Remember the internet of the 1990s? With its marquee scrolling, too much text and pixellated graphics?

Well, those days are long gone. But they do prove that website trends are a thing, just as much as Kylie Jenner's matte lipstick was a huge 2017 and 2018 makeup trend.

So if you're thinking of upgrading your business' website, you might want to look ahead at some of the big trends coming to the internet in 2019.

After all, if your website is fresh, on trend and easy to navigate, people will be more likely to use your services or buy your product.

When's the last time you handed over your credit card information to a site that looked completely outdated? Exactly.

Read on to find out some of the biggest 2019 expected website trends and how you can beat the curve!

Video Headers

Don't be alarmed by this new trend if you're not particularly tech-savvy. Instead, you can use it as an opportunity to upgrade your site and move it into 2019.

Video headers are one of the biggest trends by far, and you've probably already seen them out in the wild on the Internet.

These headers are typically a very short video detailing something exciting about your business. It may show a few shots of people using your services your product. It may show how your product enhances the lives of those who use it.

They should be short and to the point, but of professional quality. And even though retro is back, you don't want anything that looks like it was shot on a 1990s video camera in your bathroom.

If you want a video header, your company should already know how to make professional videos or can hire someone to do so. What people want nowadays are photography and videos that don't necessarily look homegrown. An air of professionalism will make your product or service all the more desirable.

Slap up a crappy video header and you might just lose customers instead of gain them.

Utilizing Typography

Gone are the days of the flashing or rotating Internet text of the 1990s. In the past couple of years, website designers have been using typography to reel in visitors, and in 2019, it doesn't look to be different.

2015-2018 saw a lot of fonts with fancy typefaces, almost calligraphy-like. And while those probably aren't going anywhere (if used sparsely), simple typography is making a comeback.

This means that you'll want to use a design that's simple, but also functional. What matters in simple typography is the spacing between the letters, the font face you use and the information you place around the letters.

Typography is not an exact science, so there isn't anyone to give you any perfect formula to use to entice guests from the world wide web. However, if you have a flair for graphic design, it's definitely worth playing around with. You can use fonts for free, or for cheap commercial use, from DaFont.

If you don't have Photoshop, you can play around with it on a site like Canva. It offers you tons of free fonts to work with.

If you're not confident with your skills, consider hiring a professional graphic designer to create some for you. He or she might not charge you as much for a simple typography graphic than he or she might for something much more complicated.

Using Less Text

In the 1990s, as is our prime example, websites were almost all text. Even Amazon.com's old site was mainly just blocks of text that we somehow expected people to read. And they did, but possibly because we weren't inundated with so many websites at once.

Nowadays, we're all bombarded with websites constantly. There are over 1.8 billion websites online now, and you want to stand out, but still blend in. But that means you have less time than before to get someone's attention, as they're prone to click away or start browsing on their mobile phone.

Using less text is a big trend in 2019, and you'll want to get your point across with as little of it as possible. This is, of course, unless your website is one that showcases writing or another such service. Then that would be a massive exception.

Don't force people to read blocks of text when they first get on your website. Break it down in easily digestible material with pictures. If you have a blog, you can point them to that if they want to learn more about you or other talking points in your business.

Otherwise, the fewer words the better!

Break Text Down

There are exceptions to the rule of using a lot of text, but typically, you won't want the larger chunks of text on your landing page. Instead, you'll want it to be somewhere where users can click in order to be taken to the longer text blocks.

If your website has a blog or showcases writing material, it's not stricken off yet. Plenty of people still love to read fiction and the news online. But, instead of just giving your audience one text dump, break it down.

Make sure you have headers every 200 to 300 words to help the text seem more digestible. Often people find it overwhelming if a text has no discernible breaks. Therefore, using headers as often as possible allows people to see a pause. It also prepares them to shift from one idea to the next.

This isn't necessarily a 2019 trend, per se, but it is definitely something every web designer should consider. Otherwise, you'll have people clicking to any of the other 1.8 billion sites in no time. And, they may even hire someone else for the job simply because their website wasn't bogged down with text.

