We have witnessed website evolving from a simple online brochure to a multi-billion worldwide businesses. The major cause of this evolution is the easy access to the internet. Especially in Dubai and all around the UAE since past decade the use of smartphone have significantly risen. Studies and statistical data revealed that almost 99% of the UAE population have access to the internet via computers and smartphones. The internet users all around the world are increasing. This trend forced businesses to explore the possibilities to establish their brand in the online sphere. Now a days, an ordinary customer expect from business to offer some kind of online or digital experience. In Dubai and all around the UAE the digital interaction become an essential part of customer relationship and communication. Regardless of industry or business model, each business needs to make digital offerings in order to stay relevant and visible in the market. That is why we decided to write this blog to give our audience a basic understanding of how website designing is done and how they can reap maximum out of their website.
Earlier the websites were designed to provide some basic information and contact details about the business. Businesses in Dubai, UAE were considering it as a one-time investment, they acquire a web design company to build the website and then leave it as is. However, now a days a website have become more dynamic. The web user experience is becoming more interactive and intuitive. Website is not only proving information but the websites are also used to facilitate online customer journey, generating leads and converting them into sales as well. The websites are delivering a very exclusive digital experience and can help building brand reputation and brand identity. This makes them extremely important for long term growth. Almost every smart business owner or manager understands that the website is important but how to design a website that can help you achieve your goals in 2022 is a difficult question. In this blog we will discuss key components of website designing and how you can do them to make difference.
Web Design – Homepage
The homepage is the main page of any website. It is basically the gateway to the website. When we open Google the page comes first is the homepage and after the search the result page is called the internal page. For business websites the main domain address is the homepage and rest of all are internal pages. Usually the homepage brings almost 70% to 80% of the total website traffic. That means a business must have to convey their brand message clearly through the homepage. Along with that a small introduction of the business, some trust markers, and what you do should be properly explained. So, if a prospect want to explore anything they should be able to reach to that product/service or information. That is why the homepage is a very crucial part of the web design. Usually the homepage design is slightly different and bit more complex than the internal pages. Along with that a business website can also have certain internal pages which are exclusively designed for lead generation, sales or conversions and these pages only talk about one topic. Such pages are called landing pages. We will explain it later.
As the homepage is the most visible part of the entire web design hence it should be able to push customers further into the customer journey. The overall market trends are shifting since the last quarter of the 2021 and in 2022 businesses started to design a bit more business oriented or lead oriented websites. Although this may sound simple, but it isn’t. The homepage web design is majorly responsible for building the first impression of the business. The studies have revealed that most of the users try to judge the business on the bases of their web design and especially for the first look or first impression. The first impression impact the entire user interaction with the website, if it is good the user remains positive throughout the interaction and vice versa. That is why it is extremely important to design the homepage with great care. Just think from your customer’s prospective and more importantly from a lay man’s prospective, imagine you are looking for a product or service, you will surely going to have some questions, what those questions would be will tell you what type of content you need to arose the interests of the visitor.
Homepage Color Scheme
For any brand the colors and patterns are the unique identity which distinguishes it from the rest of the brands. For example, have you ever noticed McDonalds, the M alone is enough to tell us it is McDonalds, that is their brand identity and it is unique. Similarly each business have their own unique logo which have two major components that dictates the overall design and theme of the website, one is the color scheme and the second is the style which could include design patterns, shapes, geometrical shapes, and even the font color and style as well. These unique elements brings exclusivity and uniqueness to the entire website. It is important to follow the color scheme and design style of the logo for the homepage web design.
Homepage Header and Footer
Same like the color scheme and other design elements of the homepage theme are repeated throughout the website except the landing pages. The header and the footer are also the two sections which remain same throughout the website. The header is the top most section of the web design and the footer is the last section or bottom of the web design. The header usually contains the logo, contact details, social media profile links and icons, and navigation or menu of the website. The navigation or menu is used to provide links for the internal pages or internal sections of the website. Usually the menu contains, Home, About, Products/Services, Portfolio, Blog/News, Contact and in some cases login/logout buttons. This is called the header and it is universal for the entire website.
