18 Best Website Design Ideas for 2022

Best Website Design Ideas

If you want to keep your website look professional, legitimate, and up to date, you have to think about the best website design ideas.

The world wide web is incredibly fast-paced, and nothing online stays consistent for too long, including the best website design ideas. However, coming up with the best website design ideas can be frustrating.

If your website looks like it was made in the 90s, it will be hard for you to run your online business successfully because the people landing on your website will not take it seriously. Moreover, an outdated-looking website also ignores critical web standards, resulting in it losing a conversion. If you want to run your business website successfully, it must use a professional-looking website design.

Exploring modern website design trends can provide valuable knowledge of where the online world is heading. On the other hand, knowing what sort of web design features other successful websites are adopting can help you create incredibly functional and easy-to-navigate websites that look remarkable and perform exceptionally well.

 

 

 

So, what the best website design ideas are?

 

Top 18 Best Website Design Ideas in 2021

 

Through my in-depth research, I bucketed some best website design ideas in 2021 that make a massive impact on the web.

 

1.      Responsive Design

Though responsive design is not a website design idea, it is crucial to include it at the top of this list. Since smartphones dominate and surpass desktop usage in the modern era, it is critical to make sure your website performs equally well on smartphones as it does on a desktop or other more giant screens.

Your website visitors won’t stick around for long if your website provides them an unprofessional look and disappointing experience. Even if you don’t care about the visitors, it is not a good practice for Search Engine Optimization (SEO). Moreover, if your website delivers an unsatisfied experience for smartphone users, Google will not consider it in the ranking.

Although you can create a whole new version of your website for smartphones, it is better to create a single webpage that performs equally well on both desktops and smartphones.

Each webpage of a responsive website delivers the same images and elements regardless of what device you are using. However, they are arranged based on your device screen. For instance, if an image displays next to the text on your desktop screen, it may appear below when using a smaller screen device.

All of it means, creating a responsive website is critical to make sure your website delivers the exact and accurate information and user-friendly experience to each visitor. Furthermore, if you think creating a responsive website is an arduous task for you, you can use a website builder, simplifying things for you.

 

Critical Elements of a Responsive Website Design

• Make sure to build your website with a flexible grid foundation.
• It must incorporate scalable text and media into the website design to change the size as the viewport changes.
• Incorporate CSS media queries that enable specifying and changing the site design based on the browser’s window size.

 

Some key benefits of having a responsive design include:

• According to a report, it indicates that almost half of the traffic on top websites comes from smartphones. It means using a responsive website design can attract a wider audience.
• It will be easier for you to monitor analytics.
• Instead of launching a separate mobile version of your website, using a responsive design ensures optimal layout on every device.
• Using a responsive website design boosts SEO.
• It also enhances the browsing experience and improves conversion rates.

 

2.      Create a Plan

One of the necessary steps you must consider when creating a website is to create a step-by-step plan as a web designer. If your website design ideas fail to come around, it is likely because you skipped the fundamentals. If the basics are in there, you can quickly put your creativity on top. In this regard, here is what you should take into consideration:

• First of all, define the main objective of your website. You should clearly understand why you are creating the website and what you want to achieve. Moreover, make sure to keep your website measurable, attainable, specific, and relevant.
• Also, create a style guide to maintain consistency in your website design. It includes fonts, color schemes, and other essential design elements.
• Having an SEO plan is also crucial. Draw a website map to define how to provide information for both search engines and visitors.

 

3.      Loading Time and Page Speed

The second and one of the most aspects is super fast load time. Fast loading times are an essential factor for SEO and UX, and it should be your top priority if you wish to rank your site to increase conversion.

Studies after studies indicate that almost all internet users expect a website to load fast (no more than three seconds after hitting a link). If it takes longer than that, your website visitors most likely will leave and never come back again. It means your website loading time is a standard metric that you should consider for an improved user experience.

Benefits of having a fast website include:

• Fast page speed means a boost in the page numbers that Google can crawl and index. Fast loading helps in ranking your website.
• A fast-loading website delivers an improved user experience.
• Having a fast website allows users to explore all of your site pages, boosting the conversion rate.
• It can attract more traffic than a slow-loading website.
• A fast website loads up instantly, offers seamless navigation, and serves the visitors better.

