The web is ever evolving and is advancing rapidly. These days you need to be updating your website on a regular basis to keep it looking fresh and performing well. Here is a list we have compiled from research and what we have experienced through the last 12 months of building websites for our clients.
1. Page Load Speed
Web page speed is continuously becoming a more important aspect within modern web design. If your website is not up to scratch and is taking longer than 4 seconds to load, you are going to be seriously impeding your performance within search engines as well as downgrading your user experience. There are many different ways that you can improve the load speeds of your website.
Here are three quick ways:
- Utilise a good hosting provider. There are many different hosting providers out there and many different kinds of hosting. Do some research online and maybe give a few a try. If you are still struggling to find a decent host, have a chat to someone from our team at frankworks about our hosting options.
- Optimise files and images. One of the most important aspects of website optimisation is optimising images and files. Depending on what image formats you are using, you could be taking up a whole lot of space on your web disk. Make sure you compress and convert images and files. Convert any large images to WebP format and any icons and things like that to SVG. When optimising code files, it can be useful to do things such as inlining code as well as delaying when code is loaded on the page. For instance, if you have a large Javascript animation but it is only being seen at the bottom of the page, having that loaded, only when it needs to be instead of when the page is first loaded, can improve load speeds and scores drastically.
- Implement caching. Caching is something of a standard now with website development. Put simply, caching is when someone visits your website, your website gets stored within their browser in a cache, so the next time they come to visit your site, they aren’t having to load the entire website from scratch again. This allows for faster load times and better user experience. Ensuring that your website has good, effective caching can go a long way to improving your website speed and user experience.
2. Clean & Simple
Clean & Simple. You may be wondering what I mean by “Clean & Simple”… I mean everyone prefers having a clean, modern house and a clean, modern car right? The same applies to your website. No one enjoys visiting a website and being bombarded by a boat load of writing on the page, font’s that were popular back in the 90’s etc. Keeping your website up to date and modernised will go a long way to improving user experience and your website’s overall performance and success.
With how quickly the internet changes and advances, it’s a great rule of thumb to be looking to update your website once every few years. As you will see in this list, website trends change frequently and those that don’t adapt and keep moving forward will be left behind and impeded.
3. Animations
Animations are something that are becoming more and more popular within modern day web design. Utilising animations such as floating elements, transitional animations etc can really spruce up your website. Just have a search around Google at “website animations” and you will see some really awesome examples.
One thing to note with animations is how you implement them onto your website. If you are downloading a large GIF file, then be sure to make sure it is compressed and not going to impact your website’s load speeds. If you are wanting to implement GIF animations on your website, it may be a good idea to host them externally and then embed them into your site, rather than hosting them locally on your website’s web disk.
4. Scrolling Effects
In my opinion, there is nothing better than a website that scrolls nicely and efficiently. Websites that utilise tasteful scrolling effects that IMPROVE the user’s experience are a must in modern day web design. Take note of how I put emphasis on “improve”… Scrolling effects are great, but they can just as quickly ruin a website if not used properly. Implementing tasteful scrolling effects can do wonders to improving user experience and then the overall feel of your website. Consider using some in 2023!
5. Claymorphism
Claymorphism is a UI design style, coined by Michael Malewicz from Hype4, that has been developing itself over the last few years to be quite popular. The design style mainly consists of fluffy looking 3d shapes. Basically shapes & elements looking like they are made out of clay. (like the name states)
6. Retro UI Design
I find it quite interesting how while everything in the world is continuously becoming more and more modern, we are going through a phase at the moment where “retro” themes and trends are incredibly popular. If you are looking to make your website stand out from the crowd, then going with a retro design could be a good route to take!
7. Accessibility
Moving back onto a technical website trend for a minute here. Accessibility. Accessibility is becoming ever more important and search engines are putting pressure on website owners to ensure their websites are accessible to everyone. Doing simple things such as using high contrasting colours, using good font sizing (nothing smaller than 14px) and using alt tags on images can go a long way to improving your websites accessibility.
8. Light & Dark Themes
Back to a bit more of a design trend… I say a bit because you could also consider this as a technical trend as well. Utilising the option of light and dark themes on websites. Anyone that uses Google Chrome, YouTube etc will know that they have implemented light and dark themes. Light and dark themes are great for user friendliness as well as accessibility. From a design perspective you can also use light and dark themes to spruce up your website and also give it that more corporate, classy feel.
9. Mobile Friendly Designs
Mobile friendly web design has quickly become a very important aspect of website building. Building a website for mobile first is now just a way of life for designers and developers. Looking at stats of just our own website, the majority of website visitors come from mobile devices.
Ensuring your website is mobile friendly is going to make or break its success and the user experience it provides. If your website has been built for desktop first and is lacking on mobile, I suggest getting on top of it as soon as possible.
10. Utilisation of Visual Aids
Last but not least, Visual Aids. Let’s be real for a second, we as humans are getting lazier. People much prefer to watch a tutorial or video instead of reading it. The same applies to your website. Implementing more visual aids is going to go a long way to improving your user experience.
For example, if you are talking about your company’s history, record a video and put that on your website in place of 1000’s of words. If you are explaining data, place it into some nice charts and tables rather than writing a thousand words explaining and going through it all.
As mentioned earlier, if you are uploading large files such as videos to your website, consider hosting them externally on a platform like YouTube and then embedding them on your website, so you are bloating your website’s web disk.
Conclusion
Well that is frankworks pick for the 10 of the best website trends you should be looking out for in 2023. If you are looking to build a website for your brand or business, get in touch with one of our friendly team members today!
