Monthly Archives: March 2019

The post Web Design Trends 2019 appeared first on HostGator Blog . Looking at the latest web design trends will allow us to peer into the future of where the web is headed. This doesn’t mean you need to fully switch up your current design to adhere to the latest trends, but they’re good to keep an eye on nonetheless. If your website has been in need of a makeover, then maybe this will be the year you finally switch things up. If you want to learn how to create a beautiful website that follows the latest web design trends, HostGator can help. If anything this year bodes well for web experimentation. It seems that people are bored with the same old same old and want a new and exciting take on classic design. This doesn’t mean making sites so experimental that they’re hard to use, but instead more interesting, engaging, and unique. Learn about the biggest web design trends in 2019 and what they mean for the future of your website. Then, we’ll include a website builder comparison to help you decide on the best option for you and your needs. find the best website builder to bring these to life on your website. 1. A Focus on User Experience Offering your visitors a solid user experience should be at the top of your list. Today’s web users demand an enjoyable user experience above all else. If your website is confusing and hard to use you’re not only going to be annoying your visitors, but you’re going to cost your business a lot of money. This is doubly true if you’re directly selling anything through your website. The act of finding a product, adding it to the cart, and completing the purchase should be entirely seamless. In the past it seemed like web design trends and most websites would neglect the journey of the user and instead placed a focus on having a trendy design. No matter how “cool” your website looks, there’s really no point unless it’s converting your visitors and they’re actually enjoying their experience. As competition online continues to grow more fierce, expect those websites that place a focus on user experience first to have long and successful futures. 2. Clean and Clear Design Having plenty of whitespace has been an important web design trend for years. However, recently it’s grown in its importance and application. The biggest reason whitespace continues to be a dominating trend is because it makes your website much easier to use. By incorporating a lot of whitespace into your design you’re not bombarding your visitors with too much information. It also gives you the room to focus on important areas of your site. Or, direct your visitor’s attention to areas that are the most beneficial to them. Having plenty of whitespace is a central tenet of minimalist design. Minimalism will continue to be a dominating trend well into the future. By having a minimalist design you make it easier for your users to find what they’re looking for. As you’ll soon learn below other trends like increased use of video and scrolling-based websites both enhance this minimalism trend. 3. A Large Focus on Mobile Today more people access the internet from their mobile devices than they do from a laptop or standard computers. This means that your design must offer a stellar mobile experience. Offer a poor mobile experience or a site that doesn’t function properly on a mobile device, and you’re going to lose a lot of your users. If you haven’t gone responsive yet, here’s another thing to consider. Most users will start their search journey on their mobile devices. Plus, sites that aren’t mobile-friendly won’t rank as well in the search engines . So, not only will your site receive less traffic from the search engines, but any traffic that you will receive will have a difficult time actually using your site. Making your website mobile-friendly isn’t so much a “trend” as it is an essential web design best practice . The most effective way to embrace mobile devices is to upgrade your site to a responsive web design . With a responsive web layout your site will automatically adjust to the screen size it’s being viewed upon. 4. Embedded and Integrated Video Video is exploding in popularity online. All signs suggest that video is the future. Even social media networks like Facebook and Instagram are doubling down on video content. Plus, YouTube is already the second largest search engine in the world . If you haven’t embraced video, it’s not too late. In fact, one of the emerging web design trends is embedding video into your website . Video is an incredibly engaging medium. How many times have you continued to watch a video, just because it started playing on the site you’re on? And we’re not talking about annoying video pop-ups either that you can’t seem to turn off, no matter how hard you try. Instead, we’re talking about creating intentionally engaging videos that act as an actual part of the design of your site. Instead of standing out they play an integral role in keeping users on your site and informing them about your products and services. These don’t have to be incredibly long videos either. Think of them as moving design elements whose goal is to intrigue and capture the attention of your visitors. Adding videos to your website and content can also have the added effect of improving your site’s search engine rankings. Google has user engagement metrics which act as indicators of a quality site. Sites where users spend more time will be given a higher ranking, as these metrics suggests a site is very high quality. 