 

4.      Follow the Web Standards

If you are a designer, it is natural to think creatively. That is usually a good thing, but you should also keep in mind that it is equally important to create boundaries to be creative. For instance, as a web designer, there are various established standards that you have to follow. Your website visitors are used to certain website elements and expect a simple but professional-looking site to gain the desired information.

If you are breaking those rules, it will confuse your visitors, forcing them to leave your website. In this regard, some web standards that you should not overlook are;

• Website logo at the top-left.
• Consistency in design across all the website pages.
• Accurate contact details in the footer section.
• Main navigation option is at the top of the website.
• The easily visible search bar is in the header section.
• Social media links (icons) in the footer section.

 

5.      Minimalism and CTA Buttons

If you know your website and pages’ aim, it is easy for you to get rid of everything else that does not serve that purpose. Knowing the goal of your site also enables you to streamline its design to make it look professional. According to a study, it is found that visual complexity is correlated negatively with website appeal. In other words, internet users do not want to be overwhelmed.

So, using simple website design ideas is great for other features, mainly for the website speed. In this regard, a few things that you can eliminate are;

• If your website is overloaded with a menu, it can confuse the website visitors and have adverse effects. So, make sure to stick with the essentials if you want others to explore your site more.
• Nowadays, phasing out the sidebars is a new website design trend, and more and more companies are adopting it. Ask yourself what your website sidebar has, and is that important?
• Avoid using hollow words, clichés, and repeated phrases because it can make your website visitors tune out. So, stop using them and learn copywriting and power words.

Some key benefits of using a minimalist website design include:

• Simple and easy-to-navigate interfaces with no complicated colors and additional buttons deliver an improved user experience.
• Minimalism isn’t prone to changing web design trends, and it is applicable on almost all other devices like smartphones, desktops, tablets, and even smartwatches.
• A minimal website design is SEO-friendly, enabling search engines to crawl through the site content easily.
• It also eliminates distractions and boosts conversion rates.

 

6.      Fewer But Smarter Pop-ups

As a web designer or marketer, creating a good user experience should be your top priority. However, many web designers are prone to a website design idea that the visitors don’t like website pop-ups. In a recent survey, it is found that up to 73% of web users hate pop-ups. Moreover, one of Google’s favorite web browsers (Chrome) automatically blocks unnecessary and annoying pop-ups. Websites that want to deliver a remarkable user experience, try their best to avoid excessive pop-ups. Though it isn’t possible to eliminate all the pop-ups, you can change how they work for an improved user experience.

If your website has fewer intrusive pop-ups, they won’t bother your visitors much. Make sure to show them up only once at the bottom of the webpage. Allowing them to show up at the bottom corner of the page is practical rather than blocking the entire page to interrupt the visitor’s reading.

Some key benefits of incorporating pop-ups into your website include:

• It is easy to grab visitors’ attention by smartly placing only a few pop-ups.
• They are great for collecting a small amount of information, which can serve as a stepping stone to your sales and marketing strategies.
• Pop-ups encourage conversions.
• They also engage the visitors and encourage them to interact.
• Incorporating pop-ups into your website is an excellent strategy to keep the visitors on the page for longer.

 

7.      Dark Mode, Low Light UX Website Design

Another emerging website design idea is dark mode. Many businesses are now offering dark mode versions to their websites to deliver an improved and excellent user experience. Low light user interface modes, such as dark mode, night shift, etc., are a perfect way to provide visitors a low-contrast app or website to browse it easily in low light conditions.

Such websites feature a sticky light to dark switch on every page, enabling visitors to set the brightness they desire by simply toggling between light and dark versions while scrolling through different pages. Though it is not a new website design idea, it is still among the growing website design trends in 2021.

Benefits of having dark mode include:

• Dark mode or low light UX website design saves energy, especially for devices using OLED or AMOLED screens.
• It is best in terms of better readability.
• The dark mode also reduces eye strain in low light conditions.
• It also reduces screen glare and minimizes blue light.

