Every year, around the beginning of November we start to see experts making predictions about the hot business trends for next year.

In every part of marketing, business owners are looking for that one magic prediction, that piece of information they can use to get a head start on the competition. If that is what you are looking for, look no further. Our 2019 web trends predictions will give you the information you need to make changes today so you are ready for the new year.

Hot Web Trends in 2019

Mobile Drives Web Design

The introduction of the first iPhone a decade ago started us down a path from which there is no return. Today, most websites get about half their traffic from mobile devices and we expect that to continue. As a result, websites have to be built with a mobile-first mentality. Here’s what that means:

  1. Minimalist designs which eliminate clutter to focus the visitor’s attention on the most important information on your page. We see bright colors, clean and crisp edges, and lots of open space
  2. Vertical hierarchy. On a mobile screen, one thing has to be on top so we are seeing longer pages, with one key idea on each row of the website.
  3. Speed. In general, human beings are not patient. And while slow websites annoy us on a desktop, they are absolutely deadly on mobile. Websites will be designed for faster and faster load times. Beyond human expectations, search engines are putting a priority on speed as well. Google Speed Update went into effect in July 2018, Google has begun prioritizing rankings for sites that load faster than others.
  4. More mobile-specific site elements. First, there were websites which we shrunk down to fit on mobile, followed by completely different websites for mobile. Now you have the choice to select segments of your site to display or not display on mobile. This forces you to think more carefully about the mobile experience on every page.

It is Not Square

  1. Angles everywhere – You might think that the shift to minimalist design would be a shift to boring web design, but that is not the case. Innovative use of shapes, which load significantly faster than large pictures create drama in every layout.
  2. Breaking the grid – Over the last few years, websites have gotten very “boxy” with a large rectangle at the top and three boxes below as the preferred format. New design tools allow us to create designs which break the grid pattern, creating the illusion that sections of the site seem to break the traditional borders.
  3. Everything asymmetrical. – Some information is more important, requiring wider columns. We expect to see more layouts with unequal columns drawing attention to the most important information on the page.

Innovative Animation Effects

Do you remember Flash? We all loved it because it let us create such cool effects on websites. And we hated it because it was slow, and you could only see the animation if you had a flash player. For a number of years, developers simply avoided even considering any type of animation, but let’s face it web visitors like to be entertained and animation is entertaining. In 2019 we expect to see a lot of websites incorporating some of these animation tricks:

  1. Parallax scrolling – It has been around for a while but continues to gain popularity. It is a technique where background images move more slowly than foreground images, creating an illusion of depth in a 2D scene and adding to the sense of immersion in the virtual experience.
  2. Video Headers – The video is placed at the top of the page instead of a single static image or slider. It looks cool, but I don’t love this particular trend because it can cause the site to load slowly. So if you are going to use video, be sure the content is worth waiting for. And if you are going to use video, you might want to have a slightly dark filter on top of the video to contrast the light text for improved readability.
  3. More full-screen video – Websites are no longer constrained by narrow monitors and while dramatic full-page images are striking, this is especially valuable to make the most of video.

Interesting Shapes and Bright Color are the New Normal

  1. We started to see more interesting shapes appearing on websites a few years ago, but 2019 will be the geometric explosion. There will be more circles, squares, and parallelograms framing text and images. This is one of my favorite of the 2019 web trends.
  2. Color, color, and more color. Bold pops of color bring a richness to a minimalist design. Good designers are learning to create clean layouts with white space that isn’t white in color.

Typography

As a words person, I love the content on my website as much as the images. Too often the text takes a back seat to the clever graphics or icon.  As more interesting fonts become available for websites, we are seeing typography become a more important element of web design. Interesting use of headers and subheads as design elements will draw the attention to the most important part of the page.

What’s next?

Web design trends driven by changing technology will continue to change.  It can be a lot to keep up with, but you don’t have too.  That’s what we do, all day, every day.  So if 2019 is the year to update your website, give us a call.  We can talk about which of these web trends you should embrace in your next web update.