Now that 2014 is officially here our Phoenix web design team is looking at the upcoming year and some possible trends that will happen over the next year. As a web design company we understand the importance of keeping up with the latest web trends. Not only does it help our new clients but it will also help us keep our existing clients one step ahead of the competition. That is the exact reason that as a small online business owner you should be interested in the trends of web design. Many times understanding the latest trends will help you avoid losing potential customers such as mobile users which I will cover more below. So as we move forward through the year 2014 there are 3 web design trends we notice that stand out above all others.
- Simplicity Of Your Website – Now you may be thinking that I am telling you to make your website boring and non interesting and that is not it all. I am talking about the usability of your website. There are standards that web designers use that make the usability of a website easy for any user. These standards are trends are making it even easier for the end user to navigate through a website. Where small online business owners run themselves into trouble is when they decide that they want to make their website look “pretty” and begin adding design elements that they don’t really need. They are adding these elements more for visual purposes but what it ends up doing is making their website cluttered and much more difficult for the end user to navigate. Ideally a user will be able to get to any page ony our website within one or 2 clicks. Users will know exaclty where every thing is so that when they leave a page they can easily get back to it.
- New Way To Tell A Story – Most websites currently tell a story when you go to their page. They are likely using the slider, text and or video to do just his but as technology has advanced there are new and improved ways of doing this. Take look at https://onlycoin.com/. They have a unique way of showing their products story as you scroll down the page. As we get further into 2014 you will begin to see more and more websites similar to this one. Being able to have your website tell a story in an interactive fun way that is easy for the user to follow will pay huge dividends to the conversion rate of your website.
- Responsive Design – I have been writing about this for a while now but in 2014 the amount of mobile users is expected to pass the amount of desktop and laptop users thus making it more important than ever for your website to be mobile friendly. If your website is not mobile friendly you could end up losing out on a majority of the traffic you drive to your website. Now you will have a couple options as to how you can accomplish this. You will be able to go with either a responsive website design or you can get a mobile website created. Now this is going to be up to you but I would strongly suggest going the route of a responsive web design. This will save you a lot of time and money. A mobile website is an entirely separate site so you will have to update content, images, etc. in two places where as with a repsonsive website you will be able to make the updates in one central location. The other reson is marketing. I am sure as a small online business owner you understand the importance of internet marketing. Well with a mobile website you will have to market two separate websites. There are other benefits to a responsive website but these alone should be enough to persuade you to go responsive. It will be enough for many small online business owners in 2014.
These are 3 trends we believe will happen early in 2014 and continue on throughout the year. As technology advances so will the way business owners should market their website and that is why you need to keep up with the latest trends. We would love to hear from you so feel free to contact us any time.