Icons

This is a trend that started in the past couple of years that isn't fading away. Icons!

You're most likely on social media and have a presence in other ways online. Instead of telling users "click on my Facebook page," an icon of the Facebook F somewhere on your page typically suffices.

As all of the social media giants now have recognizable logos, you're in a perfect position to place them on your page for easy access.

You can also use icons to direct people to other parts of your site. This is often done with vector images. These images are often easier to work with because they are scalable and can be seen on mobiles and tablets without an issue.

A Mobile and Tablet Responsive Site

52.2% of web traffic comes from mobile phones. That means it actually represents a majority of the traffic anyone receives.

As such, you'll want your website to be responsive, or scalable to mobile phones, tablets, and computers. Your site needs to not only look good in all of these forms but also needs to be accessible.

You've probably scrolled through a site on your mobile and found that something you wanted or need to see wasn't accessible. This may have caused you immense frustration, as you might have been able to get something done on the road as opposed to waiting until you were at home.

Your site definitely needs to be mobile responsive. If you're unsure how to do this, hiring someone who can do this for you is imperative. Your site cannot just work with one or two devices to be successful in today's market. You need it to work on every device people are using today.

Large Images

Big images went out a while ago, but they've come back in terms of web design and don't seem to be going anywhere.

Often, people use big images, or what's dubbed as "hero images." These images will greet you as soon as you log on to someone's site. For instance, if you're a plumbing company, you may have a picture of a plumber shaking hands with a customer. Over the image, you'll have text that says the name of your company or a quote that encompasses your company's ethos.

In order to see the rest of the website, the user will have to scroll down a little bit. But this gives them a sense of who your company is and what you stand for immediately.

This "hero image" should take up the entire space of the top of the website. This means it should be responsive so that it is the first thing your customers see when they log onto your site. And it should take up their entire screen so that it's all they can see.

This gives them an image to associate with your brand immediately, instead of text or a smaller image.

Above all, though, your image needs to be simple. One or two people are fine, or even just your product. Don't over complicate things.

Minimalism

Minimalism has been big for the past few years, and it doesn't seem to be going anywhere. After all, many of the biggest companies, like Apple, for example, use minimalist designs.

These designs are typically clean and only have one or two images when you land on the page. You won't see a lot of clutter.

The website's landing page will ask you to focus on one or two things that the company represents. Maybe it's your company's biggest selling item? Maybe it's the fact that Christmas is around the corner? It could be anything. But it gets you to focus on that one item.

Users will have to scroll below to see more of the website, but it should still be laid out neatly and cleanly.

Bright Colors

Bright colors may not be appropriate for every business. If you're a mortuary, for example, it may not be the most appropriate choice. However, for most other businesses, bright colors can engage your audience and make them ready to interact with your website.

2019 will usher in the age of bright color palettes, particularly watercolor in nature. Go for bold and vibrant splashes wherever you can to grab your readers' attention.

Animation

Animation is making a comeback in 2019. While this may harken nightmarish images of blinking texts and scrolling fonts, we want to assure you that's not the case.

Instead, animation in 2019 will be clean and simple, just like the rest of the trends for the year ahead. The animation may include quick slides of your logo, making it animated and interactive. Or, it might provide a very short visual explanation of how your product or company works.

These animations may or may not have sound accompanying them. They can be effective either way, so it's important to work with your web design team to help strategize how to present your animated content.

This will mostly be done by embedding a video player on the site, not with a GIF. The video player should also be compatible with mobiles and tablets to ensure that your entire audience gets a slice of the pie.

Moving Into 2019

Embrace the future! There's no other way to move forward.

The biggest website trends of the new year already build on those that have been big in the past few years. Therefore, there won't be a need to overhaul your entire website. That is unless it's actually stuck in the 1990s.

Does your site need a brush up to usher it into the new year? If your company needs the mantra "new year, new site," contact us today to set up an appointment. We can help bring you into the modern age!

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