Website Design Trends to Watch in 2023
Watching website design trends is critical to enhance your most valuable marketing tool. With the constant innovation in devices, changing user interface expectations, and evolving technology, a website requires constant time and attention. Here are some website design trends on which we recommend keeping an eye.
Accessibility
Websites have become places of expression, with flashes of color, embedded video, and interactivity to enhance the user experience. However, many of the web design features have made it more difficult for visitors with disabilities to access content. Websites are subject to the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA), which requires that public persons or organizations ensure their websites are accessible and usable by individuals with disabilities.
Many of the issues that impact accessibility are a part of generally accepted best practices for website design like color contrast for text, ALT tags for images, labels and instructions on form fields, and focus indicators. However, for a more thorough list, Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) 2.1 is used as the international standard for meeting accessibility requirements.
Building your site (and maintaining new pages) to accessibility guidelines will be increasingly important, and designers don’t necessarily need to sacrifice creativity. There are a growing number of accessibility widgets available to handle site versioning so that every user can access content and functionality in a way that meets their needs. Many of these services also include certificates of compliance to protect against litigation.
Responsiveness and Mobile Display
Responsiveness in a website design should be like a steering wheel in a car – something guaranteed. Sites should look good on every device, which is increasingly challenging given the number of experiences (desktop, tablet, phone) and devices on the market.
In addition to responsive design, websites design trends are adapting to current user preferences. Scrolling is the norm, and now we need to pay attention to HOW people are scrolling. Authors Steven Hoober (Designing Mobile Interfaces) and Josh Clark (Designing for Touch) pointed to the importance of thumbs in a user experience. Research consistently pointed to the importance of thumbs to the mobile touchscreen, carrying 75% of web interactions. For mobile-first design, designating to a “thumb zone” and placing key navigation and calls to action in easy-to-reach areas will be a growing consideration.
Keeping it Real
Brands (and their web presence) need to be authentic to win customers. According to Stackla data in a Social Media Today article, 90% of customers highlighted authenticity as being important when making purchasing decisions.
What does that mean for website design trends? Custom illustrations and authentic photography are going to challenge stock choices. Recognizing that visitors find value in user-generated content (UGC), sites will be looking for ways to dynamically bring customer reviews, comments, images, and video into sites. UGC doesn’t have to be crafted – in fact it’s better if it’s not. Growing distrust of celebrity and paid influencer endorsement makes it a harder ROI to justify. Find real customers with real content and experiences to share.
Interactivity
Sites need to interact with visitors, providing feedback as the user moves through the site. Interactivity allows content to stand out and can move the visitor through the page content meaningfully. Subtle interactivity features can be elements like mouse-over color changes, videos, animations that autoplay, or animated cursors. They also can include features that meaningfully engage and collect information from users like quizzes, calculators, and gated content.
Watching website design trends is exciting, as is evolving new technology in virtual reality, smart and personalized content, and interactive 3D features. We can’t wait to see what the future holds and bring the technology to life for our clients. If you’re interested in a website assessment and recommendations for making your website shine in 2023, we’d love to connect!
