This blog was provided by Moonstoon Interactive

Technology evolves more quickly each year, and web design trends are no different. Design elements and website features are important factors in maintaining standards and fulfilling online users' ever-changing expectations.

Nowadays, most businesses require a robust digital brand presence to get the most out of their business strategy. The main goal of any UI/UX design agency is to execute the brand essence and facilitate user engagement.

When it comes to future web design trends, they change pretty fast. Here's how some of the most significant web design trends will continue to shape digital interactions and create an engaging user experience.

1. Website Site Loading Time & Page Speed

One of the essential satisfaction factors is fast loading time. The digital user is experiencing faster networks with 5G and more rapid devices. Therefore, their expectations evolve toward speed. Google rewards speed in its SEO ranking criteria and it will continue to be a trend in improving user experience.

More than half of internet browsers expect a website to load fast and no more than two seconds after clicking a link. If this takes longer than two seconds, users will most likely leave the site before it even loads. Meaning you are losing potential customers and business.

Overall, website performance directly impacts business success.

2. Focus on Accessibility & Availability

The implementation of accessibility and availability is more than just a trend. It’s another fundamental expectation of digital users, and it’s an essential need for people with disabilities.

The ability for people to reach your website from all devices is essential to any great website experience. Excellent UX design and development are critical in satisfying evolving user expectations. The extensive use of data-driven decision-making leverages the latest technology advancements to accelerate web design improvement and elevate user experience.

The experience design of websites focuses on learning what the users want and leading them to take the desired action and convert from a lead to a sale. Without a website that increases conversion rates, the website won’t be fulfilling its critical function.

A website accessible for voice control also helps people with disabilities navigate it easily and will continue to be a key trend in web design solutions in the future. Having a website that every user can easily navigate and interact with provides more than just good customer service, it provides an excellent user experience.

It can increase conversion, boost your website SEO and improve customer loyalty.

Elements that can improve accessibility include:

→ Strong colors that contrast between text and backgrounds.
→ Larger text for users with special needs.
→ Focus indicators, such as a rectangular outline, that appear around links when using keyboard navigation.

3. Storytelling is the Key

Instead of just presenting your information on the website, UI/UX companies can weave powerful stories throughout the design. This trend is here to stay, as more and more users prefer to interact with websites that use storytelling for presenting their material.

Every web design agency should design a homepage that can communicate the main brand message. The content should be easy to navigate for the user, and concise.

4. Interactive Design Wins the Day

How can you enhance web design experiences for the users? One critical factor is using interactive features on the homepage of the website. It can be in the form of different tools for sharing content. Some new information for the users can also be introduced using clickable content.

Interactive features help facilitate customers to move along the conversion funnel. With features like a lead magnet, you can lead customers from the top of the funnel to the bottom of the funnel. The websites that lack these interactive features will have challenges getting customers to stay on the website longer.

Some examples of interactive features include:

→ Calculators
→ Polls & Surveys
→ Discount Pop-Ups
→ Live Chat
→ Personalized Suggestions
→ FAQ
→ Videos

It’s critical to consider speed when you design interactive features. You can dilute the value of interactive features if it drags down the page speed. Be sure to use an agency to model your website’s speed implications during design and development.

5. Animations to Grab Attention

The latest trend which must be utilized to create a captivating web design is the usage of animations. Animations make websites more fun, and users also spend more time engaging with websites with creative animations.

Businesses can analyze website performance after using animations. The performance of websites improves significantly after using interactive designs and animations.

As mentioned above, page speed is critical for engaging features such as animation. You’ll lose the value of animation if it’s dragged down by a slower page speed. Make sure you understand your website’s speed implications by working with an optimization partner.

6. Simplicity Matters More

To increase user engagement on your website, its web design should focus more on simplicity. The design should help customers get the information or functions they need as soon as they need it.

Cluttered web design with too many features on a single page and too many tabs on the homepage has gone out of fashion. Users prefer easy to access and simple websites that don't take too much to load. Heavy websites with too much material can be challenging to load.

Now that you have all the critical website design trends, use them to create an immersive and fantastic user experience.

7. Chatbots Becoming More Human

Chatbots are another feature that has increasingly become popular over the last few years and has continued to become more relevant in 2022. Artificial intelligence is continuing to become more sophisticated and become more a 'norm' factor for simple customer service requests.

Users want their problems to be solved quickly. They want to know where their order is, ask questions about their order, or wish to solve an issue they have recently experienced. A chatbot can save the business from future problems which could potentially lead to negative outcomes.

8. Virtual Reality (VR)

The virtual reality experience will continue to grow in the next few years. With VR, B2C companies that focus more on selling tangible products (such as furniture or kitchenware) have the capability to showcase what the appliances will look like in a customer's home.

VR can be a powerful and essential tool for your website. This particulate feature can be useful and meaningful to online customers in a way that helps them make buying decisions.

9. Smart Video

Video has been a long must-have for websites. Video is an effective and essential feature to have on a website. And in 2022, videos will increasingly become a popular feature to have on the website, due to their attractiveness and engagement.

10. Dark Mode

Dark mode web designs serve a couple of different roles. On the practical side, dark mode enhances visual ergonomics by reducing eye strain. This is a growing concern for many people as device usage becomes increasingly integrated into our daily lives.

In terms of how this design looks on a website, dark mode effortlessly creates a modern look for your website.

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