Web design trends 2019
Keeping yourself updated on web development services
is crucial to the success of your website. A lot changes every twelve months in
terms of popularity with images, algorithm updates and best practices.
A website that looks sleek and modern today may seem
old-fashioned and corny in just a few months. That's why knowing the difference
between a trend in the industry and a passing fad is so important when
designing your website. You want to make sure your design looks good for
several years and does not remember the 1996 GeoCities message board.
2019 will focus on offering the user experience: web design
trends will prioritize speed and mobile design, flashy and simple designs with
asymmetric designs, immersive video backgrounds and more.
Speed
How long do you think it can make a good impression with a
potential client? If you are talking about interacting with them online, you
have less than three seconds.
Humans tend to be fleeting and impatient. If the Internet is
really an alien conspiracy that observes human nature, its alien studies would
show that we do not like to be made to wait. In the studies conducted by Akamai
and Gomez.com, 50% of users expect that when they click on a site, they will
load in two seconds or less and leave a site if they take three or more seconds
to load.
As you can see, a beautiful site is a beautiful site, but if
the design is so heavy on data that the download takes a long time, you could
be losing a lot of income because no one is left to look at your site. What's
worse, with the Google speed update that came into effect in July 2018, Google
has begun to prioritize the rankings of sites that load faster than others, and
it's likely that other search engines will follow soon.
What all this means is that as websites need to load faster,
so does web design to prioritize speed during the design process. Web designers
can not simply rely on the developer to turn their work into something that
looks good and classifies well; Speed must be a design parameter.
The days of gigantic photos, uncompressed videos and bloated
Javascript are over. Although the images and large videos do not go beyond the
web design, in 2019 they will be incorporated in such a way that they do not
slow down the loading times.
Plain design
In 2017, designers and developers began to create clean and
simple websites for better mobile performance. Since then, the number of mobile
searches has steadily increased, and the design of websites for mobile devices
is now a necessity first, not just an option. Websites loaded with images are
slow to load and frustrate mobile users, as we have previously commented.
Clean and minimalist designs, or flat designs, are
characterized by fast loading and are currently modern and desirable for two
important reasons. First, both mobile users and desktop browsers can experience
fast loading websites. Second, they can have a high SEO value. The flat design
helps a site meet a large number of speed requirements that search engines are
beginning to require. This is the reason why flat design has started to be
popular and will continue to be a trend in 2019.
The flat design does not mean that everything is reduced to
two dimensions, it is about minimalism and ease of use. It is a design
aesthetic that eliminates clutter and focuses on the important parts of your
website. Using bright colors, crisp, clean edges, and plenty of open space, the
flat design is a refreshing change from designs based on high-resolution images
that distract and distract.
Despite being minimalist, this does not mean that the flat
design is boring. Contrasting bright colors and illustrations with simple
images and sans-serif fonts, the sum of the flat design parts comes together to
provide an excellent user experience that is eye-catching and appealing.
As the flat design does not depend on the images to
captivate, it does not have large amounts of additional data to load when a
user navigates to the page. This means two really cool things for website
owners: the first is that customers and customers, regardless of whether they
are browsing on mobile devices or not, will have a pleasant and fast loading
experience on the website. Secondly, these lightweight, fast-loading data
designs make the speed and page optimization much faster, which seems really
desirable for Google, Bing and almost all search engines. As we explained in
the speed section, faster load times mean that your site is more likely to rank
well, and with an attractive flat design, users can stay longer on their site
and are more likely to convert.
Mobile first
Speed is not just the only rule that Google has been using
to measure websites by. In 2015, mobile searches exceeded desktop searches in
general, making mobile search the highest search form in the world. According
to this, Google has changed the sites that index first, now give priority to
mobile sites over sites that are not suitable for mobile devices.
With mobile sites taking priority from desktop sites, it is
not surprising that the first mobile design has become a trend. The first
mobile web design is about changing the way websites are designed primarily. The
standard used to be that a site would only be designed for a desktop or laptop
computer, and an adaptable or compatible design could also be added to mobile
devices. The first mobile design does exactly the opposite: it begins with the
design of the site for the mobile user before creating a version that also
works for a desktop user.
Once again, this drive towards the first mobile design is
not only based on classification or SEO factors. The visual result is something
that, first of all, will improve the user's experience with the website on the
device from which they are most likely looking. This design trend satisfies the
demand that mobile users require and will probably be the trend for a long
time.
