Halfway through 2018 and web designers are definitely seeing some important trends developing in the world of progressive web design.
Most of these changes are a result of the increasing prominence of mobile and voice search as well as the advancement of search engines that can think for themselves via artificial intelligence.
In keeping up with all the development, web design companies should be learning about and implementing the following concepts and features in their work.
1. Thinking, Learning Search Engines and Applications
As today’s search engines incorporate AI technology that allows them to think and learn, web design must accommodate for this in the form of better, more user-friendly design.
Machine learning now allows search engines to perform using predictive analytics, a means of predicting what a user is likely to do based on their previous actions.
Web designers and developers must monitor and analyze this data to create websites that function as needed by their target users in order to convert them.
2. Content-First Web Design
With mobile use as well as the number of connected devices increasing exponentially every year, web design companies must now develop designs based on the content being presented rather than specific devices.
Technology is moving too fast now, with device-centric design becoming outdated too quickly. Content presentation and function on any device must be the main focus today.
3. Microinteractions and Multi-steps
The focus on improving user interaction has brought microinteractions and multi-steps to the forefront of web design. Microinteractions are tiny website functions like button clicks and animations that help guide users and confirm their actions.
Multi-step forms are basically larger forms broken down into multiple steps, making them less intimidating, which increases the likelihood that a user will actually complete the whole form.
4. Voice Search and Conversational User Interactions
Over the past few years, Google has gradually moved to a mobile-first, voice search preference. At the same time, the number of voice interactive devices like assistants and voice-activated products has also greatly increased.
As such, web designers must create content and develop websites that can function with and respond to conversational queries and commands as opposed to keyword-based terms and phrases.
5. Social Media
Social media has become a key factor in online marketing today, one that web design companies must include in their site design strategies.
Sites must include social media integration, content must be shareable on a variety of social platforms, and content must be optimized and functional to work properly on social media as well as in organic search.
6. Personalization
Website personalization has become an essential factor in both user experience and search engine use. Sites must be able to track and filter user interactions to later offer them the most personalized experience on the site based on previous actions, interests, and searches.
In the end
As web design trends continue to develop and transform to accommodate all the changes happening in search and marketing, there are some ideas that web design companies must particularly note.
Those mentioned here involve some of the most significant developments that are impacting search and everything else that depends on it.
To keep websites generating conversions, web designers must incorporate these elements into their design to create the most useful and user-friendly sites possible!
