Websites are indispensable digital tools to market your brand. However, until the 21st century, website development was a far-fetched vision for a majority of businesses. Back in 2003, the combined efforts of Matte Mullenweg and Mike Little empowered businesses to build considerably efficient websites with WordPress. Today, WordPress powers nearly 27%* of all running websites over the internet. Providers of user experience design services use multiple WordPress plugins and design elements to develop responsive and intuitive cross-platform web interfaces.
This blog post highlights 5 effective and buzzing design practices to create engaging WordPress websites.
Understanding the WordPress FrameWork and its Significance
WordPress is an open-source Content Management System (CMS) that enables the development of websites from scratch. The theme-based infrastructure of WordPress provides ready-made website templates for multiple industry businesses such as news portals, hospitals, media, and entertainment.
It is the reason that BBC America, Microsoft news, Bloomberg, and other top corporates opted for a WordPress-based website design.
Below are some significant attributes of WordPress that make it highly effective for developers and designers-
1. Businesses can easily create, upload, and share a variety of content material such as blogs, graphics, videos, etc.
2. The USP is that professionals, as well as non-technical practitioners, can easily operate and manage content over WordPress. Features like WYSIWYG, SEO oriented URLs, and Gutenberg editor make WordPress easy to use and customize.
3. Theme-based designs can be modified to add several design elements such as large backgrounds, bold typography, animation, and microinteractions.
5 WordPress Design Trends that dominate 2019
1) The Art of Minimalism
Minimalism is a design strategy that involves minimum use of graphics, content, navigation, and visual features to build a user interface.
The attributes of a minimalist website include-
a) Minimum features, graphics, and navigation elements
b) A limited color palette with a major shift towards black and white UI
c) Distinct and unconventional use of typography
d) Flat-screen designs with minimum skeuomorphic patterns and textures
e) Maximum use of negative space
Element, Monochrome, Pocket, and Corner are a few minimalists WordPress themes that are most popular among providers of web design services. Minimalist websites focus your audiences’ attention and reduce unnecessary distractions in their way to complete the desired tasks.
Many contemporary freelancers and brands such as Ceremony Coffee are readily experimenting with minimalist designs to showcase their services.
2) Mobile-Optimized Websites
The process of creating a seamless cross-device website is no longer laden with endless coding and altered CSS. WordPress version 4.4 comes with in-built support that automatically optimizes your content and images across devices. However, users can manually ensure a responsive infrastructure with plugins such as EWWW Image Optimizer, and WP Smush.
UK based e-commerce web design agency, Big Eye Deer, is one such example of a responsive website based on WordPress. However, business requirements, user needs, and competitive landscape are crucial factors in making the final decision. It is, therefore, critical for providers of mobile app design services to carefully analyze a product’s usability before investing in a WordPress website.
3) AI-powered User Interactions
In the age of diverse user personas, it is essential for businesses to have a granular understanding of their target audiences’ needs. Users are more accustomed to rely on brands that deliver quality, and in-time services and support. Today, leading providers of UI UX design services are using AI-based tools and techniques to cater to global user needs.
The AI algorithms underlying digital interfaces extract user knowledge and behavior using big data analytics to generate contextual responses. Various WordPress plugins such as WordLift and WatsonFinds analyze different web content and user practices to provide effective optimization tips. Acobot is one of the widely used chatbots for WordPress websites.
Algorithimia is another AI-based WordPress plugin that automatically adds image alt texts, detects nudity in uploaded images, and summarizes every post.
4) Video Headers
Video headers are one of the latest web design trends that instantly grab user attention and maximize user engagement. Global businesses such as McKinsey, Vimeo, and Nyetimber use intriguing website video headers to visualize their services and customer relationships. Many WordPress themes such as Vlog, Tides, and FoogoPro are paid mediums to integrate video headers into your WordPress website.
5) Split-Screen Designs
As the name suggests, a split-screen design strategy involves splitting of the web screen into two or more vertical sections. Each section displays different sets of information, images, graphics, etc. Since the beginning of 2019, this trend has been gaining momentum because of its sleek, clean, and organized layout.
There are multiple WordPress themes that support split-screen designs such as Aether, Bridge, Ardon, and Bateaux. However, it is unlikely for large organizations to channelize significant outcomes by using a split-screen web interface design. It makes split-screen a design to be used with great caution and understanding of the business goals.
You may also like to read- Common Design Mistakes to Avoid
WordPress for User Experience Design Services
Oodles UI UX Design Studio ideates and builds engaging digital designs for websites, mobile sites, and mobile applications. Our designers have hands-on experience in producing designs for specific frameworks such as WordPress, Shopify, Magneto, and Drupal. Talk to our UX UI Design team for information about our work.
