7 Website Design Trends for 2018

Imagine a scenario: a client asks what they should do to improve their organic rankings. After a diligent tech audit, market analysis, and a conversion funnel review, you have to deliver some tough recommendations:

“You have to redesign your site architecture,” or

“You have to migrate your site altogether,” or even

“You have to rethink your business model, because currently you are not providing any significant value.”

Website design is gaining more importance after value-proposition has become the major contributor to business growth and sales. Once can increase value of their website by inculcating the newest design trends of 2018 in their website.

Following are the newest trends to follow.

• 3D animation

Another way of turning your website into a separate universe with realistic elements in a constant movement. 3D animation captures the attention and makes increase the dwell time on the website.

Once such great interactive effect is particle.js. The script is available for free, one such great implementation of the same can be seen at Kupanzone.

• Cinemagraphs

Pictures of the highest quality will no longer surprise anyone. However, living pictures would surely do that. Think of a interactive website design and add a bit of magic to your website by making some elements on your website move.

When you’re trying to convey complex information in a visual format, a static image often just won’t do. After all, complexity tends to unfold over time — a still image of a UI only tells you what’s in it, not how to use it.

Enter the <cinema> element.

• Storytelling

Designers and content specialists need to be cognizant of the vastly different motivations of a website’s different target personas, and guide each accordingly.

Once fascinating story told by your website can increase people’s engagement. In 2018,

The whole website should reflect one interactive story well connected to your brand.

You’ll also notice the emergence of “flashing” or “vibrating” colors in many website UIs. While these color combinations create incredibly striking effects — including ghostly afterimages that seem to linger in your eye as you scroll on — it’s a great of adding context in the story.

• Virtual Reality video

Future is closer than you think. It starts now with VR video. Content that shows your products and services in the most beneficial light will get you most engaged customers.

• Mood for interface

When the website design understands you, anticipates your mood, and knows what you want: how cool is that? Make your website change its colors as if it could read people’s mind. Sounds hard but is totally doable.

For a very basic example, the website can change its colors as the user scrolls deeper into the webpage.

• Expressive typography

2018 demands your typography to be the expression of your message. Colorful, creative and unusual. Your type reflects everything you need, from wanderlust to catering. Just choose the elements right and combine them with your design language.

Back in the bad old days of non-retina screens and poor font support, sticking to sans serif fonts in your web interfaces made a lot of sense. But as both screens and font rendering technologies — not to mention, custom font support — become more robust, we’re starting to see more and more elaborate typefaces taking center stage. Or at least, much more prominent supporting roles.

• UX writing

Before anything else, ask a simple but critical question: What’s the purpose of your website? Hint: It’s not enough to develop a new website or redesign just because everyone else is doing it. You need to identify the goals that your website will accomplish.

If brevity is soul of wit, UX writing is the soul of your web development in 2018. Make the textual content clear and precise. With UX writing, you can boost your sales and save a lots of space on the web page.

Follow these simple principles of purpose-driven design for your business website and users will be driven down a purposeful journey that’s so seamless, they won’t even realize they’ve reached the intended destination. Whether that means converting them into a sales lead through a downloaded piece of content on your site, or as simple as becoming a name they remember for future business relations, know your end goal and let it guide everything you do.

7 Website Design Trends for 2018 was originally published in Hacker Noon on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.