12 Key Elements Of A Modern Website Design To Know In 2021

When it comes to website design, every website that is looking to drive maximum traffic and conversion wishes to find the best and modern website design element which they can use in their website. Every year the website design industry is seeing the introduction of new elements and styles. To make your first impression positive and effective, websites need to cope up with these elements. 

The reason why most businesses look toward an experienced wordpress web design company to design their website because they are well aware of these modern website elements and use the same while designing a website. If you are someone scrolling the internet to find the answer for the same then you have landed on the right article where we are going to highlight some of the key elements of modern website design.  Apart from that, we will be also listing some points on how website design can affect the user experience. So make sure you stick till the end of this article. 

Table Of Content: 

An overview of website design element 

If you are running an online business, then you must be aware of the fact that the website of any business is considered one of the most important tools. It helps in reaching the maximum number of people, connecting with potential customers, and creating a strong online presence.  There are a lot of positive sides to having and running a website design but there are some negative sides that can not only destroy your online business but also the offline.

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A well-designed website interface can help you to reach the maximum audience but if the customers are not impressed by your website design, or if the design you are offering is confusing and frustrating then they will never hesitate to share their bad experience with others. Not only that but users today are more aggressive, if the user experience of your website is not optimized then they will write negative reviews about your website, brand, product/services, and more. 

So the question is what separates a bad website design from the good or best website design? The answer is elements you use in your website. Yes, the elements you use in your website play a crucial role in making your website design more effective, engaging, and most importantly improving website conversion. The website design elements when incorporated thoughtfully have the potential to deliver a  strong message, tell your story, and give a detailed idea about your brand and business.   

Today almost every website has a design plan. Yes, it may be different but when it comes to creating a website then almost every designer has a common checklist. The design of the website can differ from website to website but the elements used inside it remain the same that is the reason why it’s essential for every website to know the elements they can include to make their design more attractive, engaging, and converting. 

From using sufficient white space to adding a clear call to action button, using a quality image, offering search functionality and more are some of the common elements that every user expects and the website needs to provide the same. This way you make you are not only enhancing your website UX but also improving website accessibility. Or else the site visitor will never hesitate to shift to your competitor’s website. Some of the elements help in telling the story and others make your content responsive and engaging.  

While it’s not essential for every website to include all the elements, you should always look to embed those that can contribute toward making your website design more user-friendly. Because at last, your aim is to offer the best user experience and convert the site visitors into paying customers. With so many options available it can be confusing for websites to decide the key element that can improve their website design. 

That is the reason why we have created this article to help you identify the key element to impose your website design in 2021. If you are someone looking to explore more about the latest web design trend then make sure to check our blog on:

How website design can affect the user experience?  

Before we start highlighting the key elements of a modern website design we would like to highlight some of the crucial points on how your website design can affect the user experience. Today there are various things that can affect user experience and having the best website design is one among them. Today most websites consider appearance as the main factor that influences user experience. 

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But in reality, web design is more than that. Yes, the appearance of the website still matters the most but when it comes to user experience the various elements used in the website like the search functionality, website navigation, content, image, and more also play a crucial role in offering the best user experience.  The elements inside your website help in enhancing the end-user experiences so that they visit your website again and recommend it to their close ones. 

The visual elements and the content presentation are among the important elements that offer a reason to the site visitor on why they should scroll your website and explore more about your product and services. Below we are listing some points in how website design can affect the user experience: 

1. Appealing Presentation 

No matter how effective your product and services are for the user if your website is offering an outdated unappealing website design then it will not only drive them away but also creates a negative impression about your business. On the other hand, a perfectly polished website design offers a professional look that encourages site visitors to learn more about your brand and services. 

The professional website design you create has the potential to make your business and product look legitimate which will automatically increase the conversion rate. Apart from that, the unique design you create makes you stand out from the crowd. Web design plays a crucial role in offering an optimized user experience but the presentation of your website will decide whether the user will convert or not. 

Instead of creating the design on your own, we recommend taking the help of an experienced WordPress website design company that can contribute their years of experience in creating a research-based design for your business. 

2. Helps in Capturing the immediate attention 

When a visitor lands on your website the first thing they come across is the design you are offering. During the pandemic, users have scrolled through various websites and now they understand the difference between the outdated and updated design. So the first few seconds play a crucial role in deciding whether the user will explore more about your business and product or bounce back to your competitor’s website. 

