Tag Archives: minimalist website design

Website Design Trends for 2018

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blog 2018 trendsWith a new year on the horizon, we like to share what we believe are the top web design trends that may be applicable for the clients we serve. You’ll quickly notice that it’s all about designing for the way we access the web now and where the web is going in the future. Mobile is up over 35% from last year and the trend won’t be slowing down.

  1. Search engine giant, Google, has announced that they will use the mobile version of the web as their primary search engine. This means that Google will rank mobile sites higher in their index than sites that are not mobile responsive. If you’re website is not mobile-friendly yet, it’s time to get serious about a website design upgrade.
  2. The use of whitespace is becoming more important as designers learn that whitespace, or negative space, makes content stand out so that it’s easier to read and navigate. Here’s a recent sample of ours »
  3. Irregular grids are replacing the uniform grids that have served as the base for WordPress themes. WordPress will likely continue to have security holes and its bulky, buggy code will continue to leave it a target for hackers worldwide.
  4. Bold fonts and bright colors are replacing oversize images so users can focus on content that will likely remain the most critical component of page rankings. Unlike images that slow pages down, scaling the size of typography wont impact performance.
  5. Responsive design has been around for a number of years because we now use phones, tablets, smart watches, desktops and smart TVs. So this design principle is not going anywhere.
  6. For designers, scalable vector graphics (SVGs) have been part of our toolbox for a few years and we expect this graphic format to overtake more traditional files format such as PNG, GIF, and JPG. SVGs don’t lose quality when scaled up or down and don’t affect page speed, so we’ll be integrating more SVG graphics in the sites we build this year and beyond.

In 2018, our focus will be on designing simple yet powerful websites that are optimized for mobile devices and care deeply about the user experience. We will use new formats, styles, and technologies to help our clients say more, do more, share more, and enjoy a greater return on their digital investments.

What Makes a Good Home Page?

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You get about 3 seconds to make a great first impression, so the home page must capture the heart and mind of your visitors. If it does, you have another 3 seconds to arouse enough curiosity to compel your visitor to want to know more. The solution to their problem must be obvious—both in words and design. It must work well, on all kinds of devices and for all levels of user expertise.

great Home PageEmotional connection. In the time it takes to make a first impression, a visitor wants answers to 3 questions: 1) who are you? 2) can you solve my problem? and 3) if you can, answer 3 visitor questions: who you are, what you do, and what’s in it for them. Visitors come to your page because they have a problem that needs solved. They are looking for a business or a person or a cause that will satisfy a need and make an emotional connection that motivates them to dive deeper into the site.

Meaningful language. People connect visually, but they also connect through a common language. The home page is not the place for jargon or boasting, and definitely not the place for long paragraphs. Visitors will quickly scan for words and phrases, then buttons or links to learn more.

Respectful. Avoid the use of flashy objects that move, make noise, or complicate or compromise the connection experience. If you offer a video, it’s considered bad manners to auto-start it. Same for audio. Let your visitor decide when or whether to engage in these sensory experiences.

Device friendly. Visitors come to your site on their desktop computer at work, through a tablet at home or in the field, or a smartphone from about anywhere. A site that is not easy to navigate using a mouse or a finger, or can’t adjust to any screen size, lowers the probability that the visitor will stay on your site long enough to solve a problem, make a purchase, or engage at all.

Actionable. Solve problems or offer information that make your visitors’ lives easier, like an obvious or clickable phone number, a sign up form that doesn’t ask for more than an email address, a social media link that actually works. Keep search engines happy too with relevant keywords, a textual site map, and a well-researched and tested page description meta tag.

Your home page gets the bulk of site traffic, making it undoubtedly the most important page of your website. This is where you get visitors to dig deeper. This is where you convert traffic to leads, and leads to customers.

The Mobile Influence 2017

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mobile influence 2017“Mobile to overtake fixed Internet access by 2014!” That bold prediction from a technology trends analyst was made in 2008. In 2017, we aren’t even asking whether mobile marketing is important. We know it is!

Anyone who markets products or services is challenged to adapt to the new realities of a connected world and the expectations that mobile presents to them and their customer.

There’s a word for mobile design. It’s called “responsive design” because whatever goes on a screen needs to adapt or “respond” to changing screen sizes and shapes. In the last few years, responsive design changed our approach to almost everything we did, from the shape of a logo to the sequence of information. Users were finding it easier to scroll on a tablet or smartphone than press a link, so we responded with leaner, cleaner layouts, brief top level content linking to longer underlying content, and more calls to action.

The best-designed site is worthless until it’s found, and Google rules search results. Last year, just when Google was happily delivering relevant search results to everyone, some unscrupulous characters hell-bent on gaming the system built massive workarounds in an effort to dominate the first page of Google. Google reacted. Now they trust no one. Want to be first on Google? Here’s what you need:

  1. Tenure. If you’re a brand-new site, it’s going to take time. Those sites who have the oldest “index age” get to be first. When you’re new, you have to work harder.
  2. Authority. You’re an authority if others turn to you for advice or information. Quality links from a variety of sites qualify. If you don’t have these links, there’s a pathway to acquire them. Tedious work where persistence pays off.
  3. Relevance. Relevant content is authoritative, well-written, error-free, never plagiarized, and about who you are, what you do, and how your products solve problems. Skimping on content is like tossing off a line to the dock and wondering why your boat slips away. Content must be well-written, lengthy, keyword centric, and highly engaging so that Google “sees” people spending time on your site.

Lastly, flat design ruled the market in 2016. In 2017 a new metaphor came to town: Material Design. It’s about simplicity, with subtle, natural, visual clues that help the eye’s navigation—textures, shading, contrasts, hues and so on. On the other hand, we prefer what we call honest design. No fads, just the right design to advance the brand.