Did you know that the average person only spends 15 seconds on a website before deciding whether they want to stick around?
Well, it’s true. If you don’t capture your audience’s attention within this short timeframe, you drive them away and into the loving arms of your competitors. Luckily, though, there are ways that you can prevent this by incorporating tried-and-true web design elements onto your home page.
Here, we’re going to talk about some of the most important aspects of webpage design so that you can hook consumers. Read on to learn what you need to do in order to make an impression!
1. The Color Blue
Twitter. Ford. Pepsi. IBM. Disney.
What do all of these seemingly unrelated brands have in common?
All of them have blue logos! Since studies on the subject began in 1941, blue has consistently been shown to be the favorite color among both men and women. This influences the choice of web designers and marketers today in that they’re more likely to choose a blue logo or web background than any other color.
People associate blue with feelings of calm. It’s a safe hue and can only be described as the color-equivalent of a box of Kraft mac and cheese. It’s comforting, warm, and makes you experience positive feelings.
In 2020, web designers have begun to realize this more than ever. Using different hues of blue on your website is a surefire way to catch people’s eyes and give them positive, fuzzy feelings about your brand from the get-go. This will get you over the 15-second hump that you need to overcome to hook your target audience.
2. Clear Navigation
Navigation is an essential part of any webpage. After all, this is how people are going to explore your website. If it’s too difficult for them to figure out, they’re going to become frustrated. You don’t want people to associate your brand with being irritated, and you definitely don’t want to drive people away!
2020 and 2021 are ushering us into the era of drop-down menus. At the top of your webpage, have catchy 2-3 word headers that the consumer can hover over. From there, a longer menu of terms related to the initial header will come down from the top of the screen.
This is not only a great way to get consumers engaged with your content easily, but it looks good to search engine crawlers. A well-indexed website will be pushed higher in Google rankings, which is important because 71-92% of people don’t go past the first page after making a search!
You also will want a search bar to be near the top of your page. This will let those who have come to your site to look for a specific service search for it quickly and efficiently.
It’s also perfect for eCommerce shops that want to let people find items that fit certain descriptions. Search bars save people time. They also make it easier for people to come back to your site and find the same item that they found and loved earlier.
3. Multimedia Content
The majority of people are visual learners and prefer to be shown things rather than told them. For this reason, multimedia content- images, graphics, charts, graphs, moving gifs, and more- are critical web design trends this year and in all of the coming ones.
One reason that images are important is that they make a site look more professional. Imagine that you go to a website and find only a wall of text. Not only will you be bored out of your mind, but you also will probably assume that the webpage was sloppily and carelessly made. Subconsciously, you may take this to the next level and believe that the brand behind the site is sloppy and careless.
Professional website design necessitates images and photographs to engage an audience. When images are present, the consumer can see that the designer of the website put thought into it and that the people behind the brand care about their consumers.
Additionally, multimedia content is more memorable to people than text-based content is. If you have data to convey, a fun and colorful infographic is going to stick in people’s minds more than a bulleted list of facts will. This is even more the case when you use an animated infographic.
Speaking of which, as awesome as photos and infographics are, they can’t hold a candle to the behemoth that is video content. Let’s take a look at why this is.
4. It’s All About Video
Don’t be too surprised, but 73% of consumers are more likely to invest in a service after they see a video about it. This is because the human eye is naturally drawn to movement and colors, so video content is the best of both worlds.
Generally, there are three types of video content that make a website look awesome. The first, which we’ve brushed on before, is an animated video. These are usually colorful graphics featuring cartoon or infographic-like characters and text. As they move around on the screen and engage with other aspects of the video, information or data that would otherwise be text-based is conveyed in an appealing way.
However, some people prefer to use live-action videos on their site. These are similar to commercials and work well if you want to show off what a specific product or service does. However, they’re restricted by things that animated videos are not. For example, you can’t have a person jump all the way into the clouds in a live-action commercial as you can in an animation.
No matter which of these options you choose, they should be posted alongside an explainer video or two. Explainer videos are basically video testimonials where a satisfied customer (or an actor playing one) talks about your services and the way that you’ve benefitted them.
Make sure that you link at least one video to your landing page. After all, you’ve only got 15 seconds, remember?
Beyond Innovative Web Design Elements
While there are many ways that you can set up an engaging and interesting page, you can’t go wrong with these ideas that are about to explode in 2021.
Now that you know some of the most critical web design elements, it’s time to get started. Contact us from our home page to learn more trends in web design. We’re happy to point you to some awesome web pages that you can model your own after, so feel free to reach out!
The post 4 Innovative Web Design Elements and Trends Emerging in 2021 first appeared on Don Diva Magazine.