The need to maintain a modern, sleek and functional website is now more important than ever. With a variety of functions and ways to attract traffic, entice them and leverage them into something more, brands and businesses are finding new ways to ramp up competition. Long gone are the days of creating a website and leaving it to do its thing: you now need to keep tabs on the latest changes so that you can take advantage of them as well. With design and development, there are many late-breaking changes and trends emerging. We’ll review a few of them here today so that you can implement the ones that work best for your brand.

More Interactive Elements

As the nature of the web continues to become more complex and personalized, so must the level and types of interaction offered by your brand. Micro interactive features on a website – from social media engagement features to personal brand logins – are increasingly being featured by the biggest brands. This form of social integration can help you effectively start pinging your website to a larger audience, due to the nature of these interactive elements connecting users with their friends, families and followers. Whether you provide people the ability to “favorite” their most-liked products on your website or give them the ability to customize a piece of content to express their opinion, there are many design and development ideas to consider along this front.

Virtual Reality

Many brands have found that providing their customers and followers with in-depth, up close and personal experiences produce excellent results. For years, we’ve seen real estate companies offer 360 degree tours of various homes on the market, as a way to provide an experience to potential shoppers. As of late, we’re seeing more brands branching out into various forms of virtual reality. With the invention of personal VR devices and headsets, some companies are offering an even more immersive experience. Whether you’re sharing a hot new product or an insider look into the company’s workings, a virtual reality solution can be a great way of providing content at the same time that you increase brand engagement.

Customer Service Options

In order to get the most leads and engagement possible, you need to be proactively communicating with your audience. One trend we’re seeing in the world of web design and development is increased inclusion of customer service solutions. This can range from 24/7 live customer support chat to automated social media bots. The more difficult it is for a customer or visitor to get an answer, the more likely it is that the opportunity for conversion is lost. If you want to be seizing every opportunity possible, then pinging your website and social media presence with a variety of customer service options and platforms is an absolute must.

As more functionality and style is demanded by visitors, web design continues to evolve and adapt. By implementing more customer service features, virtual reality options and other interactive elements, you’ll be well-positioned to take advantage of the latest trends and snatch up plenty of new traffic and/or sales.