Top 5 Website Trends 2024
The digital landscape is a living and changing environment. It grows, shifts, and transforms to fulfil users' ever-changing demands and desires worldwide. For any business to remain competitive it is crucial to keep up to date with the latest trends to keep a strong online presence and create unforgettable user experiences. Take an in-depth look at 5 website trends you should be focusing on.
Artificial Intelligence (AI)
2023 has seen the rise of AI and we will see the continued development and implementation of AI in 2024. AI can take several roles in the digital landscape:
AI-Generated Imagery – AI can create bespoke imagery for a website; saving many problems for projects such as the cost of bespoke imagery. AI image generators can work off different briefs and word prompts.
Website and Content Planning – Using AI can help cover essential themes and messages. However, you will need to be careful how much you rely on it. AI can only work with the information it’s been given. For example, if you were to ask it to recommend the best website structure in your industry. The structure it recommends will be from website structures from other websites that might not be the best/optimised for customer experience. AI can be a great starting point if you are struggling for ideas but be critical of what is generated.
User Experience (UX) Design
UX design has been featured in the last few years but will continue to be the driving force behind website design in 2024.
A great way to find out if your agency is providing you with a UX-driven website design look for the following:
Did they ask for any SEO research before they got started?
Did they create or ask for content or a content plan?
If you are building a system or website app, did they provide an interactive wireframe of the functions and features before approaching the design?
If the answer is “no” to all the above, chances are your designer is not quite focused on user experience. User experience is not all about the visual, it's about planning the customer journey using some substantial information behind each design decision.
Your website design should be driven by the content, structure, and marketing strategies you have in place to allow you to design the best user experience for your brand and website.
Headless CMS
A headless CMS separates the content you create from the way it's displayed. It’s a straightforward way to manage a website without worrying about the technical details. A headless CMS focuses solely on the content and servicing that content to the front-end system via an API. This enables developers to focus on redesigning the front-end without the back-end functionality needing to be redeveloped.
Bento Box Layout
The bento box layout is a type of grid with borders that look similar to Japanese lunch bento boxes. They use rounded corners and provide clarity and structure therefore making a website easier to navigate. The bento box grid can help with responsive design as it can help visualise how elements will rearrange. If you want to find out more examples of bento grid design check it out here.
Web Security
The fast-paced environment of the digital landscape in 2024 will see website security becoming a fundamental aspect of business operations. Growing threats posed by security breaches, spam attacks, and hacking attempts make website security more vital than ever. Machine learning will play a pivotal role in web security. They can provide real-time protection by analysing vast amounts of data and promptly detecting concealed security risks. To further strengthen the security of your website or application, use of biometrics and passkeys are set to be used more and more. As cyber threats continue to evolve and become more intricate and multifaceted, website security will remain important in 2024.
