12 WEB TRENDS FOR 2018 IN PLAIN ENGLISH - PriceWeber

12 WEB TRENDS FOR 2018
      IN PLAIN ENGLISH.

One of the great mysteries in the world of web development and digital marketing is why web
agencies insist on “speaking in tongues” with clients. We think the mysterious oversaturation of
jargon words and abbreviations makes clients uncomfortable and can harm effective agency/
client communication and even harm the final product – your website. That’s why we decided
to publish our 2018 Web Trends in plain old English.

To keep things as simple and useful as possible,
we’ve divided our predictions into five sections:

             1. MOBILE

             2. DESIGN

             3. USER EXPERIENCE

             4. WEB STRATEGY

             5. SECURITY

mo·bile – adj. ‘mobel, mo, bil’
Def. Relating to mobile phones, handheld computers, and similar technology.
“If you are not designing your website for mobile, you are losing money.”

TREND-1
                                                                                Mobile First
This isn’t really new but rather an ongoing trend in web development. Mobile First simply means
that you should consider the design of your website’s mobile version before you design for a
desktop computer. Why? Data shows that, in 2016, website views on mobile phones overtook
page views on computers, so it just makes sense to design your website for the way it’s most
likely to be used – on a mobile device. Mobile First often takes on a very different set of user
experience considerations.

Another reason to incorporate the Mobile First trend is that search engines like Google will show
favoritism to your competitors in online searches if your site is not “optimized” for mobile use.

TREND-1
Progressive Web Apps
Progressive Web Apps (you can call it a PWA if you like) is a website design response that’s
based on the popularity of mobile phone apps. Basically, people have gotten so used to how
apps work and feel on their phones that web developers are responding by building their mobile
phone website experience to look and feel like a native app.

The cool thing here is that there are tools that will let you build your mobile website experience
as a PWA and then export it to the Apple and Android App stores, too. This gives your fans the
choice to either have your digital presence accessed on the web or have it be installed directly
on their phones. Cool.

TREND-1
                                                                     Mobile Performance
There’s an old saying that “speed kills,” but in website development, it’s more like “pokey kills.”
Because more and more web experiences are happening on phones, and because people are,
well, impatient, the design and function of your mobile experience needs to be built with speed
in mind. Slow page loads due to bulky files will be a big turnoff for mobile web users. To make
matters worse, Google will ding you on organic search results for poor mobile performance
(see Mobile First).

de·sign – verb ‘de ‘zin’
Def. To do or plan (something) with a specific purpose or intention in mind.
“It’s essential to design your new website to engage your customers.”

TREND-2
                                                                    Use of Cinemagraphs
We promised not to use jargon words, but that’s really what they are called. If you’re not familiar,
a “cinemagraph” is basically a still image with a tiny bit of movement added that gives the viewer
the impression they are looking at video or animation. Why use them? Speed. Cinemagraphs are
very tiny files with speedy load times when compared to video or animation. Remember, “pokey
kills.” A side benefit is that, when done right, cinemagraphs can also be a lot cheaper to produce
than custom video or animation. And they look super neat.

TREND-2
Custom Photography
Everyone loves a great image, and the use of photography on websites isn’t likely to go away
anytime soon. The problem is that many companies have gotten used to finding images for their
website on stock image sites. You know the images we’re talking about. The ones that make you
think, “who are those models dressed in business attire, and why are they all leaning over that
guy and pointing at his computer screen?” The design push for custom photography is mostly
driven by the fact that these generic stock images are just that – generic and not engaging.
Consumers today can smell “fake” from a mile away, making a small investment in authentic
photos with real people in them worthwhile.

Another consideration is that stock photography often gets passed around in a manner that
violates the license terms, making your site or supporting materials subject to fines.

TREND-2
                                                                     Bold Typography
Another response to the need for speedy load times is using bold typography as a website
design element. Unique typography comes in a nearly endless variety, creates cool design that
communicates well and can be pretty inexpensive. Add to that the endless hunger for fast-
loading web experiences, and it’s easy to understand why this trend is emerging.

us·er ex·pe·ri·ence – noun ‘yoozer ik’ spireans’
Def. The overall experience of a person using a product such as a website
or computer application, especially in terms of how easy or pleasing it is to use.
“If a website delivers a poor user experience, people just won’t come back.”

There’s a lot of talk about “user experience,” or UX, and what’s good and bad. The reality
is that good UX is constantly evolving along with your customer’s expectations. In general,
good UX involves offering people easy access to what they want in a website that is both
visually enjoyable and easily usable. Because the definitions of “easy” and “pretty” change
with technology and tastes, yesterday’s great UX is potentially today’s UX disaster. That said,
these are a few UX trends that we expect to grow and be around awhile, as well as certain
standards that stand the test of time.

TREND-3
Micro UX
Micro UX is best defined as tiny single-function features that add value to your website’s content
or web activities. If your B2B site has a bar graph that shows additional information when you roll
your mouse over it, that’s Micro UX. If your search bar has an “auto-fill” feature to help someone
enter common search terms, that’s Micro UX. If a photo on your ecommerce website zooms in
when touched or hovered over on a desktop, that’s Micro UX. As companies, especially social
media and e-commerce companies, continue to innovate in this area, customers will expect you
to keep up with small features that add value to the user experience.