Having a nicely created eye-catchy layout has the potential to encourage a site visitor to scroll more about your product and services.  That is the reason why it’s always recommended to keep the important information and other attractive visuals at the top of your web page. Your site may contain loads of information but placing the relevant and authentic information at the beginning of your web page can grab more eyes. Here are some tips that you can consider to retain more site visitors: 

  • Make use of suitable typography to create visual interest 
  • The combination of the color and page layout will also play a major role in grabbing site visitor attention 
  • Making use of a catchy banner on your web page can help you to deliver your message
  • Add content and visuals that keep your audience engaged
  • Make use of  animation 

3. Helps in enhancing functionality 

The website function also plays a crucial role in the overall user experience. Having a perfect website design not only limits you to grabbing more site visitors’ eyes but also helps in adding more functionality to the website like responsiveness. When the website is responsive on all the devices then all the elements appear in the same manner across all the devices regardless of the screen size. A nicely-created website design offers an attractive appearance to the page and the functionality ensures that it is rightly maintained on various screens. 

4. Build Trust 

A website design is not only limited to engaging users by offering interactive design but also helps in building trust and emotional connection. A consistent design with clear visual representation and informative content helps in creating a long-lasting memory and gaining the trust of the user. On the other hand, running an outdated and unappealing website design drives users away. Building trust is not easy as it is, mainly with the increase in the number of malicious activities users take to believe in any business and website. 

As you are not available in person to convince your site visitors to trust your brand and business, one thing that can make your customer and cost visitors trust your brand is the design and the elements in your website. With the help of vibrant color, shapes, and material you can make your website design more connected and trustworthy.   

Yes these two terms may sound easy but when it some to website design you need to take the help of an experienced WordPress web design company that can help you in creating a design that creates a sense of trust and makes your design 

5. Distribution of the content 

The information you offer on your website plays a crucial role in converting your site visitor into paying customers. But bombarding them with lots of content at a time can confuse them and drive them away from your web page.  Instead of giving all the information at once make your site visitor curious by structuring and distributing your content in the right way. 

If the user starts reading your content and goes on without any break then it can make the whole page confusing and monotonous, which will lead to visitors leaving your website without even taking a look at other pages of your website. That is the reason why it’s said the structure and distribution of the content are crucial in web design. 

A well-designed website offers a required break that can allow the user to think about what they read and whether it is helpful or not. Apart from that, the content is structured in a way that encourages site visits to explore more about your business and product. So here are some tips that you can consider to make your content more effective and converting: 

  • It’s always recommended to select the right text size and easy to read body text for your content 
  • Make use of necessary breakups in your content to make it more effective and converting 
  • Make use of influential quotes, infographics, and more to make your content more effective 
  • Using the proper white space between the text
  • Structuring your content with proper headline

10 essential elements of a good and modern website design

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1. Large & Responsive Fonts 

The fonts or the typography you use in your website design is considered one of the most important elements that can make and break your business. Yes, you read it right, the fonts you use in your web pages help users to engage with the content. But today just using any font that makes your web design look attractive will not work until users are able to engage with your content. 

Arial and courier are the two most popular typefaces that were used by many websites because they were readable by most of the users as well as browsers. But now websites are making use of other popular typefaces like Helvetica, open sans, quicksand, times, and more. So selecting an appropriate font for the web design is no longer a limitation. But remember compatibility and licensing are still the two key factors. 

The fonts you use can also become your identity. Wonder how? Well, there are websites using fonts with more strategies. By implementing the same type of font across different pages, the site owner focuses on maintaining consistency. This way if users show interest in exploring your website then they will be getting familiar with the font and it will become identical. websites use this strategy to help their customer recognize their web page over the competitor’s web page.  

In the past few years, designers have gained access to a large section of attractive and conversion-centric fonts, making it easier for brands and businesses to select unique fonts that define them. Apart from that, it’s important to keep users in mind while selecting the font for your website because they are the ones who will read and engage with the content. 

If you are finding it difficult to select an attractive and conversion-centric font for your business then you can always reach out to our highly experienced WordPress web design company that can help you to make your website design more effective, attractive, and impactful. 

2. High-quality product videos 

Videos are considered one of the most essential key elements of every website. When it comes to engagement video content is always preferred over text content making it essential for every website to create and include high-quality product videos. No matter whether you are running a B2B or B2C business video will always play a crucial role in highlighting the importance and other features of a product. Many websites have already started using video content and your competitor might be doing the same. 

So if you are creating a list of elements that you can include in your web design then it’s always recommended to add a video to your list. With the help of video, you can highlight your brand message, personality and show off your professionalism in front of your potential audience. When it comes to B2B business most of the customers make their decisions by engaging with the video content. That is the reason why it said video content can actually impact the final decision-making process. 

