To stay on top in the digital world, keeping up with the most popular trends is indispensable. An outdated website can kill your web presence and deter prospects away furthering damaging your business. Before a person can even realize that excellence of your products and services, their first impression will be how your website looks and represents your brand. In fact, 94% of people say that first impressions matter and the design will help them decide if they want to stay on that site or leave to another source. For this reason, regularly implementing new and imaginative web design trends will grow traffic and inspire more leads. With this in mind, this article highlights some popular trends you can expect to arise as the New Year of 2017 approaches. 

Realistic and Powerful Images

According to Smart Insights, the large images on your homepage should be relevant and create a powerful message. Take a look at the following qualities that can help you choose the right photos to implement this popular trend: 

• Product: Are product images appropriate and useful? If so, this should be your first choice.
• People: Can you use an authentic image to tell a believable story about people using your product and benefiting from it?
• Quality: How can you show that your product is of good, or superior, quality? Can you show the craft, the expertise or the materials that make it great?
• Ethics: Are you charitable, ethical, organic, green? Does your business give back to the community? Does it make the world a better place?

Don't overuse images by cluttering the page in attempt to be creative. Choose one picture for powerful imagery that can tell a story all on its own. Finally, make sure the image envelopes the home page for a full-screen effect to create a realistic connection with your viewers (Source). 

Homepage Background Video 

As videos become increasingly popular as the way people seek information, it only makes sense to use this tool to capture the attention of viewers who visit your website. Homepage background videos can creatively sum up the story of your business. It's important to also note that these videos should have the capabilities of playing on the mobile version of your website. In fact, information from Smart Insights Mobile Marketing Trends indicates, “over 50 percent of searches are made on mobile devices, not laptops or even tablets. For this reason, these background videos are a popular trend so they would be useless if they can't play on the most preferred device. Check out Evernote's homepage for a great example of this popular and upcoming trend. 

Use Animated GIFs

Bring life to your website with GIFs. GIFs are image files that are compressed to reduce transfer time holding static images and animations. You don't want to cluster your website with the overload of GIFs but when used correctly, the animations can be a powerful way to engage viewers. These animations offer a fun design and tell a story in a creative way. Try using GIFs on specific elements that you want to stand out such as, sales pop-ups, best selling products and so on (Source) .  GIF Credit: Harry & David 

Utilizing Artificial Intelligence

With technology advancing and becoming smarter every second, people have a certain dependency on artificial intelligence. As mobile and tablets arise as the preferred method of online interaction so have the use of apps and website clickability. Why not use this to your advantage by adding A.I. components to your website, boosting the level of  interaction. 

According to Fast Company, programs like Cortana, Siri, and GoButler are racing to obliterate our ability to discern between man and machine. Virtual assistants such as these will have a tremendous impact on how users interact with web and mobile apps. AI newbies can get started by using various WordPress plugins like The Client Relations Factory, which puts an animated, autonomous customer-service representative on your website (Source). 

ImageWorks LLC | CT Website Redesigns

Our custom CT web design solutions are built around your individual needs, and focused on your specific messaging, functionality, and inbound lead generation needs in mind. Our state of the art knowledge and continuous research and development efforts always take advantage of the newest technologies, insuring your project will be cross platform compatible, mobile ready, and easy to use. 

Over 17 years and a thousand projects, we have continually improved our process for understanding your business, defining your goals, performing a competitive analysis, translating your message to a compelling website, and integrating calls to action. This one-of-a-kind approach and un-paralleled level of experience leads to the creation of new business and measurable marketing results.

Download the guide below for more information on how you can improve your marketing efforts to as the 2017 New Year approaches.