Considering a New Site Design? Here are 6 Web Design Trends for 2020 (Part 1)
Websites are essential to the success of any business, as they establish a sense of credibility and professionalism, while also allowing users easy access to information about your company. Often, your website the key to attracting new customers and, perhaps even, retaining current customers. The actual design of your website has a significant and impactful influence on this.
The opinion of many marketing professionals is that you should fully redesign and revamp your website every two to three years in order to stay up to date with modern trends and features. That being said, if your website is not performing in terms of traffic or it is not bringing in as many new customers as anticipated, it may be time to re-evaluate your site’s design and consider making updates. If your site is still producing desired results for both you and your customers, you may be able to hold off on a full redesign for more than three years, as long as you continue to monitor and update your website as needed.
If you are in the market for a new site design this year, you may find some of the following web design trends compelling. They just might inspire the look of your new website!
For quite some time now, sans serif fonts have been dominating over serif fonts in the design field, especially when it comes to web design. This is due to the fact that sans-serif fonts are traditionally easier to read. However, serifs are now starting to make a comeback. More and more websites are featuring bold serifs in their headers and call-outs due to their decorative and classical look.
Heritage Grove Federal Credit Union uses a serif font for their big headlines on their sliding banners and for links on their home page.
Oversized, bold type is becoming very popular on websites. This usage of type is in your face, immediately drawing the attention of visitors as a simple and efficient method to portray the most important information. When using oversized type – or any oversized element – make sure they are central to your brand and/or message as these are the components of your site that users are most likely to remember.
AIGA’s site for their design conference features the oversized text, “Join us in November.” This text is the first thing my eyes go to and the words stick out most in my memory when thinking back on this site.
Illustrated elements have been growing in popularity on the web for years now. They add a sense of emotion, personality, and authenticity to your site, especially when customized or hand-drawn. These unique illustrations can also help you stand out from your competitors and make your brand or site more memorable. When paired with animation or micro-interactions – which we will touch on in a later trend – these custom images can be especially powerful at grabbing attention and can even be a new tool to communicate messages with your customers. However, if you do decide to introduce illustrated elements to your website, make sure they are tailored to your brand and used across your entire site to tie everything together.
Bones Coffee Company has tied illustration into all of their branding, so it makes sense that their website would also feature hand-drawn illustrations as well. The animated skeleton hand looks as if it is selecting its favorite coffee flavor. Additionally, the hand drawn boxes around the words “Choose Your Flavor” and the buttons for “ground” and “whole bean” really add to the overall design and feel of the page.
Most sites rely on their use of color to define their site and set the tone for the user experience. Given that, a black and white color palette can really set your website apart from others with its absence of color. Sites that utilize this trend look contemporary, clean, and crisp. Additionally, if you stick to a mostly black and white palette, you can add a pop of color to really draw attention to the most important information on your site.
Councl’s simple black and white website gives it a clean, modern look.
Allowing the content on sites to have plenty of white space or adding frames of white space to pages is a growing trend. That said, it is important to note that white space does not have to be white – even though the name suggests it. It can be any color filling an expanse of space. Having white space on a page is simply about leaving plenty of space between columns of text, around visuals, or even in the margins of the webpage like a frame. While this can be seen as a waste of space, it actually provides users an opportunity to breathe and not get overwhelmed by crowded content. Sites that utilize this trend have a spacious, structured, and well-balanced look and help guide the user’s attention from element to element easily, as the content is more legible and easy to understand.
Pan Communications’s website features plenty of white space around text and images, creating a tidy and structured design that is easy to follow.
Without motion and interactivity, sites are just static images and text, which can become boring pretty quick, especially to users with smaller attention spans. It is a fact that humans are more biologically prone to gravitate their attention towards moving elements, so adding motion and interactivity is very important to websites, especially in terms of micro-interactions and video content.
Micro-interactions are small events that “improve the browsing experience, clarify how certain things function, and provide feedback to the users.” They typically occur when a user scrolls, hovers, or clicks within the webpage. Most often these interactions involve animation, but they can involve sound. These user-triggered animations help users feel involved in the site and definitely make the site seem alive and exciting! Remember, when utilizing this trend, you should take the tone of the site as well as your brand personality into consideration, as different animations and interactions can portray different vibes to visitors.
When it comes to including motion in your site, don’t forget about videos. Video is just another way to bring your site to life in an engaging manner and move away from boring, static elements. Additionally, some users may be more likely to watch video than read text, so using video to communicate information alongside text can capture the attention of a larger group of consumers. Some interesting and trendy uses of video include large background videos and animation-like videos that blend seamlessly into the web page without looking like your standard video.
Buddha Pizza features multiple micro-interactions from the pizza at the center of the page who’s eye follow the movement of your cursor to the change in color and slight animation that occurs when hovering over the hand-drawn icons.
Quip’s site features a video that highlights their product like a demo. It looks more like an animation than a video, as it is cleanly integrated into the rest of the page. This site also has some small micro-interactions that occur when you hover over the buttons and menu items.
Adding some of these trends to your site can give it a modern look and help your company stay relevant in the eyes of new and current consumers. And, as seen in some of the examples, many of these trends can overlap and be integrated on one site. Though these trends are currently growing with popularity and may benefit your company, you must remember to do what’s right for your brand and for your customers when redesigning your website. At the end of the day, the most important thing is creating a site that can grab and keep the attention of users and is user-friendly, working as a well-functioning tool for your potential and current customers.
About Automated Systems, Inc.
Since 1981, Automated Systems, Inc. has been a leader in providing innovative core banking, digital banking, and data processing solutions to community banks nationwide. An array of integrated applications provide partnered banks with tailored, cost-effective, competitive choices. ASI delivers industry-leading technology backed by unparalleled in-house conversion, training and support teams; paving the way for progressive, top-notch customer service. ASI corporate headquarters are located at 1201 Libra Drive, Lincoln, NE 68512, 1.800.279.7312. For more information about banking solutions from ASI, visit www.asiweb.com.
About Insite Data Services
IDS data application hosting services combines secure and cost-effective core banking applications, enterprise-class servers and storage, and proven virtualization technology. IDS hosts all of the bank’s servers in secure data centers that use state of the art security systems including identity verification and biometric scanning. Insite Data Services also offers IDS On-Time, a full-service solution dedicated to back-office bank processing. These operations experts allow partnered banks to focus on their most important asset, their customers. For more information visit www.insitedataservices.com.
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