It’s a new year which is the perfect timing for change in every aspect, including the design and appearance of your website. There are many things that can be improved on any website, including user interface, user experience, content, and so on. Even if you have set up a beautiful functional website just a couple of years ago, keeping it fresh and SEO-friendly should be a constant responsibility. Failing to do so means that before you know it, your website will look old and uncared for and the information included there may become out-dated.
As technology and customer needs and expectations are increasing, it’s extremely important to keep business’s content up to date. The number 1 goal of a business’s website is to captivate the audience’s attention and retain them; make them want to buy your products/services from your website.
If you’ve given your website a lot of work and attention in the past, you may find it hard to realize that some things could be improved. But what was good a year ago, may simply be not enough today. This is why we have gathered the most important web development trends for 2019, so you get the best version of your website this year. Here is what we recommend for 2019 based on our extensive web development experience:
Minimalistic but bold designs:
The “Less is more” phrase is truer than ever in web development. Websites with too much content, pictures, multiple colours, and intricate designs are no longer in trend and are definitely not a sign that your website developer is talented.
A simple website including a limited number of elements looks more appealable and gives users less time to think because it is not distracting. Give white space a larger portion of your website and it will be easier to read the content. Modern websites use fewer colours but a bright/bold colour palette; mixed with the white background, this puts more emphasis on the content, which should play a central role on your website.
Another advantage of simple designs is that the page takes less time to load, which reduces bounce rates (percentage of users giving up on visiting your website when it loads slowly).
GIFS/animation:
They grasp the user’s attention almost immediately and are used to effectively deliver a message. They are short and straight to the point as they last 5 seconds or less, they are visually appealing, and extremely interactive for users. And they are fun! There are many services online that let you add animated GIFs to your websites or even create your own.
Bright colours and shapes:
Abstract shapes and colours draw in users and can be used to create an ‘expression’ of a brand. Do not be afraid to use your creativity when it comes to your website’s development, on condition that you stick to the first trend we have presented, simplicity.
Progressive web apps:
Mobile apps have become extremely popular in the last years for some solid benefits they bring to businesses and their online marketing efforts. However, many small business owners are caught between their website and the project of an app, not knowing what to expect from each one and where to invest next. The good news is you can sort of have them both, the website and the app, and put an end to the dilemma by using Progressive Web Apps (PWA).
PWAs are web applications that users perceive as mobile applications but are actually web pages. They combine the best of web and native application to offer users a full app experience without having to install an app. The business doesn’t need to pay the costs of mobile app development, and the user doesn’t need to install one more app to their smartphone – it’s a win-win situation. More than that, you avoid the situation when mobile web pages that load slowly (less than 3 seconds is considered slowly by most users) and the bounce rate is high.
Single page website:
Talking about simplicity, 2019 is determined to completely take web development trends to the realm of ‘simple’ by making websites with a single page the next big thing. Rather than putting each topic on its own page like we see on traditional websites, web development experts now recommend us to take into consideration how people read, decrease the amount of webpage text, and to ditch the complex navigation.
Since more and more users are reading website contents from mobile devices, it makes a lot more sense to use single web page design, which works well on mobile devices where the first navigation method is scrolling. Such websites are cheaper to develop and host, so adopting the single page website trend increases your readability on mobile devices while also enabling you to save money with your web development.
Static web pages:
When it comes to computers, it seems like everything that is old and was in use years ago will never be relevant again. There is at least one exception, and it is part of web development trends for 2019 – static web pages.
The first web pages were static while today’s websites are usually dynamic. After web development became increasingly complex, experts in the field have started to return to roots and introduce static websites again. Static web pages are delivered to users as they are stored, while dynamic web pages are generated by a web application. They also display the same information to all users in any context and provide benefits such as improved security, better performance for end users, not depending on databases and application servers, and reduced costs due to cloud storage use.
Push notifications:
Push notifications are no longer used just by mobile apps, but are also present in websites and are one of the strongest web development trends for 2019. Websites sending push notifications have a dialogue box asking users for permission to send notifications to them. This can really give you that extra edge in the web competition and enable you to prompt the web viewer to take action. This functionality can easily be added to your website by using a dedicated plugin.
Creating pages with modules:
Nowadays it is possible to create a website even if you have little to zero knowledge of web development. The latest versions of content management systems provide users with modules, which are pre-defined website pieces that you can collate together to obtain a website. A designer compared modules to Lego bricks – when you connect these pieces the right way, they become a website. One of the best-known tools for adding modules to your website is Gutenberg from WordPress, aimed at making it easier to create media rich pages and posts; it allows users to “insert, rearrange, and style multimedia content with very little technical knowledge”.
Better chatbots:
Live chat is one of the most appreciated features in a website. Virtual chatbots are software that imitates human conversations for solving various user problems and their popularity has grown so fast because customer support automation saves a lot of time and efforts. The majority of customer interactions are expected to be handled without a human in 2019, and chatbots are already able to do more than answer to FAQs. Some of the newest uses of artificial intelligence are collecting information about users, organizing meetings, set medical appointments, calling a taxi, checking in for flights, and many others – the chatbot market is growing exponentially.
2019 is going to write history in terms of web development trends and will be a challenge both for beginners and veterans – the former will have to learn a lot, and the latter will need to forget about the great work they’ve done in the past and get better tools for the job.
