What if I told you that your website looks outdated? At first, you might think that I am totally off base, but if you read on I bet you will change your mind.
As a starting point, let’s look at a few websites that are definitely not outdated, starting with the world’s most valuable brand: Apple. Check out an Apple website:
According to Forbes, Microsoft and IBM are also among the world’s most valuable brands. Here are their websites:
Do you see similarities in the designs of the websites?
Just like clothing fashion and interior design, website design styles evolve, and they change quickly. About every 5 years, a new style emerges and becomes the expected standard.
Remember the days when websites had a “welcome” paragraph on the home page? Or when you needed to make sure that all information on the home page was visible without scrolling? More recently, websites were designed to feature blocks of information, giving the home page a portal look.
But if you have a website with any of these features today, I can guarantee it looks dated.
A new era in web design is here. The longer you wait to update your site, the more outdated your company image will be— and that will not help your company’s sales.
The Secret Sauce
So what characteristics capture this new web design style that’s taking over? Here are the highlights:
Go Light
Apple has significantly affected the design of virtually everything around us, from supermarket signage to product design to, yes, websites. Light and airy is the look. Fonts are light. Colors are bright and fresh. And the look is uncluttered.
Be Succinct
The days of endless paragraphs of text have gone the way of the dinosaur. The trend is now to provide easily digestible nuggets of information that drive the message home.
Integrate Art & Text
In lieu of one photo at the top of a web page and text below it, nowadays you’ll see that photography is embedded throughout a web page, weaving information with eye-catching visuals.
Scroll, Baby, Scroll!
The days of sites that don’t scroll are long gone. The look now is just the opposite. In fact, some sites will have a thorough overview of virtually everything you need to know about a company on a single page.
This is exactly what we did with our new website at www.StrategicVantage.com. It’s a great example of this new era in web design. Take a look, and see how much more this style engages the visitor compared to older websites.
Ready to dive in? We are helping many of our clients bring their websites up to date. If you’d like help with how your website should flow, the writing of the content, or the visuals for the site, just let us know. We’d be happy to help. Reach us at Info@StrategicVantage.com.
By Rosalie Berg, President, Strategic Vantage