5. Broken Grid Layouts You might already be familiar with grid layouts. A grid is essentially a hidden series of horizontal and vertical lines that your website’s elements will adhere to. You can see the classic grid at work on most existing websites. You have the logo in the upper left-hand corner, and the navigation menu extending across the top of the screen, along with any other elements arranged below it in an orderly manner. But, with a broken grid layout , you’ll see elements that make the grid seem broken. There will be overlap of design elements, along with text and photos that don’t adhere to the traditional grid. Usually, this is done to give emphasis to certain elements of your website. However, to be effective with a broken grid layout it needs to be done intentionally. Otherwise, you run the risk of having a website that simply looks confusing or jumbled. The worst is a website that ever-so-slightly breaks the grid. Upon first glance, it might not look like something is wrong, but you and your visitors will get the feeling that there’s something off about the website. Beyond the broken grid there’s also been an increase in the use of fluid and more comfort inducing shapes. With more natural and free form shapes you can induce a different feeling in your users when they land on your site. Instead of the purely rigid and geometric designs of days past, those pushing the edge of web design are introducing more natural shapes. 6. Nostalgic Design Elements The 80s and 90s are back in full force, and we’re not just talking about shows like Stranger Things and books like Ready Player One. A previous web design trend that’s been in place for years has put an emphasis on flat and modern design, creating minimalist websites that look like they were born in the future. But, just like fashion moves in a circular fashion, so do our web design trends. This doesn’t mean you should create a 90’s site that looks like the first rendition of a Geocities page. Instead, you should take design cues from previous generations as a whole. This means embracing color schemes and taking typography cues from generation’s past. By embracing the past you can create a new and wholly unique design. Since the web didn’t really exist back then in the state it does now, you can create designs that haven’t been seen on the web before. If this web design trend speaks to you, consider implementing color schemes from times past. Or keep an eye out for a cool old-school font you can use for your headers or your logo. 7. Sites that Encourage Scrolling If you’ve had your website online for any time at all, then you’re probably aware of the term “above the fold”. This means that all of your important graphic design and branding elements should be above the fold of your site, so it’s the first thing your website visitors will see without having to scroll. It seems that web users of the past used to hate scrolling down the page with their mouse, trackpad, or thumb. But, today’s web users are much different. Most website visitors don’t mind scrolling in the slightest. This trend could be rising due to apps like Instagram, which actively encourage scrolling down the app. Combine this with the preference to access the web via mobile devices, and you’ve got a scrolling match made in heaven. As a result, this gives you more real estate to work with when designing the style and layout of your website. Instead of trying to cram everything into the space above the fold, you can utilize your entire screen. This allows you to create more logical and enticing pages that hook your visitor’s attention as they scroll further down your screen. In accordance with making sites more scrollable, you’ll also want to think about implementing thumb-friendly navigation. When people are using their mobile phones to navigate a website they take many different actions and interact with the website in a different manner. One of the easiest ways to ensure your site is in alignment with this growing trend is to include a hamburger navigation menu. This allows users to more easily select the page they want to visit. 8. Intentional Data Collection Most websites will collect some form of data. Today, with the recently introduced General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) , the collection and storage of data have become even more important. This has led website owners to evaluate how they go about collecting data and being more intentional with the kind of data they’re collecting. For example, if you have an intake form on your website do you really need their location data or even their phone number? Or, maybe you currently integrate with Facebook as a login alternative. Although this saves you time, it might not lead to the best impression for your company. No matter if it’s a contact form, email signup form, or even having tracking cookies on your site, you’ll need to be very transparent about the data you’re collecting, why you’re collecting it, and what you’re doing with it. When thinking about any forms you have on your site think about what’s the minimum amount of necessary information you can collect. Sites that place an importance on user privacy will not only ensure their sites stay compliant with the latest privacy guidelines, but will also be the sites that create a strong and trusting visitor relationship. What These Trends Mean for Your Website By keeping up with the latest web design trends you can help predict where the online world is going. If your website is a crucial part of your business, then it’s important to stay up to date with what’s currently going on online. Today’s web users are savvier than ever, and spend more time online than ever before, with the advent of smartphones and the advancement of the mobile web. Spend some time analyzing the trends above to see how you can apply any of them to your website, or where you can enhance your existing design. The quickest way to lose your visitors’ trust is to have a website that looks old and out of date. That doesn’t mean you need to adopt every single trend above, but instead see how you can bring your website into the future and in tune with the kind of website your users expect to see. Hopefully, you have a better idea of the trends you’ll start to see across the web this year. Whether you’re going to undergo a redesign or not, these trends are important to think about now and into the future. Ready to put these trends in web design into action? Get started with Gator Website Builder . It includes over a hundred mobile-friendly design styles and templates that were built with today and tomorrow’s graphic design trends in mind. Find the post on the HostGator Blog Continue reading →