It’s not enough to just have a church website. It also has to be engaging to keep visitors coming back for more.
While uploading great content helps, utilizing some of the most effective new website design trends also helps boost engagement.
With the right combination of design and content, your church’s site not only appeals to your members, but helps to bring God’s word to people all over the world.
1. Irregular Grids
While some sites already use this style, it’s becoming more popular among all types of sites. Think of the irregular grid design trend as Pinterest, but with more whitespace. The idea is to break up content more so nothing blends together. It also makes it easier to scan for content.
To make this even more engaging, use different sizes of fonts in each grid and ensure they’re different sizes. It instantly makes the site seem more modern, which also makes your church seem more modern and welcoming.
2. Bold Plus Whitespace
Whitespace is one of the most classic website design trends, but when you combine it with bold fonts, it’s even more eye-catching. For churches, this trend works well for ensuring important announcements or relevant scripture to the day’s events stands out among other content. After all, wouldn’t your eye be drawn to a headline that was bold and slightly larger than the rest?
3. AMP
By now, you’ve probably heard all about responsive design. If not, it’s an existing trend that has continued to gain momentum as more people turn to mobile devices to browse the Internet. AMP, accelerated mobile pages, takes responsive design to the next level.
It takes typical mobile sites and optimizes them to load faster. If you want a more engaging church site, it has to load fast. Otherwise, visitors might not even stick around to see what your site or church has to offer.
4. Device-Agnostic Design
Device-agnostic design is one of those website design trends that has been struggling to catch on for years. However, people aren’t just using computers and mobile devices anymore. They’re also using smart home speakers and hubs, such as the Amazon Echo and Google Home.
As this Smashing Magazine article from 2012 explains, device-agnostic design is future proof while responsive design does have its limitations. It’s about designing sites so they’re compatible with all devices, even those without screens. This also means sites have to think more about content than just beautiful color schemes. It might not be right for your church just yet, but it’s a trend to think about.
5. Sticky Bottom Menus
Take a moment to think about how you use your smartphone or tablet. The menu to go back or go to your home screen is usually at the bottom. As such, people are accustomed to seeing menus at the bottom of their screens. If you want the mobile version of your church’s site to be more engaging, add a sticky menu to the bottom that floats as the user scrolls. It’s more natural and encourages them to navigate more.
6. Sites Blend With Apps
One of the newest website design trends in 2018 is progressive web apps. Think of this trend as the marriage of websites and apps. You get the functionality of a website, but with all the benefits of an app, such as loading much faster and being easier to navigate. The best part is users never have to install a separate app. Your church’s site is still accessible from a browser, but includes features such as push notifications and even its own home screen icon.
7. Multi-Step Forms
Whether your site’s visitors are coming from desktops or mobile devices, large forms are intimidating. Maybe you have a survey or want them to fill out a membership form. A more effective approach to clunky forms are multi-step forms. Yes, there are more pages, but the form guides users through filling it out. The text is larger and you can add options to click or tap.
It’s more interactive. However, if your church’s site doesn’t really use forms right now, you might want to skip this trend.
8. Design Based On Users, Not Trends
This is likely one of the best website design trends ever. Despite being a rather optimistic statement, it’s true. Most of the time websites are designed based solely on the latest trends versus what users actually want. With improved analytics, predictive analysis and artificial intelligence, you can better understand what your users want from your website.
This is an advanced approach to web design, but it’s also highly effective. You’re able to design your site based on how users interact with your site and similar sites. Overall, it’s a trend that should help create the most engaging site possible.
Does your church’s site need a revamp? Try our free website analysis today to see how your site’s strategy performs.
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