You want your customers to have as good of an experience on your website as they do with your products or services, which is why user-experience design exists.
To help you get the most from your web design in 2023, we spoke with Lead UX-UI Designer, Rieze Rothmann to find out what you need to know.
In this guide, you’ll find how to provide an excellent user experience along with the top accessibility issues found when designing a website.
The Importance of User-Experience
It’s one thing to make your website look pretty but diving deeper into UX design is where you will see the real results.
Designing for user-experience combines critical thinking and user psychology to ensure the purpose of the website is being met.
Rieze acknowledged ‘designing for a purpose’ is extremely important, even more so than making the design look pretty. She shared, “Something can look as pretty as possible but if it doesn’t have a purpose, it’s no good.”
So, first thing to consider is the purpose of the design. You should be thinking about the user’s expectations, what you are trying to convey and what you are trying to achieve.
Asking these questions will improve your user-experience and having a user-focused website will raise your conversion rates by around 200%.
Top 5 Web Design Trends for 2023
1. Tap into how your users would use the website.
Analysing the psychology behind how your users engage with your website is a forever trend in UX design. It is important to consider your target audience and tailor your website to suit them.
If you understand the flow of how your users think and move through your website, you are much more likely to achieve the results you want. Having an intuitive design will help you achieve this as you can guide your users, so they don’t have to get frustrated looking for things in the process.
For example, if someone lands on your homepage, where are they most likely to go next? How easy is it for them to get there? Is it obvious where this is?
2. Make your website accessible.
Another trend becoming increasingly important, not just as a 2023 website design trend but should be a permanent consideration, is accommodating your website to those with visual impairments.
When we talk about accessibility, we tend to think about physical accessibility like ramps and elevators in buildings. But what about website accessibility?
A simple place to start is ensuring the font size on your website is big enough to create clean visual cues and not be overlooked by your users.
There are numerous advancements making it easier for visually impaired people to use websites. Rieze mentioned a plug-in you can use when designing a website to see what it would look like in the eyes of someone who is colour-blind. She explained it is something you can, “Load onto your website and you click it, and then it will turn the whole website into like a monochrome for them.”
Taking these accessibility trends on board and investigating what other changes you could make is a step in the right direction.
3. Ensure every page is consistent.
Another website trend emerging in 2023 is consistency. Keeping your web design coherent across visual elements and functionality is always important. However, keeping up with your competitors and staying coherent with the latest updates is also trending.
There is no harm in looking at what your competitors are doing and what is working for them. Not to mention the big guys like Facebook and Google as well.
You don’t have to redesign every time, just steal a few tips here and there. Making these small changes will keep your website consistent with the latest design trends.
4. Reconsider your colour choices.
When it comes to colour usage on your website, less is more! Rieze identified colour usage as one of the top accessibility issues she witnesses in website design.
Ensure what you want the user to engage with on your website is prominent, good colour contrasting is an excellent place to start. Having too many competing elements or movement can lead to sensory overload for your users.
In 2023, Reize is expecting to see the use of more colour in web design, where minimalist and nude tones have been seen everywhere in recent years.
5. Calls-To-Action.
So far, it seems keeping your website straightforward in terms of design and information is the best way to go for an effective user-experience in 2023. According to Rieze, call-to-action buttons also follow along with this pattern.
Once you’ve informed the user of your service or product you need to consider what the next action you want them to take is. If time is not taken to think about this, it can lead to call-to-action being misused or not used at all.
It’s important not to create overly unique call-to-action buttons, as your users may not know how to interact with them. Staying within the usual for this element is the best way to keep your website user-friendly.
Contact us for a free website audit to ensure you are meeting these important website trends.
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