The top 2018 web design trends to watch out for
There are only two months left of 2017, so it’s a great time to reflect on the top web design trends that dominated this year and look into the exciting changes and trends that are ready to dominate 2018. 2017 has been an exciting year for web development. More and more businesses are realising the need for an effective website, digital marketing and SEO strategy and more people now than ever are using the web to buy products, read reviews and find out information. Let’s look at the key trends that are expected to dominate and thrive into 2018.
1. Intelligent conversational bots
It’s the rise of the bots. 2017 has seen a significant increase in the blending of traditional web pages and apps together meaning websites are now able to consider and implement the more advanced functionality that apps offer over web pages. This consequently will give a push to the use of heuristic bots, voice searches in combination with natural language processing. This is only possible thanks to the massive shift towards mobile browsing and the fact it provides a very feature rich platform. We think we will see these intelligent conversational bots implemented in many creative forms, such as programming them into the core of pages, thereby allowing users to verbally ask questions. For example, instead of scrolling down an FAQ list, you can simply ask your question and receive an answer.
2. Crisp and clean layouts
Web design used to be dominated by animated designs, producing flashy, gimmicky websites. It almost conveyed a sense of ‘showing off’. Gone are those days, and we are seeing a move towards simplicity. People like to enter a website and navigate it seamlessly to find exactly what it is they are looking for. We expect 2018 to see lots of websites update their web design to fit this trend and it can benefit you in more ways than one. Not only will your customers love it, but Google will appreciate it also as it believes the aim of a site is to let your content do the talking, so you never know, it may benefit your search engine rankings too.
3. The rise of GIFs
GIFs have dominated 2017, and they are certainly going to be here in 2018. We can’t escape them on social media accounts and 2018 will see it filter into your web design too. Good animation does play a key role in web design and GIFs can be extremely useful in helping to explain complicated workflows to your visitors. They can even be beneficial to other parts of your wider digital marketing strategy and you can use them for marketing via your social media accounts, on blog posts or even via emails and newsletters. You are spoilt for choice when it comes to incorporating this into your web design thanks to the extensive list of GIF creation tools available today.
4. Expressive typography
Using bold typography is a perfect complement to achieving a great user-friendly website. By replacing images with powerful and expressive typography, you are able to decrease the load time of your pages and increase the amount of negative space available which can allow for vital information or items of importance to drop in smoothly. If you are using WordPress, then you will be spoiled for choice with some fantastic typography plug-ins that will help transform your web design.
If you’re ready to make improvements to your website or create a completely fresh look in line with 2018 design trends, then why not get in touch with iprogress? We can help you build an effective website and digital marketing strategy to help you dominate 2018!