Your website is the foundation of your communications and PR strategy. It showcases your ethos and values as well as your products or services so its design, tone and content must work hard to achieve your business goals. User-friendly navigation, engaging design and fast page load times should be a given, but you can give your site the edge over competitors by adding some of the top web design trends for 2021.
So, what can we expect in 2021? It looks like year will bring modern design, video, and AI to the forefront with a high focus on user experience.
Here are our predictions for web design trends in 2021:
- Modern web design
- Embedded video
- Website footers
- Bright and bold colour
- Artificial Intelligence
- Thumb-friendly design
1. Modern web design
Not only is modern website design pleasing to look at, but a modern looking website can offer a simple and streamlined user experience. There are no flashy features to distract visitors from getting to where they want to go, making it easy to find relevant information on your site.
This could include swapping a busy top navigation bar for a hamburger or hidden menu. After all, navigation bars can be distracting to the page’s message. A trend cropping up in web design includes more intuitive hidden navigation, where the menu pops up as the user begins scrolling down the page or hovers over certain areas.
Modern design doesn’t have to mean minimal and boring web design either. You can still use bold, bright colours, overlapping sections, and heavy fonts – whatever suits your branding.
User experience is everything here, and if your design is simple to use but still catches the eye of the user, they’ll want to stick around.
2. Embedded video
Having video on your website, if used properly, can help you capture your website visitors’ attention too. Video background is one of the most popular web design trends in 2021 that seems to be here to stay.
This could be embedded in your homepage, as the first thing people see when they land on your site. Video serves as a great way to show the services you offer and when users visit your website, they immediately get an impression of who you are and what you do. You might think to make this a product video, customer support, or storytelling experience. Keeping users engaged on a simple, static landing page is difficult, so adding responsive web design elements such as video can keep users staying on the page longer.
Using videos in web design also enhances search engine optimisation (SEO) efforts, to drive more visitors to your website. Search engines (most notably Google) rank sites that contain quality video content higher in the search results
We recommend using videos on your homepage if you’re developing your website in 2021.
3. Website footers
Over the years, website footers have often been overlooked or left out of the overall web design – until now. A web design trend for 2021 is boosting your footer design. What was once just used to provide contact information, or a signup form has become a space to include additional elements of the homepage. We see this on every page, so it should feel inclusive with the overall design.
The footer is an ideal place for ‘calls-to-action’, contact information, and navigation. You could use this area to make introductions to each of your landing pages or by showing visitors the next page you think they will want to click on.
4. Bright and bold colour
One of the most prominent web design trends for 2021 will be the use of bold colours and combinations that work with each other to catch users’ eye. Bright colours will also help simple web design stand out (see point 1).
Don’t be afraid to try new things when it comes to colour, dark shades, intense colours, and unusual colour pairings will definitely stick in the memory of your website visitors.
5. Artificial Intelligence
AI technologies are changing the way we navigate the web. Artificial Intelligence and User Experience should be a match made in heaven – both can help us understand how visitors navigate a website. Using AI in your website may seem daunting, but there are a couple of simple ways you can start to offer a better user experience.
Try a chatbot to provide fast customer service through live chat, which can help out your visitors without taking up your own time. Or use AI to give visitors a personalised experience. This is a bit more advanced, but you can tailor the content people see based on their previous choices or purchases – this is especially great for ecommerce sites.
6. Thumb-friendly design
Your website should work well and be easy to use on mobile devices, but web design trends for 2021 will continue to focus on creating layouts that are thumb-friendly.
By thumb-friendly, we mean the way you hold and navigate websites and apps on your phone. Your fingers are likely wrapped around the back of your phone (or around a phone grip), leaving your thumb to do all the work. It’s important to understand how users typically hold their mobile phones and then incorporate this into your mobile web design.
A goal for thumb-friendly web design is to keep the most important functions within the central and lower ‘thumb zone’ where they can be easily used, regardless of how the user chooses to hold the device.
In 2021, we expect to see a big emphasis on simple, clean and bright websites that use video and AI to enhance the user experience. Our specialist website design services team are focused on staying up to date with these developments, and on delivering websites that don’t just look the part but also deliver to your organisation’s objectives.
If you’re looking for a modern and user-friendly website to take your brand to next level, read more about our web design services, or get in touch.