 

8.      Smart Content Formatting

Smart content formatting is a crucial aspect that many web designers often overlook. Remember that content is among your website’s most essential elements, regardless of whether it is a sales copy or a blog post. In the end, that’s what your visitors consume. Your goal should be to present it in such a way that they like it.

Having resource-heavy websites containing third-party integrations, graphical elements, etc., can slow it down. However, there’re ways that you can use to develop innovative websites to download only the content you want to see.

Moreover, lazy loading and infinite scrolls aren’t something new. Social platforms like Facebook, Twitter, etc. are utilizing it for years. The same goes for websites that have long pages. Presenting your content more smartly delivers an improved user experience, improves conversion rates and ranking, and makes the content more impactful.

Lazy loading makes sure that the browsers, such as Safari, Chrome, Firefox, etc., download only the content you want to see without wasting serve resources and screentime to load offscreen content. Many visitors never hit the bottom of a webpage, so it is not wise to load all the unnecessary content to increase load times.

 

Here is what you should consider to make the content more impactful:

• Include Heading: Incorporating headings into your content is a good practice to break the content into sections. They also can be used as anchor points for scanning.
• Paragraphs and Lists: Your website visitors do not want to read those giant paragraphs. So, make sure to use short paragraphs to break up content into little chunks.
• Font Optimization: Consider the font size and line-height. It would be best o use 16px and to give more height-line for better readability.

 

9.      Animations

Using auto-play videos on websites is what many businesses do. However, it doesn’t necessarily mean that your website must be static. You can include other simple moving objects, such as animations, to make your website exciting and more engaging.

Using animations is among the emerging website design ideas that many businesses are adopting. Having engaging animations on your website has the potential to capture the visitors’ interest, too, without creating any distraction and preventing them from gaining the information they are looking for.

Besides keeping the visitors engaged, animations can also make your simple website look professional. The use of animations is also beneficial because they attract more targeted traffic than text-based content cannot do.  Some other benefits of why should you use animations are:

• Animations are a great way to boost the audience retention rate by keeping them engaged.
• Using quality animations allows you to generate more quality leads.
• If you are running a business website, credibility is crucial for you. So, creating an exciting, but informative animation can improve your credibility.
• As a business owner, boosting your ROI (return of investment) should be your top priority, and that’s what animated videos do.
• You can also increase customer loyalty through an animated video offering some discount or a coupon for sharing it with others.

 

10.  Microinteractions

When it comes to user engagement, introducing micro-interations into your website takes animations one step further. Microinteractions are used to respond to what a user does on your webpage. If you spot a website changes upon hovering a mouse on a particular area, it means that the website uses micro-interactions.

The use of micro-interactions is also beneficial in providing an improved user experience. The trend is becoming more common, making micro-interactions a good website design idea to have in 2021. Some key benefits of incorporating micro-interactions include:

• They create a positive emotional effect on the visitors and offer smooth UI interactions.
• Microinteractions also provide instant feedback to a visitor based on actions they have taken.
• They also guide the visitors through the website in a more engaging, fluid, and intuitive way.
• Microinteractions also prevent user errors.
• They encourage users to interact by responding to notifications.

 

11.  Chatbots

Chatbots are another emerging website design idea. During surfing the internet, you might have come across websites that automatically open up a pop-up window at the bottom-right of the screen, inviting you to chat with a representative. That pop-up window is known as a chatbot. Including a chatbot in your business website allow your website visitors to ask questions they have in their mind relevant to your business.

Without a chatbot, it is much of a challenge to answer those questions in real-time. So, the best possible solution to interact with your website visitors in real-time is a chatbot. You can easily program a chatbot to answer FAQs related to your business so that most users get the answer immediately.

However, for queries that your chatbot doesn’t know, you can program it to give information on how to reach a representative. Moreover, chatbots aren’t for any website, but a chatbot can save you considerable time while providing a good user experience to your visitors if you are running a business website.

