With a new year firmly upon us, it is time to look ahead and consider what may be in store for the next 11-or-so months in terms of website design and development trends.
As a leading web design agency in Birmingham, we have seen our fair share of them come and go. Each new year brings with it great change and many indicators of what may be to come. Whilst it may not transpire that we are 100% accurate by the time 2019 comes to an end, it is likely that we will see most of these trends taking shape in some form or another.
Here are some trends to watch out and plan for.
1. Use of Bots, Machine Learning, and AI
Many of us now chat with bots through social media on a regular basis, particularly when we are contacting a company’s customer support team. In fact, each time you perform a Google search you are essentially ‘conversing’ with a bot and clever machine learning algorithms help to deliver relevant results.
Expect to start seeing more and more iterations of chatbot appearing on websites as organisations start to appreciate the benefits that using them can bring such as streamlined customer support, efficiency, costs savings, and convenience.
2. Ambient Design
As we spend more time using and working with screens, from PC monitors to smartphones, ambient design is becoming increasingly important. Being able to change the look and feel of a website by flicking a switch to fit certain times of day, locations (e.g. indoor or outdoor), and even weather improves the user experience and makes our eyes happier.
There’s nothing worse than going from switching from a dark website or interface to a bright white one at night when your eyes have adjusted to the light levels!
Ambient design is quite a new concept and can get quite complicated, however, we are a professional web design company in Birmingham that is well-versed in this upcoming trend.
3. Animated GIFs
Once considered too heavy for widespread use on websites, animated GIFs that don’t skimp on the detail are beginning to become commonplace as more and more internet users are accessing websites from devices that are powerful enough to process them efficiently.
Not only that, as customers now want to instantly find the information they are looking for, webmasters have a shorter amount of time to capture and keep attention. This is where detailed animated GIFs come in—they can demonstrate complex information and ideas in a short amount of time using an engaging visual element.
4. White Space
Effective use of white space is also growing. Whilst we have seen white space being cleverly used for decades, its popularity has grown alongside minimalism and some websites are starting to make the white space itself the end-user’s focal point.
Websites are starting to prioritise simpler and cleaner layouts over designs that are too noisy and risk overloading the senses. Cleverly using white space to segregate different sections of your website not only looks nice and clean, but it helps to improve the user experience by making any content easier to read and digest.
5. Asymmetrical Grids for Designers
Website design has always favoured set grid systems that help create consistent designs that are uniform and aligned. Recently, however, designers have started to instead create a ‘broken grid’ style of website where layouts are more scattered and asymmetrical.
This is something particularly prevalent amongst creatives and “artsy” individuals and companies who want to exercise more creative freedom and have a website that fits perfectly around their creations, not the other way around. Ultimately, this helps to improve the user experience by guiding their eye and pulling them towards relevant content.
These Are a Few of Many Trends
With an entire year ahead of us, we are likely to see some, if not all, of these trends become commonplace. There are far more out there, and some are still yet to be identified.
Implementing these trends now will set your website up for success as visitors begin to expect their inclusion on a larger scale. If you would like to learn more about specific trends that will affect your business and industry specifically, contact our leading web agency in Birmingham to find out more.