The footer is the bottom area or the last section of the web design, it is also universal. Footer usually contains the important links, sometimes a subscription form or contact form, business’s address and contact details. The footer also contain copyright message, Privacy Policy, Terms of User and other such pages. The header and footer improve the design consistency and navigational structure of the website which is important for a good user experience.
Hero Area
The hero area is the area right next to the header. This area dominates the first impression and it also covers the entire remaining screen. Whenever a user land on your website. The first section or screen of the web design that appears is very important as a human brain only take 50 milliseconds to perceive an impression of the website and the business upon looking at this section. Furthermore businesses need to convey their brand message, value proposition or unique selling point in this area to attract user’s attentions. If a user got interested by looking at the information, design, content and multimedia of that area they will definitely scroll further down the page. Mostly an automatic image slider is used with up to 5 images in it. Each image has a title, a tagline or value proposition and in some cases link to the most relevant internal page. This increases the chances of conversion too.
In 2020 and first half of the 2021 adding a background video was a common trend in Dubai and all around the UAE. However, since the beginning of the year 2022 this trend is fading away. No matter what you use just make sure the visitor gets enough information to awake their interest.
Body of the Homepage
After the hero area the homepage’s body starts. Although the homepage is mostly different from the rest of the website, however, it is important to maintain design and layout consistency. The body of the homepage could be a continuous scroll or divided into various independent sections. Where each section is about only one topic. This makes it easier for readers to navigate through the page and to find the relevant information more quickly. Furthermore the homepage is not only meant to be divided in equal sections, in fact the homepage design can include a lot more details. The ideal is to use a small intro or description of the business immediately after the hero area. Then there could be products/services and other valuable information that might answer the questions a user could have in their mind. The homepage must have trust markers, such as badges in the footer, customer names, testimonials, case studies, portfolio, etc. in the lower section of the web design and so on.
The homepage should be able to highlight each and everything a business does. Textual content alone is not enough the multimedia content, info-graphics, icons, and hyperlinks enriches the user experience and improve the website navigation. The homepage should be able to deliver an excellent user experience.
Web Design – Internal Pages
Apart from the homepage all other pages can technically be called internal pages. However, the landing pages are slightly different from other internal pages. Commonly the internal pages are About, Product/Service, Portfolio, Blogs/News, Contact, and any other important information that you want to provide to your audience. All the internal pages borrow the header and footer from the homepage. Then there are a few slight variations in the web design. Mostly the middle section is designed to accommodate the content. For example the About page or Team page are designed differently as they have to include textual information and some photos. However, the products or services pages are designed differently as they will have to provide another type of information. Mostly in a business website in Dubai, UAE the trend is to categorize the relevant pages into a category and follow a same theme for all of them. However, it is up to you. But better is to maintain consistency and do not built very different designs. The consistency in web design and layouts add value to the brand identity.
Web Design – Key Design Elements
For any web design there are certain design elements that has to be taken care of. For example, the font and typography is very important. There is no compulsion on using any particular font type, however, a few basic improvement could significantly improve the entire web design. The first and most important thing is the contrast. The font color should be different from the background where it is placed. This contrast will determine the readability, so it is always recommended to use a darker font on a lighter background and vice versa. Often businesses are afraid of white spaces, as there is a common belief that the white spaces are wasting precious real estate on the web page. However, the reality is completely opposite. The white spaces are a great tool to focus your audience on important things. Furthermore businesses in Dubai and all around the UAE are also not very appreciative towards using intensive animations, reactive and responsive UI (user interface) elements. Which is also wrong, the interactive design elements keep the user interested and can increase customer engagement.
Apart from that, the textual content should be well organized. Think of a word document, if the entire document of let say 4 pages, have similar text without adding headings, or distinguished paragraphs, how would you feel reading it? It would be very boring and confusing. Similarly on a web design, all the headings, taglines, paragraphs, or different text should appear differently and distinguishable for a common reader. This can significantly increase the online leads and conversions. In addition to the textual content, the modern web designs also have to account for the multimedia content and images on the web page. All the images or multimedia content should be well organized and connected to the original topic. For internal pages it might be easier to understand which image or video belongs to which topic, but for homepage it is important to visually distinguish the multimedia content so the reader can relate them to the intended topic. This can also increase customer engagement and it improves customer experience. Which is good to improve online sales and conversions.
