You, like every digital marketer or entrepreneur, will be part of a website project at some point, be it for your own business or your client. Before rushing into briefing an agency or a designer I recommend to make yourself familiar with recent web design trends and start collecting favorites. This is how I approach that task:
Website builders always provide template galleries to show off what other customers were able to create. Elementor, a WordPress based website builder which is very popular right now, is publishing a “sites of the month” blog, but you can also take a look at their library page that shows templates for many different industries. Webflow is also gaining momentum. It is not based on WordPress but it’s also very popular right now. Like Elementor, its WYSIWYG editor works fully in your browser. Check out their #MadeInWebflow gallery.
Themeforest, the number one marketplace for WordPress themes, is also a place you can check out for web design trends. Theme developers always try to incorporate
Subscribe some web design blogs to get design tips delivered to your inbox (or feedreader). I learned a lot by reading the Webdesigner Depot blog, but there are thousands out there. Medium is always a good choice if you want to read opinions about web design trends.
Behance, the social network for designers to show off their portfolio, is a great way to find design inspiration. You can browse the Web Design category on Behance. Dribbble is also a site where designers showcase their work.
Save specific elements of a page. Very often you won’t like every aspect of a site, apart from some elements. For that reason, I am always taking screenshots of the elements I like and save them (to OneNote, or Trello) in
- Top 10 Marketing Agency websites
webdesign examples dental clinicLandingpage examples app startups- …
Bonus: Think mobile first! Don’t forget to check out the mobile versions of sites you like. You can browse in mobile view on your desktop (not only in Chrome).
Do all this before deciding on the tool you want to use. You can send along some links to your designer for orientation on what you like. The designer should not focus
If you are the project lead for a website of a client of yours, you can also ask your client if they have specific pages in mind when talking about “good web design”. Chances are high that they have no idea, but better ask before briefing a designer.