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More than half of the traffic on the internet is generated on mobile devices, and this has significantly increased the need for responsive website design. Google announced in 2015 that websites that are mobile friendly will rank higher than those that are not.
Responsive Web Design is a method of web design where a web page is designed to fit or scale to the display capabilities of the device it is being viewed on. The major reason for a responsive website design is to allow the information on your website to reach a larger audience across various devices.
Responsive website design makes your website more accessible, as its main purpose is to ensure different components of your website respond according to the device it is being viewed from.
The year 2019 is going to see changes when it comes to the responsive design of websites and some of them are:
Limit the Choices Available
It is common knowledge that increasing the number of choices available also increases the amount of time spent making a decision. And, since internet users are not interested in spending a lot of time on a website to make a decision, it will be in your best interest to reduce the number of choices available on your site.
You could start by reducing the number of links in your navigation bar. You could also resolve the conflict visitors to your site might be facing from having to make too many decisions by installing a full screen welcome gate which will carry just one call to action, so your audience sees the only choice available to them at first. More choices will become available to them when they scroll down the page. This keeps the functionality of your page while helping minimise distractions for your audience at the same time.
Grid Designs
Another web design element that is forecasted for 2019 is grid designs for web pages; this is not a new trend but is predicted to be a major design feature of websites in 2019. This web design element follows the “Rule of Thirds” – where the web page is divided into grids or into thirds and the rule states that objects placed at the point of intersection of the grids creates the most impact.
The grid creates alignment and maintains consistency, and it allows visitors to the site to focus on its content or the call to action.
Speed
The beauty or theme of a website will be useless if the site takes forever to load. The speed of a website is integral to the kind of impression it makes on visitors. Internet users are very impatient and require a site to load in three seconds or they will grow impatient and lose interest. The best thing you can do for your website in 2019 to make it more responsive is to compress your videos and pictures so they do not slow your website when loading.
For 2019, make speed a priority during the design phase of your website, because Google from July 2018 started prioritising speed in the ranking of websites. So, it is not enough for your site to look good, it must load quickly as well for it to be ranked favourably.
Optimise for Mobile
Before now, websites used to be designed solely for desktop or laptop computers with little or no consideration given to mobile devices. However, all that has changed, because more than 50% of search queries are now generated on mobile devices, so websites are first being designed for mobile users, with desktop versions being created after.
Optimising for mobile is necessary because filling your website with content you have created or through a content creation agency is not enough if more than half of internet users cannot access it. It is not about ranking alone but about improving the experience of users.
Beyond the design elements listed above, there are several more that can be incorporated into your design for success in 2019 and they include; page-less design, high-quality images, introduction of shapes and colours, negative space, micro animations, chat-bots and many more. Make the most of your website in the coming year.