Tampa Website Design: Trends for 2017
In a world where we’re constantly bombarded with an endless flow of information, standing out from the crowd can be difficult. Keeping your website at badass status requires maintenance, which can be tricky when many of us are increasingly expected to do more with less. Pinpointing your must-haves for your website becomes critical for strategic enhancement.
At Diace Designs, we’re a Tampa website design company with over six years of experience, and are passionate about assisting you on your journey to website badassery. Here we break down five web design trends that we expect to see in 2017.
Animation & Video
The release of Facebook Live on April 6, 2016 reflects consumer demand for videos. As Mark Zuckerberg stated,
Anyone with a phone now has the power to broadcast to anyone in the world. When you interact live, you feel connected in a more personal way. This is a big shift in how we communicate, and it’s going to create new opportunities for people to come together.
People love videos. They’re engaging and make it easy to consume information.
According to marketing heavyweight Hubspot, 55 percent of visitors spend less than 15 seconds on your website. It is imperative to capture a visitor’s attention the second they land on your site. To do this, many web design layouts incorporate video or animated graphics and text “above the fold,” or at the top of the homepage. At Diace Designs, we love video, and even incorporated a video background into our homepage.
Layouts that Enhance Content
In 2006, Bill Gates declared, “Content is king!” Over the past decade, this has become the mantra of many SEO experts. But what does that even mean? Essentially, creating more content, like articles or videos, opens more entryways into your website. For example, if you’re a horse groomer and write a blog post on a recent equestrian event that you attended, your post might come up as a search result for someone who’s searching for the event, and who might also be interested in your services. This blog post, then, will have cast a wider net, attracting more visitors. However, most importantly, the user will have found relevant and valuable information upon finding your blog post.
While tricks for getting quick traffic to your site will always come and go, the tried and true anchor is relevant, quality content. Google’s algorithm is constantly evolving to better help users find the most relevant search results. Because of that, we’re seeing web designs that highlight important content, ensuring that viewers don’t miss important information about an organization’s brand. Yes indeed, content is king, and should be treated with such respect on your website.
Virtual Reality
You’ve probably heard of studies suggesting that, along with technological advancements come increased feelings of isolation. To fill this void, marketers are finding ways to increase interaction with brands through technology, blurring the lines between our reality and the screen in front of us, and therefore creating a more personal and memorable experience.
Amazon Virtual Reality headsets were released at the end of 2016, bringing an entirely new way to interact with technology. While gamers will likely benefit the most from virtual reality from the get-go, mimicking the virtual reality feel will be a major web design trend in 2017. There are even rumors that Amazon is currently building out a virtual reality shopping experience. To stay on the cutting edge, incorporating elements such as 360-degree views and other highly interactive user experiences will boost engagement with your page.
Simplicity & Minimalism
This might seem counterintuitive, but we will also see a push toward simplicity and minimalism in 2017. Busy sites can be confusing and overwhelming to navigate, causing people to leave your page. Not to mention, a report from SimilarWeb indicated that top sites are seeing 56 percent of their traffic come from mobile users.
With that in mind, many web designers have moved toward simpler themes that are easier to navigate from a smart phone. We helped Tampa Bay Parenting make their website mobile friendly to better serve parents on the go. Ease of navigation is key for keeping viewers on your site for longer periods of time, and any website in today’s world must cater to mobile users.
Relevant & True Content
The outpouring of fake news surrounding the 2016 presidential election has created a posse of truthseekers: users who are more critical and discerning than ever. With skepticism on the rise, building a website that connotes authority and trust is necessary. In other words, keep it real.
Your web design can help boost confidence in your brand and messaging. Different colors emit subtle but real emotions from viewers. For example, gray communicates authority, blue puts people at ease and red can emit feelings of anger or frustration. How do you want people to feel when they visit your site? What emotions will best support your brand messaging?
Additionally, if you choose to host advertisements on your site, be strategic with your ad placement to avoid looking spammy. And, most importantly, ensure that your content is relevant and true.
How does your website stack up against these web design trends for 2017? If you’re interested in discussing improvements to your website with a top Tampa web design agency, please contact us for further information.