Web Design – Trends in 2022
The web design trends changes continuously. Sometimes these changes are rapid sometimes slow. But the websites and web designs are continuously evolving. There are certain trends which are popular a few years ago and now they got vanished, there are some trends which became popular around a decade ago and still in use although in a bit more advanced form. However, if you carefully chose a trend to follow and incorporate innovation into it, it could remain relevant for several years in future. Here are a few web design trends in 2022 that I think will remain popular for a few more coming years:
Large Typography Replaced Hero Image
The typography can be used as a very effective tool of delivery information. The hero images were doing great, but in order to obtain more focus from the visitors the modern web designs start replacing it with the large typography, sometimes it is even interactive and moving. The animated movements of large text on a plain background can immediately get user’s attentions. Even if you are using static text, the large typography attracts more user attention and it also make the message more readable.
Micro Animations
The micro animations are not a new concept, but very recently it gains popularity. The web design that strategically includes micro-animation in different places can easily divert user’s attentions to the important content and messages. This can not only help increasing online leads and conversions but it also make the website more alive interactive. The micro animations make user experience more interesting and make your website more memorable.
Minimalistic Web Designs
The minimalistic web design approach is a quite modern trend. It uses fewer text and design elements with large white spaces which help designers to get users focused on important elements more quickly. The minimalistic web designs reduce distractions and keep user focus to a set path of customer journey while making it simpler and quicker. Minimalistic web designs are great at increasing online leads and are very effective for almost any business sector.
Neumorphism
The Neumorphism is the modern or evolved form of older Skeuomorphism which was itself a modernized form of flat web design. The Neumorphic web designs are almost monochromatic web designs with very little variation in colors. Mainly such designs utilize the shades and 3D effects, the buttons, links, widgets, content container and other elements look popping out from a flat surface. Which makes it very clean and comfortable for the visitors. The Neumorphic web designs are more mobile-friendly and can deliver excellent user experience.
Non-traditional Scrolling and Parallax Web Designs
The non-traditional scrolling and parallax although used interchangeably, but are slightly different. The horizontal scrolling can be called non-traditional scrolling but it is not necessarily parallax. The parallax could be vertical scrolling but it is not traditional. The parallax scrolling is a non-traditional scrolling which moves multiple layers of the web designs and its backgrounds on a different pace to mimic a sense of depth and three dimensional visuals. The parallax web design could provide you a great competitive edge by offering a very modern and futuristic aesthetic.
Gradient Color Schemes
The gradient color scheme doesn’t dictate the overall design, it just put a layer of gradient on everything. Majorly minimalistic adopted the gradient color scheme very quickly but it looks absolutely stunning on any design type. Here in Dubai, UAE major businesses, brands and even large corporations are implementing gradient color schemes. It looks modern, futuristic and it can produce excellent designs which your visitors will never going to forget for a long time. It is a great way to rebrand your brand and give it a modern look and feel.
Claymorphism
By viewing Claymorphism one could easily judge the evolution took the right path for the Skeuomorphism. Basically the Claymorphism is not only the modernization of the Skeuomorphism but it also borrow looks and feels from the Neumorphism. It just took the 3D and floating element effect to the next level. Majorly the design is dominated by small illustrations of real-life objects in a more like a cartoony form. Which makes designs very interesting and visually appealing. Business in Dubai and all around the UAE are quickly adopting Claymorphism into both front-end websites and also on backend dashboards and UIs.
Responsive Web Design
The responsive web design is an essential for any business. The studies and statistical data have revealed that almost 99% of the population is using mobile phones and almost the same amount of population have access to the high-speed internet. The Google stats suggests that the searches made by using a smartphone or mobile device have already surpassed the traditional laptop/desktop computers. Which means a significant amount of your audience could be using the mobile devices as their primary mean of internet searches and web surfing. Especially with the rise of social media, everyone is connected with everyone using their social media platforms. This means the mobile experience is extremely important for the business and for the customers too. The studies have shown that almost more than half of the users never visit a website again if they have a bad user experience from the mobile.
