In a digital world, where apps and social media are the forefront and everything revolves around them, websites have taken a back seat. Having said that, websites are not obsolete. Rather, websites remain important sources of information and people rely on them heavily to share information as well. In such a scenario, your website that you have built with years of sweat must look fresh for the audience today. In case, you want to start off afresh, there are always options to how to create a websites for free while to quickly point out that the Wix Website builder allows you the complete freedom to build your website. You need not stick to the templates provided but can simply design your own website, exactly as per your liking by using the simple drag and drop method. So, whether you take the coding approach or the drag and drop approach, here are the website design trends to follow in 2018.
Geometric Shapes
This is more like going back to the basics once again. Early websites were static and stuck to the simplest forms and shapes of geometry that were taught in school. As internet speeds grew, designs became more dynamic and freer flowing. But for the past couple of years, basic geometric shapes have made a comeback and have been slowly rising in the eyes of website designers.
With brilliant colours and placements, geometric designs can be extremely catchy and make your website look uber and new age. Geometric shapes are likely to stay on top till 2019 as well. So, put them into your new design and worry less for the next two years. There are also ready templates on Wix that are not only contemporary but are also sorted by various industries, if you would like to check or use. The good thing about the Wix templates is that they also follow the minimalist trend of the passing year and beautifully combine the two trends. So, what you get out of their new templates is a blend of the two styles that helps you transition swiftly from one trend to another without making significantly large changes.
Unique Graphics
Just like standard shapes, we are fascinated with moving objects as well. When unique graphics started becoming parts of websites a few years ago, people absolutely loved them. Seldom do we really think about the effort that has gone into getting the graphic where we see it. In reality, from the initial idea to the ready product can take anywhere from a few weeks to even a few months.
The thing with graphics is that they manage to tantalize our minds. In a few frames, they convey so much more about the product that what a thousand words can. And yet, graphics are still in their infancy and we are yet to see the real boom in the age of graphics. 2018 will merely see a rise in graphic popularity, in trend with people’s likes. A quick look at the new and popular categories of website templates on the Wix will show you how people are using different graphic options as well as bright colours to add value to their businesses.
Animation
While graphics are a favourite with most, there is also a set of people that prefer animations, probably because they are easy to develop and deploy. Developments in the programming languages have made animations more dynamic. The ability to trigger animations after a certain trigger makes them more appealing since sites look more responsive to human behaviour and demands more user attention. More the attention from the user, higher is the conversion rate for the product or service.
Videos
As broadband penetration increases, users can now also enjoy short videos that complement your product or service. With the likes of Wix Video, you can upload your own videos or add them from Facebook, Vimeo and YouTube. All videos are compatible with desktops as well as mobile devices and you can sell or rent them without any commission fees to be paid to Wix. Wix Video even supports 360 videos and streams them in highest quality.
Adding further, Wix Video also lets you sync your YouTube feed so that content on your site is always fresh and you do not have to upload videos to two different sites. If you live stream often then that too can go on your site via Wix Videos, irrespective of whether you use YouTube or Facebook for your Live Stream.
Bright Colours
While everybody likes the bright white background, when it comes to reading text, what makes a website look attractive are the bright colours that it displays. Not only can you garner attention of your customers to specific points on your website that are likely to give you more conversions, the bright colours on the website can be in line with your product or logo, maintaining the continuity even when your customer moves from the online world to the real world or vice versa. This is especially true, when it comes to ecommerce sites.
If you notice the popular eCommerce sites, each of them occupies a bold colour that differentiates one from the other and the differentiation is carried on their apps, paper ads and even down to the packaging that delivers your goods. There is a great offering from WIX that lets you design and create your ecommerce website for a few clicks and without the need of any programming language. The output you get is in line with the professionally designed ecommerce sites and costs you a small fraction of money to get it done. Plus, the design is uniquely your own.
Wix Stores offers some stunning templates to get you started along with some beautiful galleries to display your products. Add to it, the seamless check out process and options to track orders makes it a really good offering.
Micro Interactions
A few years ago, with the surge in social media, web admins flooded their websites with all sorts of social share buttons. These buttons would pop up, slide in, cover the page, and almost do everything to get the user to click on something. As the user has matured, so have web admins who realise that putting a host of social media buttons in the users face does not get the desired result.
Rather, it is the smaller interactions with a few platforms that get you the likes and customer feedback that you really want. These micro interactions can be seen everywhere these days and yet are so small that they do not intrude the user experience. Users simply interact to show their appreciation or dislike for the information they are seeing, both of which are equally valuable to the business. This is the beginning of micro interactions that will continue to rule in 2018.
Commenting, Forum and Events
For websites that share a lot of textual information, comments are paramount. They allow users to interact with the content creators and share their point of view taking the user experience to a new high. With Wix Comments, you can enhance engagement with your visitors with brilliant colours and your own choice of layout. This tool also integrates with popular social media sites like Facebook, Twitter and Google accounts while also supporting emojis and photo uploads to enhance user engagement.
If engagement on your website is already high, you must consider transforming this interaction into a community altogether. But before you start thinking about a separate forum, here’s the good news. Wix Forum lets you create a forum right on your site and that too across various categories. So, you need not send your users anywhere, they will remain where you want them to be, on your website, interacting and adding value to your website.
As your following grows, you would definitely want to get out of the online world and meet your customers in person and learn more about them or share your ideas/ art with them or call them to a special event of your life. Wix Events is the tool that allows you to not only create these special events but also manage them from within your site. Whether it is sending an invite or keeping track of RSVPs, selling a ticket or broadcasting information regarding changes, all of it can done, right from your site, only on Wix Events.
Conclusion
Websites are as dynamic as its users and need to change with time. A design from the late 90s is completely obsolete today and similar is the story of something that was designed few years ago. To stay in vogue, websites need to adapt to changing times. We are sure that the tips in this post will help you determine the changes needed to revamp your website. For a quick preview of what is new, there is always WIX to get you started.