Broken grid / asymmetrical designs
In 2019, web design trends consist of thinking outside the
box or, rather, in the grid. The broken grid and the asymmetric designs are
making their mark in the web design industry to a large extent. Despite the
impulse of many web designers towards the flat, fast and minimalist design,
there is also a large contingent of designers who advocate the fresh and
surprising appearance of broken designs.
When we speak of broken grids or asymmetrical designs, this
refers to the grid system that has been used for decades in all types of
designs, from web pages to newspapers, printed materials and outdoor
advertisements. A grid system helps a designer maintain alignment and
consistency easily when they are adding content (images, headlines, copy, calls
to action) to whatever medium they are working on, keeping the grid structure
in the design underlying and generally maintaining symmetry as well.
Historically, not using a grid or "flutter" has
resulted in what many have called careless or distracting designs that prevent
the user from focusing on the most important parts of the page. However, the
asymmetry and broken grids have been gaining more and more popularity, probably
because they have found a way to not look like most of the designs of other
websites, while at the same time not distracting or neglecting.
Designers can achieve this by carefully and carefully
breaking the grid pattern and establishing a hierarchy with planned asymmetry.
The use of unusual locations, layers with different colors and textures, the
repetition of irregular patterns, the use of blanks and the creative use of
typography create a sense of depth not normally found in grid-based designs. .
These designs are surprising, they help to involve users and
guide them towards the most important parts of the website, but not due to the
established patterns of memory design. On the other hand, the creative use of
the visual hierarchy directs the gaze towards where to look. Through the use of
colors, shapes, textures, expressive use of type and dynamic images, the designer
can direct the user's attention in a new and attractive way to the content or
CTAs that they want users to find.
Shapes
As an intermediate tendency between the minimalism of the
flat design and the controlled chaos of the broken grid is the tendency of the
geometric forms. If you think this refers to simple Euclidean geometric shapes
that you learned in high school, such as triangles, hexagons and circles, then
you're absolutely right.
The shapes can close the gap between the flat grid and the
broken grid due to the ease with which they can be integrated into a design.
Simple geometric shapes with bright colors can create interesting edges and
load quickly while being attractive. Designs that compose shapes with
photography and type or that use shapes to create repeated patterns can result
in the dynamism and depth present in a broken grid or asymmetric designs.
This versatility is a big part of why shapes have become a
trend in 2019. The underlying mathematics of geometry helps establish a sense
of balance in a website, even when the visual elements may contain asymmetry.
Often, geometric shapes easily fit together or next to them, establishing the
organization or hierarchy quickly.
Forms are like colors in which there are thoughts and
emotions that people naturally associate with each one. Rectangles represent
stability, circles are unity and triangles and diamonds are dynamic. The
creative use of particular forms or combinations of forms can be used to shape
the emotions or feelings that visitors of your website would like.
They can be used dramatically or in moderation, it simply
depends on the aesthetics of your brand. The forms help you easily establish a
visual hierarchy and draw attention to the parts of a page that you want your
visitors to notice, even when your site has moved away from a traditional grid
layout. That is why we will continue to see geometric shapes in web design in
2019.
One page design
Speed and minimalism are the trends that emerge again and
again when we talk about web design in 2019, which is one of the main reasons
why the single-page design, also known as pageless design, is also It has
become a web design trend in 2019. The single-page design is a very descriptive
title: it refers to websites that have only one page instead of multiple
service pages or blog articles, all arranged in an orderly fashion under a
siled hierarchy.
From the point of view of traditional SEO digital marketing,
this might seem like a mistake: it will be much more difficult to classify the
keywords in particular without the pages and the content that would normally
have, nor would it be easy to achieve another advanced SEO techniques Yes,
although you can it is more difficult to use particular SEO tactics in the
design without pages, that is where their cons begin to disappear.
As discussed in the speed and flat design, search engines
are favoring simple, clean and orderly websites, since they can be downloaded
quickly and easily on mobile devices. The design without pages accomplishes
that by having less of everything that can slow down a website. HTML, CSS,
Javascript and images are not full of data to download, which makes it a better
experience for the user and gives priority in the search engines.
This simplicity is doubly large for single-page websites,
since they look great on all navigation devices and automatically become a site
for mobile devices. Being so simple means that it is also handled more easily.
Site updates are often achieved quickly as there are very few things to change
or update, which means it is easier for your company to stay up to date with
your website.
