OK, so far, we’ve learned there are tons of new and intriguing web design trends to discuss for 2022 and beyond. And though some of these trends aren’t necessarily new, but the “Tried & True,” we’re going to share our top picks.
The design trends and features we love are those that make company websites POP with beauty, innovation, functionality, and, most importantly – responsiveness. In fact, each feature helps create UX and UI interface experiences that keep visitors and potential leads coming back for more!
Skip to our web design choice picks for 2022 and beyond!
- Intro – The WHEN & WHY of a new website
- Top 10 Digital Marketing Web Design Trends
- 1. Site speed and loading time
- 2. Keeping content KING with personalization
- 3. Mobile responsiveness always matters
- 4. Clever video marketing
- 5. Chatbots! Yes, chatbots
- 6. Bold fonts and graphic contrasts
- 7. Photo image and graphic element combinations
- 8. Colors, colors, colors – bold, 3D, and comfort!
- 9. Page interactivity and engagement
- 10. Hero and home pages with full-height elements and scrolling transformation
- Outro – What to do when you’re ready to “make a move!”
Companies must first recognize WHEN they need a new website and WHY.
With every passing year, the landscape of business website design continues to evolve. As such, it doesn’t take long for companies to realize the importance of having their sites updated and refreshed regularly. However, after 18 to 24 months, your web design can quickly grow stale and slow if you’re not revising its look and feel or adding fresh content consistently.
Perhaps the most important thing businesses must learn is that their website is not about “them,” but how potential customers find them online. Therefore, the “why” of your site, and its importance, is to tell the world about the critical products and services your company provides that help make lives better. This notion means business websites must always cater to customer and potential lead search behaviors, then gently guide them through their buying journey. And, as I always say – “When buyers visit a site that doesn’t ‘lead them like a pro,’ they’ll go!”
As we’ve stated before, most companies don’t understand that online search queries and site-visitor-stays are the drivers that determine the latest web design trends. And how visitors utilize a site to obtain information, solutions, and make purchases, is directly dependent on how well that website appeals to their search needs.
We’ve found these 10 web design trends most effective and efficient for digital marketing in a post-pandemic era.
Regarding website design trends, perhaps the best way to understand if your current site needs an overhaul is to analyze and assess it first.
For example, it would behoove you to do just one thing to test your site’s accessibility and responsiveness: Open your business website on a Smartphone and see how well it functions and appears digitally on the device. As companies look at their site to assess its status, they should compare various elements based on aesthetics, functional responsiveness, usability, and interactivity.
So, let’s review the following trends to see how well your current site adds up in comparison.
1. Lightning-fast webpage speed and loading times remain critical!
We decided to begin our trend list with loading time because speed still matters and remains crucial for people accessing and staying on your website. So, here’s the bottom line: Online visitors don’t like to wait, not even for more than a few seconds, to get to the information they need. Therefore, companies must always keep this fact at the forefront of their minds concerning website accessibility and user experience (UX).
Source: Host Reviews – Website Speed Statistics
Not only are page speed and loading times essential to what users want, but they also affect your site’s SEO ranking and conversion rates. For example, over 50 percent of online users expect to access a site within three seconds of clicking the link. So, the longer internet browsers wait to access pages on a site, the more likely they’ll leave and not return. According to Google, mobile site bounce rates increase with each second of delay. For example, one second equates to a 7% conversion reduction rate for specific sites.
2. Keep content KING, context QUEEN, and make it personal.
Well-developed smart websites will always contain connective and interactive content. This trend of relevant content is both eternal and essential to keeping visitors engaged on a site. Keeping content as the KING of your site means using words that creatively guide potential customers and leads through the buying journey towards a sale.
Unfortunately, there remains a handful of companies who insist on keeping sites riddled with extensive content, graphics, and resource information. This practice ultimately leaves people confused in their attempt to navigate through to locate what they need. These elements can also slow a site down to where relevant information becomes buried and inaccessible.
However, crafting the right personalized message and in the proper context (the QUEEN) will capture leads and effectively guide them through their search. In the end, we never want to confuse and lose customers and potential leads or cause them to miss the solutions we offer through innovative products and services.
Check out our email content excerpt for this “Tried & True” web design trend below!
Can You Generate Quality Leads Over the Holidays? Yep!
3. Having a responsive website is critical to the success and sustainability of every digital marketing campaign.
Responsive designing is no longer an option but a requirement for any relevant website! So, just as every business needs a website, that site also must function well and have streamlined compatibility on all digital devices and smartphones.
One significant component of mobile responsiveness is ensuring the site’s functionality is “finger-friendly.” This trend is highly conducive to people navigating through sites with their phones. For the most part, when people are holding their phones, they use their thumbs or index fingers to scroll through information and make selections. Therefore, your site’s responsiveness must cater to the way people naturally hold and use their smartphones each time they pick them up!
