Websites of the Future – Trends to look out for!

Here are the 4 styles which in my opinion are likely to become a trend in near future.

Design: Future websites will look like new edition of a popular magazine on the news stand. The front cover with an attractive image, capturing the attention of a passerby in one glance. Coming out with such stunningly attractive looks for every new edition. Websites would provide a visitor the opportunity to choose from a catalog of templates to view – from being visually appealing to a pure functional format template.

Rich & frequently updated Content: Future websites would look like journals with fresh in-depth material. This would mean content writers would come of age and their impact would be greater than the website development team. Well timed, frequent and planned content refresh would be the norm -ensuring a visitor is hooked to the website and visits the website at frequent intervals in his search for new material or content. This trend is similar to the present trend seen among popular blog sites which enjoy a devoted readership for their content. Corporate websites fail to garner the loyalty of such regular visitors as it is common knowledge that both the content and the look and feel of the website change only on rare occasions. With the increase in the amount of fresh content being provided on websites – navigation and discovering the right information might become cumbersome and hence enabling guided navigation to visitors would become a priority. In all possibility sitemaps will become a more visible aspect of a website to be used by humans than just search engines.

Dynamic: Websites will be customized on the fly depending on the interest of the visitor. As and when the visitor demonstrates higher interest, he will have access to more content and in-depth material which would interest him. This will be the most exciting trend to watch out for as user personification will happen with content changing depending on the personality of the user. For example whitepapers and case studies presented to different users on home page will be different and will depend on the personality. The contact numbers provided for different visitors might also be different. Unlike, in present times where the user chooses what he wants, future will see all the information coming to him as per his preferences and needs.

Behavioral analysis of website visitors has become a reality today, In future, it is this technology which will set the tone for such a customized approach by websites – giving every visitor only what he wants and needs. The next generation websites will move away from being mere stoic platforms to analytical hubs which will decipher the visitor’s intent as he browses the website and provides him with content/page/information recommendations based on his intent – all in real time and as he browses the site.

Social Hub: With social media becoming such an integral part of all aspects of Marketing, Branding and Lead Generation – it is bound to play a significant role in the future too. Today most websites display links to their profiles on different Social Network sites, in the future in all probability, websites with their rich content and dynamic approach will transform into social platforms for their readers, followers, visitors and customers to collaborate and exchange views. Websites are already adding their Twitter updates to their websites – giving their visitors a live view of the conversations happening on their social networks, future websites will become the focal point of such conversations. A more informed and evolved customer is slowly changing the way companies market their products – customization and customer centric approach is the future trend. How soon you get across to a customer with the information he is seeking is going to be key to the success of any company and its website.