New year, new you! This applies to your business’ website as much as it applies to you hitting the gym after one too many holiday treats. Creativity always shines at the beginning of a new decade as people seek to make their mark on the shiny new year. Make no mistake: while 2020’s design trends lean towards ‘clean’, they’re far from boring.
Technology which previously was out of budget for smaller companies is now hitting the market at record-low rates, making high-profile sites accessible to everyone. From sleek designs with unique micro-interactions that lure in consumers to bold whitespace use allowing stunning photographs to tell your story, we’ve put together our top five modern website updates for 2020.
Table of Contents
1. Whitespace
For many years now, ‘minimalist’ has been the go-to for websites. Simple was the name of the game, and companies would strive to make their site as angular and monochromatic as possible. 2020 ushers in a sequence of website updates that play off of the former minimal trends: whitespace use.
Whitespace is what it sounds like: the use of blank space to create an interesting design. Despite its name, any color can work, so long as you have intentional negative space which directs the users’ eye to what’s most important: your content. As a bonus, this style can increase the reactivity of your site due to the lower load times (less graphic content to display).
2. 3D Content
What says ‘freshly updated’ on a website like 3-dimensional content? 3D content was previously unavailable to most companies because of the high cost to fabricate graphics, but technological advances have made it relatively affordable. The most common current usage is by retail outlets, who have seen success in creating 3D renderings of their products and displaying them on their website for consumers to examine.
This website update is an excellent way for a brand to stay current. A potential downside of the interactive aspect of 3D web content is it may affect the run time of a site. Loading all that ‘cool factor’ may take a bit, so mobile-heavy brands might want to choose an alternate style.
3. Moving Elements
While it’s not a new website trend by any means, 2020 predictions show moving elements on a page to be increasingly popular across the board. Be it with moving text or images, this style is a great way to immediately grab end user’s attention. Moving banners are passé when it comes to digital marketing methods, but a scrolling menu bar which adapts to the content a user is looking at? That’s engaging.
You want consumers to spend time on your site, familiarizing themselves with your brand as each second ticks by, and moving elements may be one of the best website elements to pull this off. The trick is to avoid being overwhelming – don’t hesitate to consult a website expert before integrating a moving element to your website.
4. Micro-Interactions
Fresh off the press for 2020’s website updates: micro-interactions. You may have already noticed these with Facebook’s ‘react’ concept. When you select the laughing emoji on your second cousin’s Facebook meme, it briefly swells up and laughs before recording your vote. This is the simplest display of a micro-interaction, and they’re taking the website design world by storm.
Tiny alterations, such as having a color gradient transition when a consumer hits ‘submit’ on a form, count as a micro-interaction. All micro-interactions are a subtle, creative way of engaging with your user. Easy to implement, low impact on your site’s design, and vastly improving to your consumer experience; what could be better than that?
5. Augmented Reality (AR)
In recent years, the real world just isn’t enough. As tech becomes more and more embroiled in our daily lives, augmented reality has risen. Websites have been scrambling to add in features that blend the line between real and virtual. From the popular game Pokémon Go to click-and-launch programs such as WordPress’ VR plugin, AR has proven it’s here to boost any industry.
An obvious use of AR is websites allowing users to photograph their rooms and place virtual furniture to check out the aesthetic before buying the piece, but we’ve seen it used as far as in museums to add special features to exhibits.
Whether any of these speak to you or you’re seeking something different for your brand in 2020, updating your website is key. Besides generating fresh content to draw business to your company, an updated website offers a sense of security to consumers. Search engines such as Google regularly look for new pages to add to their algorithm.
This means the more recently you’ve added to your site, even if it’s just a simple blog post, the higher your chances are of appearing on top. Besides that, a freshly updated site is something that people want to show off; you have a better chance of peer-to-peer sharing if your website is shiny and new. For any website tips or to get a sleek responsive site contact digital marketing agency Success City Online today.