In 2017, we saw an increase in flat website design, more use of full-screen photos and videos on website layouts, and quite a lot of parallax scrolling.
In our fast-paced, technology-driven world, we anticipate 2018 will see some exciting new website design trends. Here are a few design features that we expect to see become more popular in modern 2018 website design:
1. Animated Logos
(Move your mouse over the logo above to re-animate)
One of the largest up and coming trends for websites in 2018 is the use of animation – particularly animated logos. Businesses can accentuate their brand, or add a bit of fun to their website, through the use of some simple animation.
2. Animated Website Elements
As flash website elements are nearly extinct, new technology is allowing for animations that are compatible with every web browser and mobile device. Animations are a great way to keep users engaged in your website, and they will likely click around more, navigating to other pages to see what else they can find. They may even increase the number of social media shares your website receives!
We expect to see businesses creating SVG and jQuery animations on their websites to draw attention to specific services or special offers. Eventually, animations will be common place on nearly every business website.
3. Better Photography
Pictures can be the only difference between a mediocre website and a great website. With so many options for free stock photography (Unsplash and Pixabay are just a few), and lower cost stock photography subscription services like Envato Elements, web designers have more access to great photos than ever before.
Companies are also investing more in their own brand image, working more and more with professional business photographers to create custom images for their website. In 2018, we will continue to see large photos dominating the web space, and we predict to also see full website color schemes revolving around the photographs used.
4. Improved Mobile Friendliness
As we approach 2018 it is no secret that website mobile friendliness is an important factor to any business that relies on generating business online. On April 21st, 2015 Google rolled out changes to its algorithms that expanded its use of a websites responsiveness and user friendliness on mobile devices as a ranking factor. According to Statista, 43.03% of online traffic Q3 of 2017 was from mobile phones. While that number can vary depending on industry it is obvious that to succeed mobile friendliness can’t be ignored.
How do we maximize mobile conversions?
- Think with your fingers. Make sure the user doesn’t have to zoom in our out to find information.
- Be Responsive. Keep all devices and sizes in mind. In this day and age there are a plethora of screen sizes visitors will be viewing your website.
- Make it fast. Your customers don’t have a long attention span.
- Make it easy to find your location, name, phone number and contact form.
- Keep the design simple on mobile. Its ok to have a big beautiful website display on large desktop monitors, but make it easy for your mobile visitors.
- Take advantage of geolocation. Geolocation can be used to give directions, check in-store availability, offer targeted promotions, and connect to social platforms among other features.
- Test, Test, Test! (and then test again). Check on all devices regularly.
Take advantage of your mobile presence by optimizing your website to make it easy for your visitors to use.
5. Big, Bold Typography
Aside from your physics professor, no one wants to read a term paper when landing on your website. In 2018, we will see more websites using large, bold text as design elements.
Catch your website visitor’s attention with your tagline, a good question or a creative snippet that is easy to read and delivered in a unique way. Pick a font that makes your brand stand out and drives the message home. The human attention span is not one that affords us the time to have a long message to absorb. Make your message big, bold and creative and it will be easily digestible by the average web visitor.
6. High-End Graphic Design Elements
More and more, companies are engaging graphic designers to be part of their website development project. We predict that high-end graphic design will be used on websites, engaging users and creating more interest.
7. Increasing Use of Video
Since the inception of the TV era, video has become an integral part of our everyday lives as the medium to convey information. This is no different as it relates to your website. Video is an easy way for your visitors to engage in your message. Using a video is a great way to showcase your brand’s personality in a way that sticks with potential customers.
Search Engine Optimization is another benefactor of well thought out video content. The longer your visitors stay on your website the better Google rankings will be achieved. Hold your customers’ attention and the search engines will see that your website has good content relating to specific search terms.
Use video to tell your company’s story, display powerful testimonials or demonstrate a product use. The more often you provide content that captures your potential customers attention, the better results your website will produce.
8. Search Engine Optimization and Social Media Marketing
While not technically a website design trend, we believe that business owners will become more aware of how customers are finding them online, and will pay more attention to their search presence. Increased investment in SEO and online marketing services has been a trend for the last few years, and will most definitely continue into 2018.
Many business owners will hire in-house Marketing Managers to work on their SEO and social media. Others will work more closely with their website development or SEO company to help bring their website higher up the search ranks. We predict that the average amount a business owner spends on social media advertising will peak this year as well, and social media websites will again adjust their algorithms for business pages to keep up with the influx of paid ads.
Will You Take Advantage of New Web Design Trends?
Graphic design elements and animation can add a lot to an otherwise static website, but they can be costly to implement. Will your company invest more in their website design this winter, to stay on top of the up and coming website design trends for 2018?
To learn more, reach out to our skilled website development team. We are constantly learning new tricks of the trade, and look forward to the challenges that 2018 brings to our design team!
thank you for keeping us updated on recent trends and things we need to consider for the future.
would any of these elements affect the load speed of websites either on a desktop or a mobile device?
Hi Slavey,
Thanks for your comment – and good question!
Animations on the web today are primarily done with SVG graphics. While they add some bulk to the code, they are much leaner than animated GIFs or flash animations.
Excessive use of photos or videos will definitely slow down the page load speed. However, a lot can be done to compress images (reduce the file size), and hosting videos on Vimeo or YouTube can help as well.
Adding typography elements typically involves CSS, which is much quicker for a browser to load than images.
While page load speed is definitely something to consider, the most important thing is user experience. We have developed quite a few websites with large, full-screen background images and videos. While this does slow down the page load speed a bit, the images and video vastly improve the overall user experience. Page load speed is just one factor that search engines consider when ranking; quality content and mobile-friendliness are far more important.
Of course, if a page takes so much time to load that the user hits the “back” button, that’s another story. 🙂