How to Hook Users to a Website like Fevicol – 3 UX Trends to Know About!
It’s a known fact that the human being’s attention span has dwindled down to the level of a goldfish. Driving traffic to a website is half the battle, the more important question is how to retain them and keep them on a website UX Secrets.
Why do millions of people watch a CarryMinati video for 10–15 mins straight? It’s because the video is engaging, and every second has something new to offer to keep the user hooked. The same goes with the design and interaction of a website!
The user retention can be increased manifold by implementing these 3 modern UX Secrets trends to a website:
1. Micro-interactions (for instant gratification)
Micro-interactions are those beautiful little things that make a product lovable – micro-interactions are the little animations and interactions that can provide an element of surprise or satisfaction to the user.
These little “happy triggers” can be seen in CarryMinati videos – the frequent camera movements, sound effects, etc. keep the viewer hooked. Similarly, micro-interactions in web design also serve to surprise and delight the user.
• The user is given immediate visual feedback on any action taken by them. A common example is a button that changes its color or shape when pressed, or shows a checkmark (\(\checkmark \)) after submitting a form.
• The satisfaction of giving a “Like” on a social media post. A little animation that plays when the “Like” button is pressed gives a little endorphin burst to the user. Similarly, creating unique hover effects for links/buttons can also make the interaction more interesting.
• Skeleton screens can be used to display a preview of content that is going to load soon – this decreases the “waiting” time for the user, which in turn decreases the bounce rate.
2. Scroll-driven interactivity or Scrollytelling (tell a story through scrolling)
Modern users want a rich and engaging digital experience. They do not like bland websites that have just text. This is where “Scrollytelling” or scroll-driven interactivity comes into play.
As the name suggests, websites that employ scrollytelling are designed to change based on where the user has scrolled on the page. Images are scaled up or slid into view as a certain point on the page is reached, while 3D product images are rotated to display different views as the page is scrolled further. Brands like Apple use this to keep the user intrigued and make them want to reach the end of the website.
• Reading bars or scroll bars can be placed on the top of the website to show the progress of the scroll.
• Make sure that the animation or transition on scroll is smooth – if the scroll is laggy, then users will leave the website. Use JS animation libraries like GSAP or Framer Motion to make the transitions smooth even on low-end mobile phones.
3. Dark Mode (the OLED standard)
Dark mode used to be considered just a cool feature for OLED phone screens, but it has recently gained popularity because of its advantages. It can prolong battery life on OLED screens because the pixels do not need to be actively lit up.
A lot of users prefer dark mode as it is easier on their eyes when compared to the default light mode.
• The default for dark mode is no longer pure black (#000000) – while turning off the pixels in OLED screens saves battery, pure black text on a pure black background can be damaging to the eyes. Premium companies like Google or YouTube use a darker shade of gray (#121212) as the background for their dark mode.
• Make sure that the text and image contrast ratios follow the WCAG guidelines for dark mode – the text should not be pure white, but a slightly lighter shade of gray.
• Ensure that the animations/transitions are smooth – using the same animations as in light mode would look out of place in dark mode.
Color Dimming (Matte Accents):
Neon colors should never be used in dark mode as they would clash with the black background. Use colors with a matte finish on your website to make it look even better in dark mode.
Conclusion: Converting Casual Visitors to Loyal Users
Driving traffic to a website is one task, but making sure that they stay and explore the website is a more important task. Incorporating micro-interactions provide instant gratification and feedback to the user, scrolly telling engages the user and tells a compelling story, and dark mode makes the website comfortable to look at for longer durations of time. By implementing these three modern web design trends, a website can reduce its bounce rate and improve its SEO ranking.