Your website is a doorway into your business and an important statement about your brand. Like physical retail and office spaces, website design moves with the times. If you want your business to remain fresh and inviting, you will need to stay on top of web design trends and tweak your website from time to time. This will ensure that your clients have a pleasant and practical experience on your site. So let’s take a look at some of the latest website trends that are worthy of watching in 2021.
1. Bold and unusual typography
The biggest and best companies out there have a specific font or typography which helps their customer recognize them. In the past few years, designers have had so many more fonts to choose from. This in turn provides brands with lots of ways to express themselves and their offerings via strategic typographical choices.
How does this help?
Typography is a crucial tool that leads users from one part of your website to the other. This is achieved through layout and font sizes. When building your brand, your choice of typography offers subtle, but important hints about who you are and what you stand for. It communicates to your customer if you are fun, serious, relaxed or formal, for example. Successful typography must work across browsers and user platforms so this must be taken into account at an initial design level. It’s no use having a fancy font that only works on certain platforms, so make sure your designer also understands this level of application.
2. Hamburger menus
Many websites have a very long list of menu options to choose from. On the one hand this is great as the user can get to where they need to go really quickly. But on the other hand this can become a problem as it can use up a lot of valuable screen space and clutter the design. Hamburger menus are a neat solution as they hide the font and stack the menu options on the right hand side of the screen.
How does this help?
The best user experience is one that is distraction free. Hamburger menus create this for your customer by removing busy navigation and cleaning up design. This helps your customer get to where they need to be in a quicker amount of time.
3. Responsive hero images
Large images tell your brand’s story in a rich and visual way. That way you don’t only need to rely on your text to get your point across. Cutting edge web design uses large and medium hero images that encompass the point of your offering, and then encourage you to scroll down and read more. These large images are often placed in the background with content or text laid over it. It is also crucial that these images are enabled and fully responsive.
How does this help?
Customers are coming to you from different places and their expectations are extremely high. The image and text you use must be visible across platforms or people may miss it.
4. Videos in the background
Many companies are starting to embed videos that automatically play when the page is open. This is a great tool to make your point without relying too much on other content to communicate with your clients. If you have a specific product or feature you’d like to highlight, a feature video is another great option. These videos bring the solution you are offering to life. The shorter and more concise the video, the better. That way your visitor isn’t overwhelmed and can get the info they need in the shortest amount of time.
How does this help?
People are often hesitant to read loads of text. Videos images, on the other hand, are processed 60 000 times faster by our brains. This automatically draws your customer in and effortlessly engages with them. Customers do so much research online and explainer videos can be a highly influential tool in the buyer’s decision-making process.
5. Floating elements, layers and shadows
These elements create the illusion of depth and can be applied to graphics, icons and text. But you can absolutely have too much of a good thing here. Meaning that elements must not be cluttered and overcrowded.
How does this help?
Elements that use a more traditional form of 3D design can come across as boastful. But layering, shadow effects and floating elements can offer the same effect in a more subtle and sophisticated way. Just remember that whatever your design choice, your design-cues must be consistent across your entire website.
The bottom line
Websites are a powerful marketing and branding tool. But not all web design is created equally. So it is essential that you stay on top of the trends and tweak along the way to ensure that your customer’s experience is engaging, informative and enjoyable. To fund your next website re-design, contact Merchant Capital for quick access to working capital.