 

12.  Website Personalization

Every web designer put most of their efforts to figure out who their target audience is when creating a website. It means you want to develop a website that attracts the audience you are trying to reach. However, your target audience is made up of individuals whose priorities and preferences are different.

So, how can you create a website that attracts all of them? One most effective way is to allow them to tell you who they’re and what they are looking for? An emerging website design idea is to develop a website that features a questionnaire or any other similar exciting feature. It lets users tell you what they are searching for, so you can provide them the content that perfectly matches their preferences.

Some key benefits of website personalization include:

• Incorporating a CTA (Call to Action) is an effective way to encourage users to read your blog posts, try a free trial, participate in a survey, or watch trailers.
• Irrelevant product recommendations can force your website visitors to leave your website. Through website personalization, you can utilize the data you gather to provide your visitors with relevant and fresh recommendations to boost customer loyalty.
• Through website personalization, you can use tools to make your website experience welcoming and individualize to boost customer loyalty. According to research, 79% of customers prefer brands that don’t take their customers for granted.
• Website personalization also enables you to understand your customers better.

 

13.  Original Illustrations

Though there is nothing wrong with using stock photography, it does not have the potential to add personality to your site. That is why popular websites prefer to use original illustrations for the images. However, personalized pictures need some investment (you have to hire an artist), but they can entirely transform your website style to provide a unique user experience.

Moreover, incorporating custom illustrations feel playful and keep your website visitors engaged. You can choose the color schemes that you like to add more personality to your website experience. Some significant benefits of incorporating original illustrations include:

• Original illustrations add a style of creativity to a website interface.
• Images are far more potent than words. Incorporating illustrations can grab the attention of your website visitors and make them stay for more extended periods.
• They also increase the visual performance of your website.
• Illustrations provide a satisfied and enhanced user experience.

 

14.  Pinterest Mood Boards

Among the top best website design ideas is the use of Pinterest mood boards. It will be easy for you to gather visual material that you find helpful in your project or provides a direction. It can be color schemes, images, existing websites, layouts, or anything else.

The Pinterest mood board can serve as a central hub for a website design inspiration. Moreover, you will also be able to share it with others like your clients or collaborators so they can contribute to their material.

 

15.  Cool Colors

A few years ago, using bold colors was extremely popular to make websites stand out a bit more diverse. However, due to a global pandemic, companies are now switching to incorporating cooler colors to make their website look calm because of the ever-changing web trends.

Using cool colors also provides an aesthetic user experience to those with relaxed emotions. It is a website design idea that is not for everyone. Many websites still prefer to use bold colors to draw more traffic. But for various products and websites, incorporating cool colors is a good website design idea in 2021. To learn more about colors, their meanings, and how to use them, read here.

 

16.  Floating Navigation

You may have spotted that many websites have their navigation menu across the top of the website. However, some websites are now using different approaches by using floating navigation options. It remains visible even if you scroll down to the bottom of the page. It delivers a smooth user experience while also providing the practical benefits of holding all the navigations visible regardless of where you’re on the page.

However, floating navigation is not a typical website design idea. If you wish to make your site stand out and a bit more distant, you can consider incorporating floating navigation.

 

17.  Design Accessibility

When creating a web design, have you thought about how people with a disability will experience your site? Many web designers overlook the design accessibility factor. However, that is beginning to change now as various blogs and design magazines started providing tips about accessible web designs.

The development of an easily accessible website requires you to broaden your perspective. It enables you to open up your website to the audience that was left out before.

 

18.  Unique Fonts

Choosing unique fonts to add some personality to your website is an easy website design idea. Fonts are an integral part of your website that many visitors do not notice, but you should use unique fonts to add some creativity and style to your style to make it stand out. Moreover, keep in mind that any font style you choose should be easily readable for your website visitors.

 

Final Thoughts

There you have it – Top 18 best website design ideas that you can implement to make your site stand out from the crowd. Remember that one of the quickest ways to lose your website visitors is to have an unprofessional and outdated-looking website. Moreover, with the advancement of the web and the advent of smartphones, people spend more time surfing the web than ever before. If you wish to create a successful website, consider the best website design ideas listed above.

 

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