The world has been hit in a devastating way by the Covid-19 pandemic. All areas of life have been affected. For the most part, businesses are experiencing a time of struggle right now, but one area that has seen a bit of a boost is web traffic and e-commerce. Your website may be experiencing a surge in traffic, and you need to know how to capitalize on this and make web design work for you.
Web design, in general, is seeing a substantial increase in demand during this time as the population is mostly stuck at home. Many people are seeing this as the perfect time to tackle a new website or redesign an existing web presence. People with existing businesses are also seeing this as a time to pursue e-commerce, and new shops are opening up regularly as a way to gain revenue during this trying period. Covid-19 has bumped up internet use by a massive 70%, and this really cannot be ignored.
Nobody knows how long this pandemic will last, and businesses will likely need to adjust to a new reality built around isolation and distancing in the near and foreseeable future. People are relying on e-commerce shops for many of their supplies and goods while storefronts remain closed. These new circumstances are leading to a higher demand for web designers, especially those who specialize in e-commerce facilitation.
E-commerce Web Design
Online shopping is becoming a new norm. Ordering groceries and supplies are one thing, but now people are looking for online services and technologies for everything. Communication options and networking capabilities offered for schools and businesses such as Zoom meetings have taken off since the lockdowns have in place.
All of this increased demand means an increased need for web designers with a vast array of skills at their disposal. Designers with coding skills and cybersecurity experience will be in very high demand. Customer interfaces and relationship management is incredibly valuable, and online shopping portals rely tremendously on cybersecurity and customer service help.
It is crucial for businesses to understand the factors that are responsible for this rising growth in demand for goods and services online, and determine the relationship to what is demanded from talented top web design agencies.
People stock up in times of crisis. This preparation can lead to supply shortages even when supply lines are running smoothly. It is just simply very difficult to keep up the population all trying to stock up at once. Hoarding and overstocking can become a severe issue, but despite people’s fears of supply shortages, consumption rates have also increased quite a bit. Even in times of crisis, if it’s there, it’ll be used. As a whole, people do not typically deal well with having and not consuming. Being stuck at home and having to accomplish increasingly more in life from home is going to be a game-changer for everything and everyone.
UI/UX Web Design
This new boost is not only localized to e-commerce web designers. UI/UX design will likely also see a significant increase. Even before the pandemic, the economy was changing. The add-to-cart age has been choking out mom-and-pop businesses for a while now, and Covid-19 is possibly just the catalyst that will enact this virtually overnight. Under quarantine, many products and conveniences have become essential, and many struggling services have taken off. This doesn’t truly outway the devastating impact on our economy and way of life, but for many businesses, it can perhaps be a silver lining. That silver lining may shine the brightest when it comes to skilled web design demand. With a newly evolving workplace that has been transitioning rapidly from storefront to home office, new requirements for innovative UI/UX solutions have appeared. The definition of a desirable and successful user experience has changed overnight, and web design will be in increasingly high demand to satisfy the needs of this quickly changing landscape.
The conveniences of online shopping were ramping up before this pandemic. Prime two-day shipping was once this unimaginable speed, but people were demanding faster and faster and looking for more convenience than ever. Now today, these delivery services are largely backlogged and booked solid, and companies are having trouble keeping up with demand. Walmart’s contact-less delivery service is currently booking a week in advance. Companies offering online ordering for delivery are running into supply problems. Even if a customer manages to land a delivery spot, they may find some of the items removed from their cart. These shortages aren’t just limited to hand sanitizer, cleaning products, and toilet paper, but extend to many popular food items and essentials. Peanut butter, Nutella, breakfast cereal, and canned goods are all running low. Delivery is the current user experience of choice, and so much of it is reliant on well-functioning web development fundamentals.
There is a new dawn for products of all kinds that can facilitate some of the unique needs in this world of social distancing. Many products that address physical contact issues have seen a new life. Products such as contact-less locks, auto-flushing toilets, and hands-free technology for electronics have taken off. Anything that limits what you need to touch can be quite appealing. Many of these products and systems rely on web portals and applications to manage their functionality, and web design is at the crux of these new possibilities.
Social networks have also seen a surge in user numbers in the past months as people are looking for ways to stay in touch within these new physical limitations. Before Coronavirus, social networks such as Facebook were beginning to see a decline in growth rates as people were making a move to limit screen time and preserve their mental health by resisting the continuous pull of social media interactions. Though now we are seeing a growth of 50% in facebook use within countries experiencing the pandemic. More traffic requires new functionalities and potential is foreshadowing new endeavors into the social networking sector. The UX for social media platforms is incredibly important, and this latest surge in users opens the door for new innovations in UX design.
Media and Entertainment
Stuck indoors? What a perfect time for content binging. Even at the beginning of quarantine measures were implemented, it was easy to see a massive rise in media and entertainment consumption online. Within the first weeks, while Covid-19 dominated discussion worldwide, it was very notable that perhaps the second most talked about thing on the planet was Netflix’s Tiger King. How people were consuming media was already changing, but this quarantine has pushed things much further towards internet entertainment supremacy.
Web design plays a key role in how online entertainment and media are delivered, and design roles related to media delivery and streaming services are going to be experiencing a much higher demand as well.
Another changing landscape in our world today in response to many of these changes is advertising. Many high impact advertising platforms such as professional sports, large events, and traditional entertainment sectors have experienced a significant drop in ROI. Marketers across the board are reducing advertising expenditures. But advertisement is still a very crucial part of all business, and the key to much of the business sector making it through these changing times will be found in advertising innovation online and will require a web design company.
Predicting the Future of Things to Come
Therein lies one of the biggest challenges. Predicting what could come next. We just can’t know, and this presents some serious challenges for what will be needed as we move forward. But one thing is for sure; whatever happens in the future of our new reality and the changing surface of the world economy, the internet is going to play a massive role. It is tough to imagine just what the impact of this pandemic would look like 30 years ago, compared to today. The modern state of the internet in the lives of the population is so vital to how we will overcome this very trying time in human history.
How things progress and the true scope of new demands for web applications and online service provision will be determined by careful analysis of consumer behavior. This can be quite challenging when the world has changed so quickly. We simply do not have the data to make accurate predictions. This can be unsettling, but for the world of web design, this can be quite exciting too. We can’t know precisely the right direction to move in, but we do know that innovation and development in web design will be essential. This allows for a unique opportunity for great value in trying new things and exploring new innovation. But much of this new innovation will rely on competent monitoring of statistics and information user habits and customer needs.
Times are changing very quickly, and our way of life is forced to evolve very rapidly. The key to success in these uncertain times will surely be found in innovation. Wherever innovation is required, it is certain to be found in internet applications, and internet application required web design.
