Best Web Design Trends in 2022
There are many elements that go into a superior website, and that is why it is incumbent upon your business to keep current with the latest trends in website design and development. In the ever-changing technology landscape, there exists aesthetic and technical aspects of website design that are constantly evolving and being shaped by the latest online user preferences.
Your awareness of these latest developments in web design is crucial if you hope to maintain a favorable position in the marketplace and stay ahead of the competition. It is important that you ensure your website is consistently aligned with the way visitors think and operate online.
One important way for being equipped to create and maintain a dynamic and functional website is by knowing the latest trends in web design.
So, we want to take this opportunity to present to you the top website design trends for 2022.
Website Design Trends to be Aware of in 2022
Website Load Time and Page Speed
One clear trademark of a successful website when it comes to ultimate operability is lightning-fast loading time. Fast loading times have been key factors in UX and SEO for many years. Online users expect a website to load extremely fast – typically within two seconds after clicking a link – and if it doesn’t, they lose interest and leave.
Increasing your website load time will have a direct bearing on your bottom line. You want to make it quick and easy for potential customers to see what your brand has to offer. Less wait times on your website are bound to significantly increase search engine traffic and engagement with your site.
Personalized Content
In order for your website to truly serve the needs of online users, you need to have an advanced website that tracks your visitors’ browsing history and knows their locations. A successful website needs to showcase dynamic content, content that is based on past user behavior and what else you know about the user.
When you provide custom content on your website that is created for users who return to your site, you will increase your conversion rate. For example, people looking for a nearby hardware store in Denver, Colorado will view different results than users in other cities.
An exceptional directory website will recognize the type of sporting goods stores an online user prefers. If an online consumer reviewed or saved hunting gear stores in the past, it would be prudent to weigh hunting equipment stores higher in their search results.
Personalized content is especially important for e-commerce website owners. You can be assured that presenting recently viewed, saved or liked products for online consumers will result in increased conversions. Also, you will want to highlight products that were abandoned in a shopper’s cart, as this is bound to deliver an uptick in conversion rates, as well.
Bold Colors and Presence
Colorful minimalism coincides with one of this year’s most notable trends in web design, which is the use of striking colors. Your brand will pop when you use bright, bold, and saturated colors on your website. This colorful website presence will set you apart from many other companies that have been employing soft neutrals for website color schemes in recent years.
However, you want to walk a fine line in utilizing bold colors while not overpowering a visitor’s eyes.
Smart Content Load for More Satisfying User Experience
Do you have a resource-heavy website? There are many website owners who do. Their websites typically have a lot of graphical elements and third-party integrations that can bog down the functionality of their websites.
The good news is that there are numerous methods available to you to develop smart websites that download exclusively the content that an online visitor wants to see. One such technology that exists is Lazy Load, which makes sure the web browser, whether it’s Google Chrome, Firefox, or Safari, will download just the content you are viewing on the screen without wasting server resources and crucial time to load offscreen content that the online user may never see.
By implementing technologies like Lazy Load, it will boost your rankings on search engines and help your business outperform your competition. They will also dramatically improve the quality of the user experience, which increases your conversion numbers.
Chatbots Becoming Like Humans
Chatbots continue to ride a wave of popularity that will sweep into 2022. Website owners rely heavily on chatbots for simplifying the customer service process and for a customer’s personal shopping activities. And given the fact that artificial intelligence and machine learning are becoming more sophisticated, chatbots will be a common feature on more and more websites this year.
For example, if a customer visits your website, and she is looking for computer tech support, the chatbot might notify her that she is eligible for a major discount on a new laptop. The chatbot informs her of this special offer on a new computer. This translates into a satisfying experience for the customer, and it saves your business the cost associated with live customer support.
Progressive Lead Nurturing Forms & CRM Tool
Any successful marketing website has to have online lead generation forms to ensure a company’s strong bottom line. Lead generation forms are an integral part of providing your business with a fresh supply of new customers.
The goal of these forms is to learn as much relevant information as possible about the visitor to your site without inundating them with too many questions. The beauty of these forms is that you can tailor the form fields to the unique behavior of the website visitor. Generic fields would include the person’s name, company, and email address for the initial conversion, while then requesting a phone number, job title, and company size at the next conversion opportunity.
Your CRM can store the lead information and you can integrate it with your website. So, the CRM is able to recognize a lead when they return to your website and display form fields on the landing pages that have yet to be filled in. This allows your business to capture more important data so you can better address the lead’s future needs on your website.
Availability and Accessibility
As we enter 2022, there is a growing need for web design to consider the needs of people with disabilities. You want a website that is easy and intuitive for every visitor to navigate and interact with, as this provides both good customer service and a highly satisfying user experience.