That is why having a responsive or mobile friendly web design is absolutely necessary for any business. No matter what industry you belongs too or whether your business model is B2B or B2C, you could be having a huge number of website traffic from the mobile devices. A responsive web design is a web design which is equipped with special source code that allow it to detect the screen size and the platform before even opening the web page. It also enable the web design to render itself as per the screen size and other specs of the device from where it is being accessed. This ability make a web design responsive. The responsive web designs just resize and rearrange different design elements to accommodate the screen size and doesn’t have much impact on the user journey. In fact the responsive and mobile-friendly web designs improve user experience and make customer journey easier.
SEO Friendly Web Design
The SEO stand for search engine optimization. The SEO is a technique to make a website more search engine friendly. Google is one of the most used search engine in UAE. It have certain guidelines which makes a website more readable for the search engine and also more user friendly. The search engines like Google, Bing, Yahoo, AOL, ect. Use automated programs to read a web page and its content. These software are often called bots or spiders, they keep crawling web pages from the internet and put them in their data repositories. Where Google and any other search engine rank a web page on the bases of its content’s quality, user experience and relevance to a topic. If a web page is relevant to a topic and is good as per Google’s standards it could secure first place in the search results. Having first place in search results means unprecedented amount organic web traffic. This traffic is completely free and can be game changer for the businesses.
A web design could have great impact on search visibility and ranking too. Most of the time the web and graphic designers doesn’t pay much attention to the SEO factors. They often use such design technologies and programing code which produce great visual aesthetics but unfortunately it also make the content of the webpage unreadable for the search engines. This way the search engine couldn’t effectively register the content, topic and other required details of the web page. It means such web pages never appear on the first page, in fact such web pages doesn’t appear in the search at all. This makes you invisible for a huge number of potential customers who are searching in Google or any other search engine. That is why it is very crucial for a web design to be able to follow the guidelines and standards of the Google. All other search engines mostly also follow the same guidelines and standards.
Web Design and Load Speed
Most of the time the web designers and creative artists doesn’t pay much attention to the page load time. In order to obtain excellent graphics and visual effects sometimes designers include very bulky resources into the page. These resources and multimedia content can make the page very heavy to load and the web browser take more time to load the full web page. However, this could be catastrophic in both long terms and short terms. If a web page keeps two much time to load the user will simply close it and move on to the next website. It means your prospect is moving to your competitor. Normally a user waits for 2 to 3 seconds and maximum 4 seconds, a good web page must get load within that time. Any time later than that, and you will lose valuable potential customers. It is extremely important that you utilize modern design and development techniques for your web design. Which not only make the load speed better but also allow you to add more innovative features in the web design. Along with that the website hosting also plays a crucial role in page load speed. Make sure you have a good website hosting. A quickly loading page is good for customer experience and it also add value to your credibility.
Conclusion
Whenever a business decides to jump into online world or want to revamp their online brand image. This question haunts them, how to design a website. In 2022 the web design trends have been changed a lot. However, there are certain things that every business should consider while designing a website in 2022. In this blog we have discussed how the homepage and several other internal pages are designed. It is very important that the design and the content of the website is prepared in a way to attract more visitors and to communicate the brand message effectively. This will help you generate more online leads and sales. The website is equal to a business’s reception but in the online world. So, you must have to provide all the information that can answer the questions of the prospects and encourage them to convert. The web design enables you to effectively communicate the brand message, unique value proposition, and the value that you can offer which no one else can offer. If a website communicates right message in a right way, then a business can have significant increase in online leads and conversions.
This blog was designed for an ordinary reader who doesn’t have much technical knowledge. If you follow the instructions and suggestion in this blog you can design a wonderful website for your business which will perform exceptionally well in 2022 and will also remain relevant for several coming years. RSI Concepts is a leading web design Dubai agency. If you want to learn more about the subject or want our help with your web design please feel free to reach us through our Contact Us page or leave a comment in the comment section below and we will get in touch with you soon.
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