3 Web Design Trends Your Association Should be Embracing

1. Website Design Tool Upgrades
Innovation on the web front is a mix of design and technology or “form and function.” By keeping up with the ever-evolving technology behind the scenes we are able to provide our clients with the latest and greatest methods to share information and collaborate with their members. The big deal this year will be the move from Bootstrap 3 to Bootstrap 4 with a focus on Flexbox and CSS Grid.  In laymen’s terms, this refers to upgrades in website design templates, including responsive design and grid-based layout options.

There is a two-part challenge for implementation of this new technology:

1.  How do you implement these new technologies so that the changeover goes unnoticed by your end users? 
2. When do you implement the changes?  Do we try to update your client’s existing website, or do you wait for the opportunity to do a website refresh/redesign?

My advice is to analyze the cost and time involved and see where you can fit it into your web design process. You will gain back the time spent on implementation on the content creation side for sure.

2. Software as a Services (SAAS)

A growing number of companies are providing and using software as a service (SAAS), and we can embrace that trend in the association management world as well. It is safe to say that we can say goodbye to those days where we had to custom code our registration applications and welcome cutting edge registration services like RegOnline and Cvent. Sure, there are some design limitations when working with these services, but the stability and mass user bases of these services outweigh those limitations. For example, we there is no longer a need to worry about something “breaking” in our custom registration app since it has likely been tested by thousands of users.  

3. Constantly Fresh Content

It can be a challenge to keep your website looking fresh. The most important thing to remember on the web is that content is king. An outdated site design will be overlooked if the information/content that your website visitors are looking for is there. Design comes in when you want to make that content easier to find or easier to read. Here are three things you can do to freshen up your content without having to redesign your client’s website.

• Make your content more visually appealing. The more visuals you have to support your text the better. Infographics have been a trend in recent years and are probably sticking around for the foreseeable future. Have your designer work up some graphs and charts to go with your content.
• Make your content easy to find. You don’t want your visitors to have to click more than three pages deep to find your content.
• Make your content timeless. Unless your content is relevant on a specific date, don’t use dates in your blog/news posts.