Current Trends in Ecommerce Website Design
Having a successful ecommerce website requires a lot of hard work. Obviously, one of the most important things is having a great product or an idea that people will be interested in. But if your website’s design is not interesting, chances are, not much people are going to bother finding out what it is that you’re offering. That’s when following current trends in website design can come in handy. It will help your business grow and attract more clients. But what exactly are those trends? Well, here are several great ways of optimizing an ecommerce website design that will surely help you in expanding your business.
Responsive Web Design
It’s no secret that the number of users of smartphones is constantly rising. In fact, a lot of people access the Internet solely through their smartphones. Because of this, a website needs to be optimized for both the desktop and mobile environments. What works in desktop mode might not work in mobile mode, and vice versa. For the latter, you need bigger buttons and a different arrangement of information so that the visitors can easily navigate the site. Furthermore, images should be optimized, both in terms of resolution and size, so that the visitors don’t lose their precious time waiting for a page to load (or even their megabytes if they’re not using Wi-Fi or don’t have an unlimited data plan).
Infinite Scrolling
Infinite scrolling is one of the things mobile users will particularly appreciate. It allows them to go through the content of your website without having to constantly click on “Next Page”. The scrolling movement on smartphones just feels more natural, and it makes for a more comfortable user experience. Examples of infinite scrolling can be found on websites such as Google Images or Pinterest, which offer a large amount of content. Furthermore, you have the long scroll websites, which also offer an immersive user experience.
“Sticky” Headers
The use of “sticky” headers, or fixed position mastheads, is the latest web design trend. As its name implies, a sticky header will stay at the same position while the user is scrolling on a web page. In this way, they will always have the necessary information at a glance. In addition to a fixed header, websites may adjust the position of some other elements as well, such as the secondary navigation and the buttons for sharing the content on social media. This reduces the time a user navigates your website, making the whole experience more efficient. And it’s very useful for the marketers, as well.
Typography
Good typography can greatly improve your website and make it more attractive to your visitors. When designing a website, you shouldn’t necessarily choose what you personally like, but rather try to anticipate what your visitor might like. After all, the site is for them. You have many styles to choose from, but here are some of the trendy and popular typography styles that your visitors might like.
• Watercolor. A style which feels handmade, watercolor can be found in backgrounds, typography, and illustrations. Depending on the vision you have, incorporating watercolor typography might be a bit difficult if you’re not sure what you want. But once executed correctly, watercolor can really give a website that artistic feeling with its incorporation of different colors.
• All caps typography. You’ve probably been told that you shouldn’t use all caps on the Internet, as it would make you seem like you’re YELLING AT SOMEONE. And that’s true to a large extent. However, using all caps in typography for your website can actually be a good thing. Carefully arranged text in all caps can work well for thin typefaces, condensed typefaces, as well as the wider typefaces. It should be used for simple words and phrases, so the visitors don’t feel overwhelmed with too much all caps.
• Retro grunge typography. Everyone feels nostalgic from time to time, so why not include some retro and vintage typography? You can have custom-made typography which will make your website stand out. Choose a theme – it can be the 1950s or 1980s, country style, futuristic, or whatever works for you and your website.
Fonts
Obviously, a lot of the content on an average website is going to be text. So it makes perfect sense to pay attention to fonts and what impact they might have on the visitors’ willingness to spend more time on a website. Having a good, neatly formatted text can make all the difference, and fonts are here to help. Usually, it’s recommended to use two font types, and you should use fonts from the same family, for example, PT Sans or PT Serif. Next, you should not use the same fonts for both the headings and the body text, so that visitors could focus more easily on the different parts of the website. Last but not least, using different sizes for fonts can be a great way of emphasizing the important information, or it can just be a way to ‘spice up’ long paragraphs where you want to keep the reader’s attention and not have them wander off to some other website.
Flat Design 2.0
It’s been a while since the flat design has become the norm in website design. Gone are the days of bloated icons and ‘heavy’ websites. It’s all about being efficient, and flat design works great with that. Flat design is modern and minimalistic, perfect for this decade. It can help you make the interface more intuitive for the visitors. It doesn’t even have to be completely flat; you can balance between flat and artistic and find the perfect ratio that suits your needs and the purpose of your website. Over the past couple of years, flat design has evolved, incorporating long shadows and dynamic colors, and it’s now known as ‘Flat design 2.0’.
Long shadows are great for when you want to add depth and complexity, but still, want to keep that nice minimalist feel that’s very trendy. Dynamic colors are also crucial – use bright colors and shades to emphasize certain parts of the website that the visitors are most likely to notice first. Finally, use simple fonts. They should be light and easy to read and not be too distracting to visitors. And speaking of distractions, one type of font should be used across all pages of your website. The exception, of course, could be the main page with the logo of the brand identity. This should be more unique so that you’ll stand out more compared to similar websites.
Full-Screen Typography
Using a flat design will allow you to use high-quality static images that are large in size. These can be used as the main image block, setting the mood on your website and creating a nice, welcoming atmosphere. Just make sure they blend in nicely with the overall design of the website, in terms of content and the color and transparency of the image itself.
Ghost Buttons
“What are ghost buttons?” you might be wondering. Good question. It’s not something scary, don’t worry, it’s simply a name for all those little square or rectangle-shaped buttons that you see on websites very often, and that are almost or entirely transparent. This transparency makes them very versatile in terms of positioning on the website, as they don’t obstruct the main content. What’s more, since they’re transparent, they don’t compromise the main design of the website and they blend in quite nicely. You’ll often see these types of buttons on websites that utilize full-screen photography. In this way, the interaction with the image is reduced, especially compared to more standard button use.
Interactive Storytelling
Depending on the exact type of website that you have, interactive storytelling can greatly improve the overall user experience. Tell your visitors what exactly is that you’re offering, and how they can get it. Don’t be boring, and include some fun, interesting details that someone might find surprising. A carefully edited story can have a great impact on the visitors, and this can help your business grow. Use interactive tools to make the storytelling feel more immersive. Don’t make it too long, though. Keep in mind that a lot of people have limited attention spans, so it might not be a good idea to create a story that goes on for a half an hour, or maybe even an hour, if you’re feeling particularly creative.
So, there you have it – some helpful information about the current trends in ecommerce website design. These trends can help you in improving your website, and we hope that you got some interesting ideas from them. You can start applying some of those ideas on your own, or if you’re not feeling comfortable with changing your website, there’s always the possibility of hiring a professional. They will make sure your website is following all the latest trends, perfectly fitting in the 2010s. And ultimately – that means more business for you, and having happier customers and website visitors. It’s always good to be trendy, that’s for sure!
Source:
