Modern web design for the 21st century is very different from what we were working with in the late 1990s and early 2000s. Simply put, we've come a long way in the last 15 years. The modern website is now the engine of modern businesses rather than just an electronic business card or a digital yellow pages listing. And for a website to actually fulfill its essential purpose, some essential elements must be included during the design phase.
ContentsMinimalismSVG GraphicsHamburger MenuGreat Hero ImagesPersonalized ExperienceFullscreen VideosSocial Media LinksDesigning a website is a lot like building a world-class luxury resort. Designers must first determine what their customers want for the best possible experience. Then they build multiple layers of code, on top of each other, to build everything from the mechanics under the hood to the user interface that will ultimately define the customer experience.
Like a luxury resort, a properly designed and constructed website will keep visitors coming back regularly. Loyal visitors will also tell others about it, driving traffic and improving the site's online reputation.
There are five essential elements that should be part of every online website:
Modern internet users share the impatience of a child. They want information fast and bounce back immediately if the goal is missed.
A minimalist layout presents clean web pages that are not cluttered. Clean pages focus on what the user wants.
The website is built around a user-centered design philosophy that provides users with a central point of what they are looking for while focusing on limited information. Effective use of white space, informative videos over text, simple typography, and animations are some of the elements that are part of the minimal approach to web design.
The use of SVG or scalable vector graphics is booming and designers who have overlooked their importance still struggle with pixelated images when the website is resized to a certain zoom level. Integrating SVGs into web design improves the overall impact of the page as they are resolution independent, have a smaller file size, and improve the loading performance of a website.
SVGs scale perfectly in size without compromising quality and are very well supported by all browsers except Internet Explorer 8 or earlier. However, even this problem can be solved by converting the SVG code to the format supported by Raphael.js.
Today's impatient "infosnacker" doesn't want to scroll through your entire website. Internet users demand relevant information to complete an action as soon as they arrive on your page.
Businesses or web designers who have understood the importance of a decluttered layout have actually integrated the Hamburger menu (≡) or the “Navicon” into the top corner of their website.
The Hamburger menu provides clear and straightforward navigation and allows users to view the menu from any page of the website. Big brands like Ebay and Stella McCartney have incorporated “Navicon” into their web design to enhance the overall user experience.
Not only that, the hamburger menu can also be seen at the top right of Google Chrome.
Large, high-resolution images have become an integral part of modern web design. Huge responsive images are used as the background or foreground of websites to present the content in a clean way without putting too many words into it.
Websites with hero images quickly gain the attention of visitors because the striking images have more impact and inspire them to explore more.
Personalization of content using information gathered through stored cookies is not something very new; however, the extent of customization is increasing day by day to suit the preferences of each visitor. Websites focus on creating a personalized experience based on the customer's past behaviors. Using customer-specific information such as location, browsing patterns, and purchase history allows marketers to tailor each visitor's user experience to their website and improve conversions.
People are hesitant to read useless bits of verbiage today because videos are more accessible to them and convey a brand's value and vision in minutes. By embedding auto-playing videos into the background of the site, you can give the visitor a more engaging and influential interface without using text.
It's been a year since full-screen videos with essential text overlaid have been trending. They have improved the user experience and given many websites a modern look.
See also:5 Keys to Attracting More Customers with Video Marketing
Including social media links in website content reigned as one of the must-have web design trends of 2016. At the very least, a website's homepage should provide the links suitable for encouraging visitors to share content on social media sites such as Facebook, Twitter, Google+, etc. Additional links may also be useful.
For example, a website with a huge amount of visual information might want to link to Pinterest and Snapchat. YouTube is a good link for sites with significant video content, while LinkedIn is essential for business relationships. To ignore social media is to ignore one of the most important marketing tools in modern web development.
See also:Finding the best time to post on social media sites
Finally, today's Internet users expect a modern design in the websites they visit. A site that looks like it hasn't been updated since the 1990s won't be taken seriously, no matter how valuable the information it offers. Therefore, essential web development relies on the mechanics of the underlying code to create a visually appealing presentation that users find pleasing to the eye.
That said, visual presentation should never hinder performance. Many studies over the years clearly show that website visitors who feel that a page is taking too long to load will have no problem abandoning that page and moving on to another.
Modern website development is essential for business success. How is your site doing?