But here is the twist, most of the website tries to highlight more about their brand and product that leads to an increase in the size of the video. Showcasing your brand professionalism can make an impact but creating long videos can drive users away even before they start to watch the match features of your product. That is the reason why you need to focus on creating short videos to allow your prospects to quickly demystify the value of your product and business. 

Surely the short, as well as long videos, have benefits in their own ways but today your potential customer doesn’t have much time to explore more about every business and website. The sooner you highlight the main points, the higher chances will be to convert them. With the help of an experienced video creator, you can create an attractive video for your product. 

But when it comes to placing the video on your website then you will need the help of an experienced marketing and website design company. Placing the video strategically on your website can increase the effectiveness of content and can help you to bring the most out of it. 

3. Semi-Flat Design

The three-dimensional web design is all ready in the trend and many websites have already started to adopt it in their website design. But that doesn’t mean that semi-flat design has run out of trend. Flats design is all about placing elements that don’t offer a perception of the 3D design (things like elements having shadows). The 3D design might be in the trend but when it comes to user engagement, site visitors like to interact more with flat design. 

Or we can say it differs from site to site, for example, if you are trying to offer some important and educational information to your user then using 3d design in the element can distract and confuse the user.  On the other hand, the flat design can make your content more engaging. In the same way, if your web page contains more visuals then 3d design can enhance your web page appearance. 

Apart from that the flat design loads quickly optimizing the website speed and whole user experience along with ranking. Today many organizations around are making use of the flat design in their website. The flat design has the potential to deliver a strong message and also helps visitors to understand your content more easily and quickly. Whether you are using the flat design or three-dimensional design on your web page make sure you maintain consistency. 

However, if you wish to include both then we recommend taking the help from an experienced WordPress web design company who can contribute their years of experience in creating a website design that not only drives user attention but also encourages them to perform the desired action.

4. Using simple navigation 

If you are running a website then multiple times you must have come across the term “navigation”. Whether it’s website design, SEO, or user experience, website navigation is mentioned everywhere as the reason why it is considered one of the most important elements of website design. The navigation you offer should be easy to understand and easy to use. Because complicated navigation not only drives users away but also creates a negative impression about your brand and business. 

Apart from keeping it simple, you should also focus on keeping the navigation menu to a minimum. Adding too many options in the menu gives rise to confusion which can increase your website bounce rate. Depending on the type of website you are creating your navigation menu can differ for example if you’re running an ecommerce website then the option in the menu can be more compared to a standard website. It’s always recommended to aim for a maximum of five to ten navigation menus.  

Websites that are making use of parallax scrolling often make use of indicators like arrows to help users navigate their website more effectively and smartly. The easier it is for your site visitor to navigate your site, the higher the chances will be to engage them and convert them into paying customers. Today you will find many websites with different navigation styles so before you start building your website or redesigning existing websites it’s always recommended to take a look at your competition and your industry leaders as well.

You can start by using simple navigation as a framework. Remember the aim is to offer information that they are most likely to engage with. So when you start creating your website research and identify things that your potential customers may look at your website. Every user expects one thing from navigation, they should be aware of where they are on your website, How they can navigate back to the homepage? And proper direction if your website contains too many options or an interface that is difficult to navigate.  

5. Valuable Calls to Action

.As we have mentioned earlier, the key feature of a modern design is to grab more site visitors and convert them into paying customers. Businesses create websites just because they want their product and services to reach a maximum number of audiences. Once users start connecting with your website then comes the most crucial part that retaining them by offering some valuable information and design.  

To convert any user you need to offer some great, attractive, and stand-alone CTA’s that grab the user’s attention easily. If your business is more toward generating leads then it’s also called a type of conversion where you are calling your site visitors information. So the conversion starts when you offer gated content, email newsletters subscription, free downloadable ebooks, free audit, consultation, and more. 

If you want your site visitor to take the advantage of your service then you need to include an attractive and eye-catching call-to-action button in your website design. Website CTA’s are considered one of the most important elements of website design that can either make or break the final decision of the site visitor. 

Just picking up a CTA button and placing it anywhere in the website design can never offer you the desired result until it’s done strategically. Many reputed and professional WordPress website company spend hours and days finding where the CAT will work best in web design. When placed strategically the CAT’s can grab more eyes and encourage your potential customer to take action.   

Sometimes users fail to make the final purchase from the website but if the CTA is placed properly on the website then it can encourage site visitors to give their email before they leave your website. This way you will be able to continue the conversation with a goal to convert them into paying customers.  Remember the CAT’s are the key element that will help you to drive conversion so it’s recommended to spend time creating attractive and conversion-centric CTA’s for your website. 

