1. User Interviews 

Go straight to the source. If you can have a one-on-one conversation with participants of your target market, then you find out directly what they want and need. While it is best to do this in person, this can also be done via virtual meeting or phone call. Pay attention to their attitudes, beliefs, behaviors, and experiences. Start will simple questions, then based on their answer go deep into the subject. If needed, have a list of pre-planned question ready, but make sure you are not too focused those questions that you don’t listen to the client. 

2. Surveys

Sometimes you only need info on a specific topic, or you need reactions after the purchase and use of your product or service. This is when you send out a survey to a large amount of your customers’ email. Make sure your email subject is clean simple and avoid all caps, you don’t want clients making the mistake of thinking your survey is a scam or spam. Keep the survey short, users are less likely to complete a long survey. If you want to provide an extra incentive by offering a discount to your store if they complete the survey. 

3. Focus Groups 

Gather a small sample group of your target market to discuss your product, service, or experience. Let them share their perspectives amongst themselves in a guided setting. This allows you to gain insights into the nuances and different types of views as individuals. This is especially useful when tailoring products, services, and experiences for individual clients, not just a whole demographic. Include a moderator so that they stay on topic and that they don’t influence each other too much. 

4. A/B Testing 

If you have 2 designs for your project, you can test them against each other. You can use live users or use A/B testing tools that can analyze your design and determine which your target market will gravitate to more. This is useful for designs that are similar but have a minor difference or the information is presented in a different order. If results come back overwhelming to 1 version, you can scrap the other. If your results are nearly even, you can chalk it up to personal preference and merge the two or provide personalized settings for the end user to allow them more control. 

5. Card Sorting 

This method can help determine items like website architecture. You break your products or services into categories. Using virtual or physical cards, assign each card an individual product or service. Provide them to the user and ask them to sort the cards into groups. The groups can be based on criteria based on user preference for example color, size, etc. This helps you identify patterns in what user views, which indicates what a user will like search when looking for a product or service like yours. You can then organize your website based on the results leading to the exact user experience your target market wants. 

6. Tree Test

Findability and usability of website content can be tested with the tree test method. This can be used as a follow up from the card sorting method or it can be used when you have large amounts of content, have multiple navigation options, or are updating your existing website. The tree test method involves asking participants to find specific items starting from the home page to the contact page. You give no indication of what the internal navigation or call-to-action buttons are but are allowed a few hints. This helps understand how users find and interact with your web content. 

Start a user-researched web project today? Call 248.528.3600

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1. 3D Design

Tech and software capabilities are advancing year by year. Many designers are experimenting with 3D illustration and moving away from flat vector illustrations. With 3D illustration you can add depth and dimension. Incorporate this style into animations, typography, photos, and previous flat illustration to create a compelling attention-grabbing graphic for your digital marketing materials. 

2. Maximalism

Oversaturated the senses with bold color combinations, contrasting patterns, layered images, and repeated motifs. This trend leaves little white space with dense design with dramatic detail. Last year minimalism was the popular trend. If your brand relied heavily of minimalism find an agency that performs brand audits to see if you should continue to stick to minimalism or if you should re-brand with maximalism in mind. 

3. Simplified Logos

Many companies are stripping back from excessive detail and complex design elements in their logos. The lack of detail helps to appeal to new audiences, appears approachable, and is easier to apply on many different mediums from packages to websites. Use 2-3 colors max, basic shapes and easy to read text as a staring off point for a new logo.

4. Minimalist Retro

This is trend is perfect for nostalgic brands that rely on magazine or editorial style layouts and interesting packaging. Old-school fonts, muted color palettes, warm tones, soft shadows, and natural textures are elements that give a brand a vintage feel. 

5. Abstract Surrealism

Brands that encourage escape from reality and rely on a futuristic aesthetic fit perfectly with this trend. Fantastical illustration, evocative images, bizarre landscapes, and dream or nightmare-like designs elevate the brand on a whole new level. Apply these items to your digital marketing materials to really pop off. 

6. Dreamy Muted Gradients

Gradients that give off an ethereal fuzzy look and feel use soft pastels and grainy textures. Social media or app logos along with branding and presentation designs rely on these elements for visually pleasing aesthetic that isn’t too overpowering. If your brand wants to give clients a calm laid-back feeling, consider incorporating a gradient into your print and digital marketing material. 

7. Embracing Simplicity

It is always refreshing to go back to the basic simplicity of life. During the pandemic, many people took the time to apricate the small things in their life. Consistent basic geometric shapes, limited color palette, and line art are an excellent choice for classy brands that want to be warm and inviting.