Here are just some of the elements that can improve accessibility with your website:
- Adding focus indicators like the rectangular outline that displays around links when using keyboard navigation
- Creating clear color contrast between text and backgrounds
- Using functional alt tags for images, which will increase SEO
- Using labels and instructions with form fields instead of low-context placeholder text
Interactivity
You will deliver much more value for visitors when you add interactive sections to your website. This encourages online users to engage with your site, and you learn more about them so you can more effectively tailor content to their wants and needs.
Your objective with incorporating greater interactivity on your site is to learn more about your website visitors based on the data they enter on various tools or features you make available on your site.
Examples of interactive marketing include the following:
- Polls and surveys
- Calculators
- Assessments such as quizzes
- Contests
- Thumb-Friendly Mobile Navigation
With more than half of all online consumers accessing websites on mobile devices, responsive design is critical nowadays for any website. You can count on people visiting your site from a variety of devices that include smartphones, tablets, laptops, and desktop computers.
When we talk about thumb-friendly navigation, this has to do with how you hold your mobile device as you navigate a website. When holding a smart phone, you likely have your fingers wrapped around the back of your phone, leaving your thumb available to manipulate the website pages.
This is how we generally use our smartphones, which is why thumb-friendly navigation is so important. Your website becomes more comfortable and easier to use when you put the navigation bar, menu, and the contact buttons in the space your thumb can reach – the center of the screen.
Organic Shapes
Forget geometric shapes that were in vogue for website design the past couple of years. Now, the emerging trend is organic shapes, which is anything that does not include straight lines. Examples of organic lines include the wonders of nature such as the edges of lakes or rivers, and hills, with their asymmetrical and winding characteristics.
Fluid shapes are an ideal way to break up sections on your website without resorting to severe lines or sharp angles.
Data Visualization
When you use data visualization you are taking advantage of the fact that we as humans are innately drawn to visuals. Data visualization creates images from your data and engages your website visitors, while motivating them to learn more about your brand.
Examples of successfully employing the use of data visualization include graphs and infographics.
Text-Only Hero Images
The top of a website page is called the “hero” section. One distinct trend aimed at capturing an internet user’s attention is removing the usual background image in the hero section and replacing it with eye-catching typography.
Try using a bold and unique font to quickly grab the attention of your website visitors.
Dark Mode
Dark modes are another hot website design trend in 2022. They can serve your website in a few different ways. From a practical standpoint, they assist with reducing eye strain, which affects lots of online users who spend countless hours every day staring at a screen.
As it pertains to aesthetics, dark mode creates a very modern look for your website. It also gives you the ability to spotlight other design elements simply by darkening the elements that surround it.
Ongoing Web Design Trends and Website Development Standards
There are various prevailing trends from recent years that we think will continue to be important this year and beyond.
SSL Certificates
SSL are not so much a trend as they are a standard security measure for websites. The certificate of an SSL, or Secure Sockets Layer, is installed on your web server. It accomplishes two things for you: it authenticates your website’s identity, which guarantees visitors that they are not on a fake site, and it encrypts the data being transmitted.
So, for example, the SSL certificate ensures a private “conversation” between your website and your visitors. If you do not have an SSL certificate on your site, you should make it a priority this year. This is particularly important if you run an e-commerce site.
Mobile First Design
More than 50 percent of all online users access websites from mobile devices such as smartphones and tablets. This means that mobile friendly web design is mandatory now-a-days. You need to design your website with mobile as a front-and-center priority. As long ago as 2015, mobile searches have surpassed desktop searches. And since early 2017, mobile traffic has accounted for almost half of all web traffic worldwide.
What is also important to note is that Google has ranked mobile-friendly sites more favorably since 2018.
Look to Spotted Fox Digital Marketing for Website Design & Development Experts
Here at Spotted Fox Digital, located in the Tri-Cities, WA, we create custom WordPress websites that offer a story-telling perspective with appealing visuals that effectively differentiate brands for businesses. Combining unique and compelling photography, along with polished graphics and an eye-catching color scheme, forms the personality of your brand that can’t be duplicated.
Our creative web design team in the Tri-Cities knows how to produce user-friendly interfaces that make for clean, intuitive, and dynamic websites.
If you are looking for a website designer in Tri-Cities, give us a call or schedule a consultation!
Spotted Fox Digital Marketing — Building Brands with Purpose and Passion
At Spotted Fox Digital Marketing, we partner with businesses like yours to provide a full range of in-house digital marketing services. Spotted Fox Digital is a top-rated Tri-Cities Marketing Agency that believes in relationships, transparency, and trust! We are a results-driven top-ranked marketing company that uses responsive websites, targeted advertising, social media management, video, SEO, and more!
Our work is backed by data, providing your brand with the marketing insights needed to scale! Spotted Fox Digital marketing experts help businesses understand, reach & engage with their audiences through our digital marketing services.
If you are interested in scheduling a marketing consultation with us, we invite you to call Spotted Fox Digital at 509.792.3283 or complete our Online Contact Form.
