Brands will be making bold design changes in 2018 to adjust for new forms of rich media and better engage their audiences. These will likely occur along all fields of digital marketing and will impact virtually every aspect of the practice. See if your brand is utilizing any of these trending mobile design practices!
Responsive Advertising and Landing Pages
With consumers doing more on mobile than ever before, brands are seizing the opportunity to maximize their outreach efforts to increase profits. Responsive advertising has already been adopted by many, and will continue to impact more across various platforms. So regardless of which mobile device they are using, advertisements will adjust to their screen sizes for the best fit with practices such as scalable typography. This has taken effect after the rise of responsive (or mobile-friendly) websites some years ago.
This is taking a step forward with dynamic keywords and landing pages, that help provide and extend the experience provided by some ads. These are working towards more cohesive messaging in an effort to increase conversion rates and long-term brand loyalty.
Additional Navigation
Designers are seeing more results from longer pages that are navigable via scrolling, rather than clicking over to new pages. To encourage less bounces and longer on-page sessions, brands will be incorporating more pages that resemble a scroll, so all of the information can be indexed and the design can be better suited for mobile phones, particularly in areas of poor internet connection. Longer pages help hold user’s attention for longer sessions, especially when you are able to peak their interest with functional animations and strong calls-to-action. In short, look for mobile sites to reflect long scrolls, rather than books with different pages.
Opacity
Designs often move in trends because marketing is about investing in what is currently working for companies. With that said, brands have found success with adding transparent opacity effects have given the realistic and colorful-looking glass images that users have found pleasing. Until another design trend comes along that appears more colorful and transparent as these works of art. When it comes to a customer experience, people want to feel like they are in the store, when on the website, so brands are constructing mobile sites to resemble office designs.
Optimized for Larger Screens
While some messaging will be optimized to fit various sizes, many designs will be made for larger screens. This will affect the fonts, colors, and overall layouts that they choose, all due to the fact that consumers are using ‘hybrid phones’, which are large mobile devices that are between the sizes of a standard smartphone and a tablet. We might see less white space, with more simple and flat designs. Some of these popular models are Apple’s iPhone Plus, Samsung’s S6, LG’s Tribute, Moto’s E4 Plus, and much more. We anticipate more large screen smartphones in the years to come.These designs will certainly still work for smaller devices, but will be better suited for larger screens with higher resolution.
Voice-Activated Interfaces
Artificial Intelligence is becoming more and more prevalent with technology and this will only continue in 2018. The use of voice has become huge, especially for virtual assistance and search engines. Look for mobile designs to reflect this new mode of surfing. Some forms of artificial intelligence will enable the direct ordering of given services, so look for more system-to-system communication for that.
Functional Animations
Functional and/or dynamic animations are bringing mobile apps and websites to life and giving a new look to an engaging platform. As a way to make certain features stand out more and encourage further action, designers are implementing animations for graphics, icons, fonts, and buttons. In many cases, prospects are searching mobile sites and apps because they are looking to make a short-term purchase, therefore their attention is imperative. To better give the feel of a more personal experience, functioning animations help improve brand-to-user interactions for more conversions and repeat visitors.
Simplifying User Interface
Less is more and simplicity has been the key to success for as long as mobile marketing has been around. New designs have been keeping this in mind, by minimizing actions for optimal functionality. If someone was to search for “car parts near me“, they will want a clear destination for a auto part distributor.
Color Gradients
Brands have started to implement color gradients in their designs and haven’t shown many signs of slowing down.This is because of the eye-catching aesthetics that go along with adopting multi-color gradients. This helps attract users and keep them engaged, which not only helps provide a better user-experience, but also helps to tell the brands story in a new way. After all, a brand is a way for a company to differentiate itself from its competition.
Telling Stories Through Design
Brands have been working towards developing stronger relationships with their customers. This is reflected from the tone of the brands voice through their messaging, the colors they choose for their logo, as well as their content and design of their websites and mobile apps. This provides the opportunities for customers to just escape into a brand’s world and fully experience what they are all about.
The better brands can work towards telling their story, the more they feel they can get out of each customer engagement. Getting the similar feeling when landing on a website will remind customers how their brand is different, so designers are investing in more story telling, not only through mobile designs, but by the processes entailed in navigation. This promotes loyalty and encourages customers to come back, helping mobile designs act more like magnets to increase retention among customers.
Wrap Up
Marketing trends will always be in and out, but design is something that brand rely on to communicate with their key customers. For this reason, brands will continue to evolve their mobile designs and adapt with customer demands. So look for these trends and consider implementing some of them to get the most from our mobile marketing campaigns!
