About 38% of website visitors will stop interacting with a poorly designed website. 39% of professional web developers think poor design drives users away. Nearly 60% of users won’t recommend a company with poor mobile web design.
If you’re not using modern website design, you could scare away potential customers. As a result, your bounce rate will increase, hurting your search engine rankings.
Not sure how to refresh your website for 2023? Read on to discover the top design ideas you can use to wow customers today!
1. Custom Illustrations for Modern Website Design
Consumers are becoming more aware of stock imagery and photography. Stock images can make your brand look ingenuine. But, on the other hand, your brand could fade into the background, making it more difficult for you to leave a lasting impression on customers.
Before that happens, consider investing in custom illustrations this year.
Eye-catching, custom illustrations can breathe life into your brand, allowing you to separate from the crowd. In addition to helping your brand appear unique, you can generate more brand awareness. Consumers will begin to recognize your branded materials based on your eye-catching, memorable images.
Investing in high-quality illustrations can help you step beyond 2D design with 3D graphics. As a result, you can give more depth to your web pages.
For example, you can use gradient shading to allow one color to fade into another. You can also use digital cut-out style imagery to make it look like images were cut from layers of paper.
As you start updating your website, consider using full-page headers as well.
An eye-catching image in the header will help you capture the visitor’s attention when they arrive on the page. In addition, you can add a call-to-action button (CTA) on the left side of the header to generate immediate conversions. Most people tend to focus their attention on the top-left of the page.
Use imagery that aligns with your brand. For example, you can use a fun, quirky image if your brand is light-hearted and playful.
You can grab the consumer’s attention to generate more leads with custom illustrations, images, and full-page headers.
2. Playful Cursors
You can also use create cursors to make viewing pages a fun, engaging experience. For example, you can change the cursor shape or code cursor-triggering animations.
The cursor can display different photos or play a tone when visitors scroll over a particular area.
The visitor will spend more time engaging with the page, increasing dwell times. Higher dwell times can boost your search engine rankings. It also encourages the visitor to explore your content further.
3. UX/UI Web Design
User experience (UX) and user interface (UI) design trends can make your website easier to use and navigate. However, visitors will leave without exploring additional pages if your site is challenging to use. As a result, your bounce rate might increase, which can hurt your search engine rankings.
Low search engine rankings (especially beyond the first page) can make it more difficult for you to reach consumers.
Meanwhile, 88% of shoppers won’t return to a site after a bad user experience. About 70% of online businesses fail due to bad usability as well. Investing in better UX could boost conversion rates by up to 400%, with better UI increasing rates by 200%.
Investing in UX and UI design can benefit your search engine optimization (SEO) and pay-per-click (PPC) digital marketing efforts.
Start by simplifying your forms. Organize the navigation, so it’s intuitive. Make sure your site is secure, mobile-optimized, and fast, too.
You can also start adding white space to your pages. White, or negative space, can give your content more room to breathe. This minimalistic design trend can help you retain the reader’s attention.
White space helps the eyes flow from one-page element to the next. It creates a hierarchy without overwhelming the visitor. Otherwise, too much content on the page could confuse readers.
They might not know where to direct their attention first.
Instead, creating a sense of hierarchy can help you direct visitors to your CTA buttons and forms. You could generate more leads or sales as a result.
4. Modern Website Design uses Engaging Stories
Engaging, impactful stories can make your brand more memorable. It allows consumers to connect with your brand on an emotional level, too.
Look for ways to inform and delight visitors to your website. For example, you can use personalization to show consumers you understand their needs and problems. Then, offer the consumer a helpful, easy solution. Use illustrations and animations to show, rather than tell, people how you can help.
You can also use data visualization to make complex concepts easier to understand. Don’t forget video content, too! Engaging videos can help you capture and retain the visitor’s attention while assisting them in becoming more familiar with your brand.
5. Parallax
Parallax scrolling can also help your website look fresh, sleek, and modern.
For example, you can allow more content to appear each time the visitor scrolls further down the page. Your website will start telling a story, which can help you retain the visitor’s attention.
You can also use dynamic scrolling with videos. For example, a background video can start playing as the visitor scrolls further down. This technique also works for animations!
6. Micro-Interactions and Animations are in Modern Website Design
Micro-interactions are small animations on your site that can delight and engage visitors. For example, visitors can hover their cursor over an icon, which might move or change colors. Keeping visitors engaging could encourage them to remain on your site longer.
Micro-animations can also help you guide visitors as they interact with your site. You can add elements of playfulness, like moving images in the background.
On eCommerce sites, you can have a model move in a 360-turn to show off the clothes you’re trying to sell.
These animations can enhance the user experience by giving visitors dynamic visuals of your products.
7. Thumb-Friendly Mobile Navigation
Remember, you could scare away potential customers if your website is challenging to use on mobile devices. The thumb-friendly design allows visitors to explore your site as they grip their phones. They can swipe and navigate without having to use both hands.
This website design trend can make your site easier to navigate and use, improving the UX.
Wow-Worthy Websites: Apply These Modern Website Design Ideas
Don’t neglect your website this year. Instead, start applying these seven simple yet modern website design trends. These trends can help you remain relevant while improving the user’s experience with your brand.
Stand out from the crowd with these design ideas today! Need help updating your site? We’re here for you. Book a strategy call today to get started.