6. Plenty of whitespaces

If you are already running a website or planning to create a new one then you must have visited another website to take a look at their design, services offered by them, and more. Some of the websites that you visited must have offered an appealing look and encouraged you to explore more about the business functioning, product/services offered by them. Whereas you must have a few more websites and close them within a few seconds after opening the page. Your user might do the same if you are failing to offer plenty of whitespaces. 

Whitespace has become one of the most crucial aspects of website design as it dedicates most of the things including credibility, flow, visuals, and more. People think inserting various types of visuals in website designs can enhance their appearance. Well, it’s true that visuals make your website design appealing but using the proper whitespace between the text and visuals can enhance its effectiveness.  

Many designers have already started to use the space in a way that makes the important information pop out of the crowd.  Apart from that websites have started to adopt increased space between the text, button, images, and more.  Maintaining consistency in spacing can enhance the web design appearance. Make sure similar elements are using similar spacing. That means the amount of space used between the paragraphs should be consistent on all the pages and the same applies to the images and buttons. 

Apart from that, whitespace is also beneficial when it comes to creating a focal point. For example, if you want the user to read a particular feature or click on a particular button then it’s recommended to surround it with sufficient whitespace. Because the image or text surrounded by plenty of white space grabs more visitor’s attention compared to those located in a more crowded place. 

Well, another thing that we would highlight is that space is not only white because you might be using some different background color. The reason why we are highlighting whitespace is that most of the websites around make use of white as their background color. 

7. Informational footer 

Footers are always considered as one of the most important elements of web design that helps in connecting your business with the audience. Nowadays almost every website has a footer embedded on every web page. But keeping it informational can help your website and business in many ways. The Footer of the website is the place where one can display links to some important web pages and information without disturbing the design of the page. 

Because the footer is placed at the end of the web pages and considered as the best place where the website can display sitemap, company or business contact information, important links, and another context of the website. It’s always recommended to make use of the space in the footer by keeping simplicity as the first priority.  

During the pandemic, users have scrolled many websites and now they are well aware of the fact that things that are not visible on the main web page can be found in the footer where its blog page or a particular service page. Footers of a website always contain some important information including the address and contact information. Depending on the type of website design you are opting you can make use of buttons or link style design to make your simple, attractive, and most importantly informative. 

Remember the footer of the web page contains the link to pages that are already found on your web page, like adding some of the similar menu options on top of the web page and also at the bottom of the page. In the same way, most of the websites make use of the search bar at the top of the website as well as in the footer. Utilizing the space in the footer can make your design more effective and it will also help your site visitor to get the desired information in one place mainly the contact information.  

8. Card Design Element  

When it comes to finding the elements for modern website design then it’s always recommended to consider the card design. Not because we are recommending but because many other websites including the enterprise level website are making use of the cards to highlight features, products, reviews, and more. 

Yes, the card design started grabbing attention after the introduction of Pinterest but soon designers and marketers started to see it as the design that every modern website should have as it makes the design more effective and impactful. The card design helps in distributing the information and other features in a way that makes it easy for the user to consume the content without getting distracted by a bunch of paragraphs. 

If you are running a website then you must be aware of the fact that you get just a few seconds to impress your audience. Highlighting the features and other information in paragraphs can never encourage site visitors to engage with it, because today users spend less time in consuming the content in paragraphs. That is the reason why we recommend you use the card element in your web design to highlight important information. 

This way you will be able to enhance your web page appearance and encourage more users to explore your product and services. Many ecommerce websites are making use of the card design element to showcase their product. While another website is using the card design to highlight the recently published blogs, customer reviews, product features, and more.

By breaking long paragraph information into short cards you can allow users to explore that particular product or information. This way you will be making your content more specific and engaging. Apart from that it also helps to create clean and organized web pages that enhance the appearance of the design. The card design has started to grab many B2B and B2C website’s attention as it helps in making the content more specific and engaging.  With the help of that particular element you can easily highlight multiple products but make sure the card element you are using in your website is highly responsive on other devices

9. Highly responsive hero image 

If you are already in the web design industry then you must be aware of the importance of a hero image for every website and web page. The hero image is nothing but the image the website uses in its banner. As we have mentioned earlier that today’s websites get very few seconds to showcase their professionalism, credibility, authority, and authenticity. One element that can encourage the user to explore more about your brand and business is the banner and the image you are using inside it. 

After a visitor lands on your website, the first thing they come across your website is the banner of the web page. If the hero image you are using is failing to impress the audience then no visitor will think of spending more time and exploring more about your product and services, Until you are the only business offering the product/services. Once you are done selecting the right image for your website. Next comes the important part that is checking website responsiveness

No matter how attractive your banner is for the user, if the image inside it is not responsive then all your efforts can go in vain. That is the reason why we recommended selecting an attractive and responsive hero image that loads on all types of screens and helps you to drive and engage maximum numbers of audience. 