8. Colorful Minimalism

Monochromatic palettes and maximum white space are popular for minimalistic brands that want to add a splash of excitement. Use large blocks of color, giant text, and imagery with spotlights of color. These designs really stand out on Pinterest boards and crowded social media spaces. 

9. Non-Fungible Tokens

While controversial due to its environmental footprint and concerns with copyright, the space for creators and buyers is growing. One step forward to fix the concerns is that NFTs now provide verifiable proof of origin and allow only one person to own them, increasing the artwork value. This good news for creators who worry about their creations being replicated without permission. Keep an eye out for NFTs fixes and plan for marketing projects to become artwork collectables in this space.

Call 248.528.3600 today to incorporate these trends into your marketing trends.  

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1. Consistency in Design

Color, typefaces, font sizes, image arrangement and more need to feel like they belong to the same brand. If possible, have a brand or style guide on hand that you can give to the designer and developer. You want to make sure your potential clients know you are professional and that their computer didn’t send them to a different company’s website. 

2. Active/Hover States

The active/hover states of buttons and navigation are a forgotten element that can create an interesting dynamic feel to the user experience. Having a vibrant secondary color or graphic can draw attention to the user’s cursor and the increase the chance they will click on the button. This can be tool that can help lead to higher conversion rates. 

3. Design the Default Page 

If you’re using a CMS such as WordPress, the default page acts as a layout page for the rest of the site. This is important later down the line if your business grows to develops new products or services and there needs to be a new page added to your website. The elements of the default page such as the nav and footer are consistent with your existing website, you don’t have design a new page from scratch. 

4. Auto-Response Form 

Contact forms, subscribe boxes, and any other forms on your website should have a conformation response when the user clicks “submit” or “send”. If your business is closed on a certain day, editing the forms’ automated response is a good way to inform you client when that will get a response. For example, you are a bakery that is closed on Sunday, but a service request was submitted Saturday before closing, your message could say “Thank for contacting us! We look forward to contacting you on our next business day. Check out hours to see when we are open!” 

5. The 404 Page

Often the focus is to make the website work perfectly. While it is important that it functions well as often as possible there is going to updates to page or URLs that are going to pop up occasionally. The 404 page is actually important to branding and indicating to the user that the link is no longer around or will back shortly. A well designed 404 page comes off as more professional than the generic default text pops up. 

6. Responsive Images

The resolution of your images differs for each screen size. A rule of thumb for responsive websites is to double the largest resolution for your web ready photos. For example, 72dpi is the default for desktop images. Double it to 150dpi so when you switch to mobile your image does not lose the clear quality it had on desktop. 

7. Utilize Actual Content

Lorem Ipsum is placeholder text designers often use if the business does not have content during the web building process. However, you want actual information about your company and its product or service available before launching. Ideally, start off with a site map and layout design and have the content ready before development, so if the quantity of content effects the layout the designer can make adjustments before moving on to function of the website. 

Missing any of these elements? Call 248.528.3600

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 Visual Look: 

User expectations are high. Any graphics that look dated (not to be confused with nostalgia era style) leaves a negative impression or an implication that your info is dated. This can lead to your business being skipped in their decision-making process. Keep up with visual trends and if you have a hard time determining how to incorporate the current trends, consult with a professional designer or digital marketing agency for help.

 Navigation:

Function and readability are very important when it comes to the navigation of your website. The navigation should act as a guide for users. They need to know where to find the correct information. Create a sitemap or have a professional create one for you highlighting which keywords lead to which page of your website.

Intuitiveness:

This is where you must peer into the future a bit and anticipate your users’ needs. Place call-to-actions strategically throughout your website. These buttons or links are especially important when it comes to new visitors. This will help guide the sale if they are unsure upon arrival. 

Branding:

Visual content and written content must be cohesive. Your brand is your business’ voice, image, and reputation. Let your website tell a story. Include compelling graphics about how your product was discovered and made or how your service works and the satisfying results. If you have client ratings or testimonials, include them on your website. Also, don’t be afraid to include your worst ratings and include a “how we are fixing that” section.

Design or re-design your website with us. Call 248.528.3600. 

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As many Web professionals are aware, Google recently announced that mobile-friendly sites will be getting an extra boost over their non-mobile counterparts, meaning that those who are still not mobile, have waited long enough.
Last year, Google rolled out the original mobile-friendly update coined by the industry as “Mobilegeddon” but when the dust settled the update had made an underwhelming impact.  Some speculate that the update was throttled or scaled back due to the sheer number of sites that were not mobile friendly at the time.   After recently announcing that the mobile update will be given more weight in the ranking algorithm, we can all agree that having a mobile friendly website is more important than ever and waiting is no longer an option.  Read More about: Mobile Web Design | Responsive Web Design

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