The last six months have been a whirlwind for developers and designers. More people are working from home than ever before and may do so for the foreseeable future. You may be a bit more isolated than when working in an office with other creatives. Figuring out the current web design trends takes a little more effort. There are 1.79 billion websites on the internet right now, and the number changes by the millisecond. Not all are active, but you still face massive competition to keep the user’s attention.
There is a bit of a learning curve to figuring out how best to meet with clients and collaborators. How do you keep a hands-on approach while maintaining a safe physical distance? To save you time, we’ve come up with the six top converting web design trends worth investing in.
1. Explain With a Video
Around 99% of marketers using video say they’re going to continue doing so throughout 2020. The most popular type of video is explainer at 72%, with testimonials coming in third at 48%. Use your landing pages to highlight videos explaining who you are, what you do, and what product or service you offer. Create as many videos as needed. You can even segment them to match the needs of different portions of your audience.
What are some of the most common questions leads ask before buying? Answer these questions through videos. You will explain things up front and reduce the load on your customer service personnel. Explainer videos give directions on how to use a product. Written instructions often fall flat with clients, but a video showcases exactly how to use an item and saves the buyer time and frustration.
2. Ramp up Remote Access
With more people working from home, they’ll be spending increased time on the internet. Spend time fixing the back-end of your website to accommodate your remote employees. They should be able to access the details they need to collaborate with co-workers or clients. You may need to bring some aspects of your database and customer relationship management (CRM) onto the cloud.
While allowing remote access, you should also secure your site. With more people logging in from various locations, cybersecurity becomes crucial. Make sure you put measures in place and offer training to prevent hackers from accessing sensitive customer data.
3. Enhance Personalization
If you’ve visited Amazon lately, you probably didn’t even realize how personalized the landing page was. Retail giants such as Amazon use past browsing and buying behavior to recommend new product offers. They also greet you by name, save payment details, and store your shipping address to save you time inputting it again.
You can take a page out of their book and add personalization to your site. Use logins or cookies to track past behavior and offer products the user might want. Greet people by name. Group your audience segments, so when you follow up with buyers, you can send targeted emails.
Figure out the areas you’d like to personalize. You can start with something simple, like greeting users by name. Segment your audience and offer them suggestions for things they’re likely to buy.
4. Choose the Right Domain Name
Your business name may be common enough that someone else already has it registered. Let’s say your company is ABC Fans. Someone else already has ABCFans.com registered. Consumers find a business easier if the domain name matches the brand name. What do you do?
You could contact the domain owner and see if they’re willing to sell the name to you. You could come up with similar options, such as FansbyABC.com. Try to stay away from dashes and cute spelling changes because they tend to confuse consumers. ABCFanz.com isn’t a good choice unless you spell your brand name the same way. You could also go for a vanity domain extension, such as .biz.
People still respond best to a dot com extension, but it isn’t always available. Find the nearest match without being so close to a competitors’ that people confuse the two.
5. Enhance Micro-interactions
Around 96% of Americans own a cell phone, and 81% of those are smartphones. With faster mobile internet connection speeds, more people use their mobile devices to browse online. This phenomenon is likely the reason for micro-interactions gaining popularity in web design.
A micro-interaction is some type of animation or change that signals to a user that their action registered with the site. If they click on the home button, it might light up before it zips them back to the homepage. Think about items you can tap on a touch screen that can let the user know the website noted their movement.
If the user writes a lengthy review, an interactive site gives them a confirmation message. When the site visitor pays online, they get a notification via email, SMS, or directly from the website confirming payment. You can even combine methods by using a pop-up notification and a follow-up SMS or email message.
6. Integrate Conversational UIs
As more people use touch screens, expect an SMS-like environment to become more important. Live chat customer service is already popular. Websites must also integrate with voice search and the Internet of Things (IoT). Soon, sites may have to work with autonomous cars and televisions to provide information in a flash.
Think about the changes you need to make now to be ready for tech transformations in the next few years. Advances in machine learning and artificial intelligence (AI) mean much of this process will be automatic. You’ll want to use smart software that can provide solid answers in a heartbeat.
It isn’t likely that machines will take the place of live agents to handle specific customer needs. Yet, computers are a good first-line contact point to gather information and solve minor issues.
Keeping up With Web Design Trends
Not all trends stick around. Some aren’t worth the investment because they don’t result in conversions. Technology changes so often, it’s hard to keep up with it. Pay attention to the coming trends. Read journals about advances in information technology (IT). See what larger online retailers add to their sites. Bigger companies often have the resources to try new tech. You can learn a lot by watching what features they keep and get rid of.
Try new techniques of your own and use split testing to see which ones your customers prefer. With a little practice, you’ll soon spot the most promising movements and become a trendsetter yourself.