Remember the banner or the hero of your website plays a crucial role in grabbing user attention and encouraging them to explore more about your business and product. That is the reason why it is recommended to take the help of an experienced WordPress web design company that can help you in creating an attractive and converting banner for your website. 

10. Hamburger Menus 

Menus are the essential aspect of a website design and if you have come across different website designs then you must have noticed other websites offering long menus of options in their design. Well, it is one of the common trends used by almost every website out there because these types of long menus can easily take the site visitor to the page they wish to explore. As there are a lot of advantages of using the long menu option, there is one disadvantage that it takes a large valuable space in your design.  

The hamburger menu style helps in utilizing maximum space for designs and displaying information. There are websites around that have already started to adopt these menu styles to make their design more effective. It’s not something that brought in the new market, earlier these menu styles were used and are still being used in the web application. But the effectiveness of the hamburger menu style has encouraged the websites to adopt these trends. Google chrome also makes use of the hamburger menu giving maximum space for the search bar. 

Remember the web design you offer should offer a clear path to site visitors. By eliminating the busy navigation used by most of the websites you can make the navigation and the whole experience more effective and distraction-free. The optimized experience helps in improving the credibility of a website that will result in driving more traffic and conversion on the website. 

If you are looking to embed the hamburger menu or redesign your existing website then it’s always recommended to reach out to experienced website design professionals that can help in making your website design more effective and conversion-centric. 

If you are looking to know more about modern website navigation menu then make sure to check our blog on 7 Types of Modern Navigation Menus For Effective Website Design

11. Style of the button 

The style of the button also plays a crucial role in making your website more effective and conversion-centric. Businesses create websites with a goal to drive maximum users and encourage them to perform the desired action like signup, product purchase, taking up the subscription, downloading gated content, and many more. But for that, you need to make the button on your web page recognizable. The style of the button helps the user in recognizing that it is a button where they can take the action.

Yes, you might be wondering why are we mentioning this particular point in the web design element. Well, our professional website design professionals have come across many cases where the button style, shape, and design fail to grab user attention.  Remember to make your website design effective and impactful, all the buttons you use on the web page should have the same design, same shape, and feel regardless of the location it is getting opened. 

Creating a different set of buttons can take away the effectiveness of your web page and also confuse the user. If you are looking to create an effective button that grabs user attention and encourages them to take the action then we recommend you consult with an experienced WordPress web design company that can help you in creating an attractive and conversion-centric website for your business. 

12. Search Bar 

Next in the list of best elements for modern website design, we have highlighted another important element that every website today should include “Search Bar”. Yes, when it comes to ecommerce websites then the search bar is considered one of the important elements that can actually make and break your business. Because an ecommerce website contains too many products and the user can afford to spend hours searching for the product they are looking to buy. That is the reason why e-commerce websites have started to use advanced search bars for better results. 

But the standard and blogging websites offer category-based search for their blogs which becomes difficult for users to find that particular article. Even you must have encountered some informative and educational articles but instead of remembering how you landed there, you memorize the website address. What if you visit the same website after a few weeks to find that information and spend hours searching for that article. That is when having a search bar tool on the website helps in finding the information as soon as possible.  

Gone are those days when the user used to make use of the category option to find the article on a particular topic. Now people are more curious to access the content within seconds if you have repeated users then the search bar tool will help in many ways which will result in an optimized user experience. Make sure to design the box in a way that grabs users’ attention and makes it easy for them to access the thing they are looking for in your website, whether it’s any specific product, article, or blog. 

To tell your site visitor that your website offers an attractive feature called a search box you need to highlight it in front of them. That is the reason why it’s important to use a big box so that it grabs user attention and users are able to type the terms used in your website. Apart from that, you can also include a search symbol; to make it recognizable. ,

Conclusion

By now you must be aware of some of the elements of modern website design. Above we have listed some of the important elements that every website should have in 2021. But the list doesn’t end here because there are a bunch of components and elements that contribute toward creating an effective and converting web design.

Making use of these 12 elements can help in making a difference. It’s always about trial and error like we have mentioned in the hamburger menu. It may work well for other websites but sometimes it may not offer the desired results. That is the reason why we recommend testing the elements you are using in your website design. 

However, if you are looking to create an effective and conversion-centric website design that comes with all the basic and advanced elements which separate your website design from the crowd and offer you desired traffic and conversion that is the reason why we recommend you to consult with an experienced and reputed website design company for your website.