We are now into the 5th month of 2016. Let’s pause for a minute to think about how fast time is flashing by and how it will be 2020 before we know it. Done? Excellent. What the advent of May does mean is that we can start to take a step back and see what website design trends 2016 has started throwing up.
We’re not talking just the automotive market here, by the way. Instead, we’re looking at design trends at large.
What can we take from this design inspiration? See anything you like?
1. Big homepage images and beautiful banners.
Websites are moving further and further from offer banners, with it becoming increasingly frequent to have gorgeous images with text and buttons over the top. This directs traffic very quickly into fulfilling the key action of a page.
For car dealers, there may be a few potential actions – so thinking of a stunning way to incorporate these options has to be the next step.
2. Going “Mobile First”
Surprise surprise – we all knew thinking about mobile layout was going to be one of the big website design trends of 2016!
Websites that don’t think about mobile users in there design risk being left behind. Our websites now use a more sophisticated type of responsive strategy, so now is the time to assess mobile layout strategically and cleverly.
3. Interesting Tiles and Enjoyable Scrolling
This is one design trend that is coming into the motor trade space as well – featuring tiled panels on web pages (not just the homepage) that look great, are varied enough to be interesting, and help visitors to fulfil key functions.
This is often in combination with plenty of scrolling, which may or may not feature moving backgrounds, videos, and little “delight factors” that see content reacting as your scroll down the page. Scrolling isn’t just a necessity any more, it’s an art.
4. The art of minimalism
We shared some exciting, seriously minimalist websites with you our blog just the other week.
As well as the look and feel of the website, you’ll also probably have noticed that websites are streamlining their navigation – it’s not just about simple buttons and big images, but as much about making it really simple for web visitors to get to where they want to go.
It’s not very easy sometimes to priorities suite sections and actions - but the best performing website all have simplicity and straightforwardness in common.
5. A sophisticated, modern colour palette
If I was to go further, I’d say that the 2016 web design world is really liking pale greens, blues and greys this year.
Looking at things more widely, this design development is about the website featuring complimentary, stylish and above all modern colours that still focus on conversion whilst looking high quality and classy too.
6. Telling a story to their visitors
We don’t mean that websites are literally telling stories – but they are taking care to showcase more than just a list of things, and what to do with them.
We all know that a brand – who you are, what you stand for, and what that means to customers – is often your only way to stand out from the marketplace, and this trend therefore has a lot of offer car dealers.
Use your website to build a picture or write a story about why the visitor should choose you.
Have you noticed any other web design trends this year that you think are building momentum?
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