4. Always keep your video marketing campaigns clever and impactful.
Yes, people still love videos! And because of limited time, even business owners and VPs prefer watching videos instead of doing a lot of reading. So, if you want your website to remain impactful, creative video marketing is crucial to reaching various demographics to educate them about your products and services.
Today, there exists only a chosen few B2B video marketing examples where companies “nail it” with conveying the right message; one such favorite comes from Slack – check it out!
5. Chatbots are becoming a big thing in 2022.
One web design trend that’s becoming even more of a big deal is the chatbot1 feature. Chatbots have become a necessary solution since the pandemic and the “Great Resignation” era we’re now living in. Not only are they highly convenient for meeting customer service needs 24/7/365, but they’re also becoming more humanoid. Today’s AI technology makes it hard to decipher if you’re connecting with a natural person or a bot. Yet, in any case, they allow customers to access information quickly, efficiently, and at any time they choose.
If your business now functions with a significantly smaller staff, or if customer service has increased substantially, definitely consider adding a chatbot to your website. It’s one of the best ways to stay connected to your customers.
6. Big, bold fonts and graphic contrasts continue to trend upward, adding tasteful aesthetics to today’s web designs.
You cannot visit the website of a major corporation without seeing elements of bold typography, cool fonts, and graphic contrasts. However, it’s the bold fonts and contrasting border trends that quickly make visitors aware of relevant messaging and key information. Thus, web designs incorporating large fonts in bold or neutral colors further promote headlines and all pertinent information they want visitors to access.
Sample 1: Kaduceus Landing Page
Sample 2: Sagis Podiatry Hero Page
Color gradients are also long-time innovations that have advanced from modest overlays to eye-catching backgrounds. For instance, they can add depth and texture to any illustration, which is why we’re excited to see how its use continues to evolve.
These days, it seems web designers enjoy creating that ‘sense of magic’ on a business page. And in essence, website magic is a welcomed distraction for people visiting online and needing a slight sense of amazement and wonder during challenging times. But overall, bold fonts, graphics, and contrasts ultimately make web page content easier to decipher while also helping distinguish one section from another.
7. Photo image and graphic element combinations are here to stay – at least for a good while!
We ultimately expect this trend to stick around for a long time. People seem to quickly become mesmerized with overlapping graphics on images in social media feeds. So, why not have this feature on a web design?
This modern combination technique adds a new level of ingenuity and excitement to plain, typical images. In fact, it seems the idea of mixing photography with graphics helps reinforce company branding while also keeping potential leads engaged with its content.
8. 2022 Websites need vibrant colors, colors, and more colors! And did we forget to mention colors?
Whether they are bold, 3D2, or comfort tones that exude a certain mood, people will be looking for COLORS on the screen. Thus, it’s essential that your site colors are on-trend and set to please the eyes of potential customers.
And like another top trend from 2020, minimalistic web designs remain popular. However, for 2022 and beyond, colorful minimalism will go to the next level as a prominent feature with more bold and textural elements. Therefore, adding bright and vibrant colors to a minimalistic design3, like the ‘blue-mood’ sample below, will help your signature brand POP compared to the once used plain and neutral color schemes.
9. Website page interactivity and engagement remain vital to the success of any great web design.
Sites with at least one interactivity element can certainly boost customer engagement and help guide visitors down the sales funnel towards a close. The more potential customers believe that your company cares for their needs, the better. Page interactivity can offer a variety of unique advantages to your business site that directly benefits online visitors. Such benefits include:
-
- Bringing viable solutions to their challenges
- Becoming their industry resource leader for particular products and services
- Providing a voice for them with an assurance that you hear and understand them
- Offering regular and potential customers a sense of control and/or product and service customization options
- Making vital industry resource information accessible to visitors 24/7/365
GIF Sample of this trend from Harvard University.
10. Home pages with full-height elements and scrolling transformation are conducive for today’s dynamic award-winning websites.
If you’re looking to set the tone for easy navigation and an excellent UX/UI experience for site visitors, full-height home and hero pages are just the ticket. Thus, a dynamic web design with everything above the scroll for site visitors to make their next click is always an award-winner!
Are you ready to “make a move” and set your website design on a new trending course?
If so, BUILDINGBLOCKS is here to help. Whether you prefer trends that are aesthetic, functional, or both, partnering with us means putting your website needs in our well-capable hands. Our goal is to help your site visitors have a pleasant and engaging UI interface and UX experience with your brand.
That’s why it’s so important to us to design websites right the first time, so they’ll function the way they were intended. And as a result, we help ensure your bottom line by getting your site to generate high-quality leads.
So, let’s talk more! Call 281-203-0529, or connect online today.
References
- Chatbot image concept by Vectorpocket. Retrieved 11/30/21.
- Fluid technology colorful web design trend concept by Pikisuperstar. Retrieved 11/30/21.
- Minimalistic color web design trend concept by Starline. Retrieved 11/30/21.
