 2019, don’t forget to test your pages to see what’s working and what’s not. Pay attention to which pages and features get no attention at all, too. Those should probably be dumped ASAP.
You Have All of 2019 to Implement These Web Design Trends
Though it’s probably best you get started sooner rather than later, that doesn’t mean implementing all of these web design trends at once.
Start slow and where your budget will allow. Take your time optimizing it to make sure it was a sound investment, and then move on to another trend.
Taking this iterative approach will make it much easier to take full advantage of each of these important developments.