TREND-3
                                                           “Bottom-sticky” Navigation
This one is a no-brainer. As your web customers continue to spend more time on your website
on their mobile phones, moving the navigation bar down near their thumbs makes perfect sense.
UX folks call this “bottom sticky navigation.” It’s “sticky” because it remains there, regardless of
scrolling up or down on the page.

TREND-3
Leveraging More Mobile Features
This one is really a bunch of little trends bunched together. Essentially, our phones have been
capable of doing things for a while that we did not know how to integrate or were not good at
integrating into the mobile web experience. That’s changed.
• Voice - Phone features like Voice Search and Natural Language Processing (think Siri,
Alexa, Cortona, etc.) can now be easily integrated into your mobile web experience.
• Geolocation – Increasingly, we expect to see the use of a mobile phone’s “geolocation”
(GPS) feature to help customize content to someone’s physical location.
• Camera Access – As the lines blur between online and brick and mortar shopping, we
are beginning to see innovative uses of your mobile phone’s camera on mobile websites.
Because every person with a mobile phone is now carrying a fairly high definition digital
camera as well, we expect to see more camera integration in UX.
• Accelerometers – Dramatically increasing the cool factor of some websites is use of the
phone’s “accelerometer.” This is the doohickey in your phone that will flip the direction of
your screen when you turn it over. Those cool augmented reality (AR) games that can be
played on your phone use the accelerometer to sense your motion. New and unique mobile
website applications using this feature are expected to increase in 2018.

TREND-3
                                                                            Intelligent Bots
• Chat bots, those automated programs that pop up on a website and ask if they can help you,
are nothing new, and frankly many people were pretty annoyed by them when they first came
out. They just didn’t work very well. Two things have changed since then. First, millennials are
not nearly as insulted by automated service bots as older generations were when they first
surfaced. The second change is that the new generation of intelligent bots is good. Some of
them are really, really good. If you’ve had a satisfying online customer service chat recently with
“Carlos” or “Jenny,” chances are you were chatting with a bot.

strat·e·gy – noun ‘stradeje/
Def. a plan of action or policy designed to achieve a major or overall aim.
“We’re developing a content strategy for our website.”

TREND-4
                                                        Search Engine Optimization
There are a lot of areas we could explore regarding strategy, but web strategies are often very
specific to a brand or business vertical. The one dramatic shift we are beginning to see is an
interest in Search Engine Optimization. SEO is and has been the sad, redheaded stepchild of the
digital world for years. For the uninitiated, SEO is essentially what you do for your website to
help you be found easily on search engines Google, Bing and Yahoo.

The problem is that what works in SEO today invariably changes tomorrow. Search engines are
constantly changing the game to try and get you to pay for search terms instead of promoting
organic search. The days of set-it-and-forget-it with SEO are over. The best emerging websites
are beginning with a smart SEO strategy and then making updates as market trends and search
engine algorithms shift. We see a shift in 2018 to more savvy marketers doing SEO maintenance
quarterly at minimum.

se·cu·ri·ty – noun ‘se kyoorede’
Def. The state of being free from danger or threat.
“Consumers aware of massive personal information hacks are increasingly
concerned with web security.”

TREND-5
                                                                                    HTTPS
If you type in your website URL as http://www.mywebsite.com, then your customer’s data is not
secure when it travels between their browser and your website. That’s bad. HTTP stands for
“HyperText Transfer Protocol,” which is the protocol data used to travel between the two. When
you use the HTTPS, or “HyperText Transfer Protocol Secure,” data gets encrypted between your
site and your customer’s browser and becomes secure. With seemingly weekly headlines about
identity theft or personal data hacks, consumers are increasingly aware of whether the sites
they surf are secure. Companies with websites who don’t want to be the next hacking headline
are making the switch to the secure protocol.

Google has recently begun to mandate HTTPS protocol for certain types of sites and has a
roadmap to demand all sites operate that way by 2018. So that means your website will be
penalized or even flagged as not secure in a Google search very soon.

ABOUT PRICEWEBER
PriceWeber is the “common man’s” full-service digital marketing agency. We like to focus our
efforts on the brands that built and are building America, so we bring an understanding of the
“common man” that few other agencies can offer.

We offer clients end-to-end digital, media, social media, PR, 3D rendering and animation,
photography, video content and sales promotion under one roof. We are also a member of
Worldwide Partners, Inc., a global network of 65 sister agencies in 50 countries. This lets us
seamlessly scale your marketing efforts across the globe.

IF THESE TRENDS REMIND YOU IT MAY BE TIME TO
UPGRADE YOUR WEBSITE, GOOD NEWS! WE DO THAT.
       TO SCHEDULE A CALL OR MEETING, CONTACT:
                                              Joe Lachaw
                                     New Business Director
                                              PriceWeber
                                 jlachaw@priceweber.com
                                           502-499-4203