The influence of social media, digital content and online immersive experiences has been steadily increasing over the last twenty years but whilst the power of marketing has not changed, what makes it effective, has. Today, digital marketing strategies must acknowledge the current high-tech, internet connected era, or risk falling behind their competitors – and one way in which to do this is to create and harness immersive online experiences.
In this blog, we explore how advances in digital design and execution can be explored further, and how we are reflecting this in our own work:
Expanding our capabilities in web design
Unlike traditional web design frameworks of the past – which often required numerous workarounds and ‘hacks’ to display the design in the best possible manner – today’s market offers numerous opportunities for developers to play with intrinsic web designs.
Intrinsic web design is not a framework, but rather a set of concepts for better art direction on the web, highlighting what is now possible with modern CSS (or cascading style sheet – used to set the style on web pages). Developers today are now recommended to use a new suite of web layout tools. We’ve been exploring the likes of Flexbox, Grid and Box alignment, allowing us to gain control of the browser to lay out our items for us.
Ultimately, tools such as these are giving web designers and developers far more flexibility and we’re looking forward to testing out a greater range of creative ideas with fewer implementation restrictions in place.
Exploring 3D and beyond
On the topic of web design, we’re on the brink of witnessing a surge in 3D illustrations, bringing a new level of depth to a website visual, as well as an increase in isometric imagery (where 3D is created from 2D elements.) We’ve been exploring how best we can apply this to upcoming projects, whether through full-page designs or smaller, more intricate features such as logos or icons.
Something we are continuing to recommend to our clients this year is scrolling websites – assets that come to life when scrolling up and down a webpage, taking users on a journey to consume web content the way we want them to. However, 2019 will be the year we also explore ‘unconventional scrolling’, using horizontal scrolls rather than vertical, catching users by surprise and ultimately capturing their attention, faster.
Augmented reality
Augmented reality (AR) is set to profoundly transform the way we live and work – and it’s already causing waves, whether it’s through displaying small anime characters in front of you on your walk to work in Pokémon Go, or enabling you to test that new sofa in your living room before purchasing it, via the IKEA Place app.
Simply put, AR is the ability to overlay an image(s) on top of a live view of what the user is seeing, creating an engaging experience by allowing your customers to ‘jump’ into your world. This works particularly well for retailers hoping to sell products to their customers whilst reducing the likelihood of dissatisfied customers when the reality arrives.
AR as a fully immersive physical and mental experience is still a long way away but the demand for it is certainly on the rise. What with the success of virtual reality over the last two to three years, we anticipate a range of AR experiences on the horizon, and we’re working closely with our clients today to determine how best to translate their vision into an immersive and engaging experience.
If you are planning a review of your web design and experience, or you are looking to explore one of the above trends further, please get in contact today on hello@onebite.co.uk.
