In today's digital economy, a good website is essential to the success of small businesses. Trends are ever changing, so are client needs. While businesses are busy focusing on their core product or service, most do not understand the value and importance of staying on the cutting edge of web design trends. Not understanding the value of staying relevant is the main reason why many business owners and entrepreneurs are often left asking the question, should we make the investment to keep our website up with the latest trends?

This could be a quick fix to that dilemma: According to Darryl Stevens, founder of digiTech Web Design, it is important for small business owners to stay on top of the rapidly changing web design trends so that your business stays relevant and continues to convert website visitors into customers.
Here are the web design trends small enterprises should follow in 2015:

1. Video backgrounds

The year 2015 may be the best year to bid farewell to traditional image sliders. WebM HTML5 video has a huge potential in 2015, with major companies such as PayPal and Squarespace making the switch. In Q1 of this year Steven's firm made the switch and the response has been remarkable, some large deals being closed specifically because of the effect produced by the stunning aerial video of Austin.

However, the background video should not leave people waiting. It is more likely for people to discard a website with elements that take so much time to load. Keep on testing the web design until you come up with a balanced size and quality.

2. Grid layouts

Web designers surely found an inspiration from Pinterest's grid-like layouts. In any type of business, user experience is hugely important. Product-based businesses can use a grid layout to come with better user experience. With a grid-like layout, users will be able to easily view each item one by one in a very organized and logical way. Examples of product-based businesses using grids are art prints store Curioos and online clothing shop Reserved.

3. Large Images and Fonts

If more than half of your visitors spend less than 15 seconds on your website, what can you do to keep them engage?

Maybe it's time to ditch those banner ads and make your website more visually appealing. Imagine that all of your visitors are visually-oriented. A couple typographical trends that emerged in 2014 were handwritten fonts, mix and match type, and large type. Large type will work best when paired with a fullscreen background image or video. A nice example of corporate business using large type is ESPN Sports Programming.

4. Ghost buttons

Also referred to as "hollow" buttons, ghost buttons are on the rise these days-thanks to Hollywood. If you've noticed in the Ironman, they used head-up displays with ghost-like elements. The same goes for Star Trek reboot and Ender's Game.

In 2015, we are seeing a lot of design elements which are definitely futuristic. That includes ghost buttons, a design element made conventional by IOS 7. Ghost buttons is applicable when the only action needed is the one that the button offers. For example, using "Start" as the call to action makes the ghost button the focal point. It makes a great user experience. In order to make better designs and implement these futuristic designs faster, there are several tools you can use for prototyping such as Invision App, for example.

These are just some of the web design trends that small businesses need to watch out and try to incorporate in their strategy to make the most of their online presence.

Source: www.huffingtonpost.com