Companies love websites with fewer pages for more than just
ease of use: they also tend to have high conversion rates. In a traditional
hierarchical site, it is about grabbing a user with a keyword search, having
them land on their site and then routing them to a contact form, page or phone
number. With single page sites, there is no place for the user to be distracted:
each part of the page takes them to a conversion point, getting more potential
customers and more business.
While it is likely that the single-page design will not take
over the future of web design, it will certainly continue to leave its mark
until 2019.
Video backgrounds
Despite minimalist, fast-loading, and flat-design trends,
video backgrounds are still incredibly popular as a trend from 2019. You might
think that speed is such an important factor this year that videos will cram a
site too much , but interestingly, it has been shown that video backgrounds
increase conversions.
The videos are simply more attractive than text or images.
You have probably seen this trend appear on social media platforms such as
Facebook in recent years. Video publications have priority over other types of
publications. They even made it easier to watch videos by automatically playing
silently while you scroll through your feed.
When a user comes to your site and plays a video in the
background, it is likely to stay to watch it because the videos get attention.
The more a user remains on your site, the more likely they are to convert.
This, in turn, increases the time on the site metric, and the higher the
average time on the site, the better your SEO will be.
The power of the video, literally, can not be expressed in
words: they convey their message quickly and efficiently, something that may
require paragraphs of text. The video does it in a matter of seconds. This is
especially useful when you have a complex message to explain to your users in
the short time you have your attention.
Finally, there is only something elegant and modern in a
video background on a website. While the video is short, muted and has a nice,
high-quality look, the video background can do a lot for your brand.
Micro-animations
A subtle but notable trend of 2019 in web design is
micro-animations. Micro-animations are a powerful way to provide an intuitive
and satisfying experience to your user while browsing your website. This is
achieved through small animations that help the user to understand the site and
validate it when moving with the mouse or clicking on an element, such as
changing the color of a button when the cursor moves over it, or a menu that It
expands when you click on hamburger.
Most users experience these micro-animations all the time on
desktop and mobile browsing platforms. It is so widespread in navigation now
that it is more surprising not to experience them. These animations help the
user to know that they are performing the right actions as they move through
your site. Did you press the submit button on the form? It changed color when
clicked. How to quickly update the page? Scrolling down creates an activation
movement to let you know that you activated the update action correctly.
Do you remember how moving objects, like videos, help with
user retention and attention? These movements, although they are small
animations, help to capture the user's attention and create an enriched
experience for them while browsing a site. In turn, the proper use of
micro-animations creates a visual hierarchy on a web page, leading visitors to
their conversion points and rewarding them for completing them.
It may seem too simple or silly to think that a
micro-animation can "reward" a user by clicking send on a form, but
think of that annoying Captcha that they use in so many ways. If you are lucky,
all you have to do is click on the check box, but if you have to go through the
process of selecting images or writing a sequence of numbers and strings of
letters, there is nothing more satisfying than seeing the circle turning on a
check mark. As 2019 approaches, micro-animations are here to stay in the web
design industry.
Chatbots / Machine Learning
In recent years, interaction and communication with robots
has become increasingly normal. The bots, or chatbots, are increasingly common
in websites and microinteractions through digital media. You probably talked to
one the last time you called your mobile service provider.
When they began to be implemented almost 20 years ago, these
bots seemed to make problem solving difficult (do you remember pronouncing your
commands in a strong and firm tone?) But over the years, they have become more
intelligent thanks to the improvement of Artificial intelligence (AI) and
automatic learning. This is what helps Google create automatic suggestions when
you start typing in the search bar.
This is also the reason why Facebook knows us so well. It
has helped Facebook to know what we look like and asks us if we want to be
tagged in a photo. It also uses location data and has learned our reading
habits so you know exactly what ads, events and information to show us so we
can press a "Like" button.
Chatbots and machine learning will continue to improve user
interactions with websites, especially because the automatic response
functionality inherent in most chatbots can interact seamlessly with users and
provide excellent customer service in advance. This starts your relationship
with potential customers on the right foot and at the same time collects
information for your sales team before they begin to interact with the
prospective customer.
In 2019, this technology will continue to be perfected and
incorporated into the company's websites. Soon, web interactions will go
smoothly. Imagine a website that already knows exactly what your client is
looking for simply by analyzing your past interactions with your company.
Customer service through the web is becoming faster and more efficient thanks
to these new technologies. Do not overlook them in your web design.
