You’d draw a logo in the top left. You’d draw a navigation bar on the right. You’d draw a big “Hero Image” with a headline, followed by three perfectly aligned boxes explaining “What We Do.”

Congratulations. You have just designed 90% of the internet.

It’s safe. It’s predictable. But let’s be honest—it’s also the digital equivalent of elevator music. It fills the space, but nobody is humming it on the way home.

We are currently living through an epidemic of “template fatigue.” Now that AI tools can churn out perfectly symmetrical, mathematically precise layouts in seconds, “perfect” has become a commodity. The web is starting to look like an endless subdivision of identical beige houses – safe, functional, and completely forgettable.

If you want your brand to stick in a user’s brain, you can’t just follow the lines anymore. You have to color outside of them.

This year, the most successful digital experiences are ditching the rigid columns for organic layouts, fluid motion, and “anti-grid” designs that feel less like a spreadsheet and more like a conversation. But… (and this is a big “but”), there is a fine line between “cutting-edge design” and “unusable chaos.”

Here is how we break the rules without breaking your user experience… and why your brand might be ready for a little rebellion too.

The Antidote to “Beige” Design

How do we fight back against the army of identical websites? We stop trying to be perfect, and we start trying to be human.

The 2026 design philosophy isn’t about adding more noise; it’s about adding texture. It’s about creating a digital space that feels like it has a pulse. When we audit client sites, we aren’t just looking for broken links; we are looking for missed opportunities to make a visitor smile, pause, or wonder “How did they do that?”

If you want to turn a passive scroller into an active participant, you need to master three specific levers: Organic & Fluid Layouts, Micro-Surprises, and Tactile Depth.

Here is why these three elements are currently eating standard templates for breakfast.

Nature doesn’t have straight lines, and neither does human attention.

The “Organic Layout” trend (often called “Anti-Grid”) is about breaking out of those rigid boxes. Instead of forcing your content into perfect squares, we use fluid shapes, overlapping elements, and “squi-rcles” (a mathematical blend of a square and a circle) to soften the experience.

Why it works:

• It guides the eye: A standard grid forces the user to scan left-to-right, like a robot reading data. An organic layout uses curves and uneven spacing to literally point the user where to look next… like a “Contact Us” button.
• It signals “Custom”: When a user sees elements that float, overlap, or drift across the screen, their brain immediately registers: This isn’t a template. This is premium.
• It creates “Visual Tension”: Just like in photography or painting, placing something slightly off-center creates energy. It makes the viewer want to stay and resolve the image, increasing the time they spend absorbing your brand.

We aren’t talking about chaos. We’re talking about a “controlled flow” that feels more like flipping through a high-end magazine than scrolling through a database.

Static text is safe. It is also very easy to ignore.

Some of the most effective websites use "Kinetic Typography"—text that moves, reacts, or transforms as you scroll. It’s not just about flashiness; it’s about biology. Human eyes are hardwired to detect motion. When a headline unspools itself as a user scrolls down, or a button subtly magnetizes to their cursor, it triggers a "micro-surprise"—a tiny hit of dopamine that keeps their brain engaged.

We use these moments to turn a flat brochure into a living conversation.

But be INTENTIONAL about your motion usage. Nothing kills a user experience faster than a website that makes your visitors feel sea-sick.

If you simply slap animation onto every element, you aren’t just being annoying; you are likely violating the European Accessibility Act, ADA, AODA and the overall WCAG 2.2 standards. Motion triggers vestibular disorders (dizziness/nausea) in a significant portion of the population.

MBD builds in mechanisms that allow users to stop, pause and avoid motion, because it should be like a good spice: used to enhance the flavor, not drown out the meal.

For a long time, "Flat Design" was the king. Everything was 2D, solid colors, and simple icons. It was clean, but eventually, it started to feel... cheap. 

In 2026, we are seeing a return to Tactile Depth.

This isn't the old-school "leather and wood" textures of the early internet. This is what designers call "Light Skeuomorphism" or "Glassmorphism." It’s about giving digital objects physical weight and texture so they feel like they exist in the real world.

Why we are bringing depth back:

• The Trust Factor: When a button has a subtle shadow, or a card looks like frosted glass floating over a background, it feels "expensive." It subconsciously tells the user that this isn't a fly-by-night landing page; it's a robust platform.
• Better Usability: Depth isn't just decoration; it's a map. By using layering and shadows, we show the user exactly which element is "on top" and requires their attention right now. It creates a natural hierarchy that flat design struggles to achieve.
• The "Touch" Sensation: Even on a glass screen, our brains crave texture. We use grainy gradients and soft lighting effects to make buttons look like you could actually press them.

In order to rock this trend, make sure you always take accessibility standards into account. Ensure button edges have enough contrast and that glass effect items maintain text contrast minimums on all background colors.

Ready to stand out?

You don't just need a website; you need a vibe. You need a digital presence that feels organic, moves with purpose, and has enough depth to touch.

That is where MBD comes in.

We build custom, high-performance engines that happen to look and perform beautifully. We handle the complex math of fluid layouts, the legal headaches of accessibility compliance, and the technical SEO strategies so you can focus on running your business.

Is your current website stuck in the grid?

You don’t have to tear it all down today. Let’s start with a look under the hood. Contact us today.

CCD is an amazing community program that provides all kinds of essential community supports such as Meals on Wheels, Assisted Living, Adult day programs, Community Food Box and so much more.

CCD not only needed to have their website redesigned and developed to meet accessibility standards, but they also needed ongoing support to ensure that their website remains accessible in order to meet both their clients needs and the Accessibility for Ontario with Disabilities Act (AODA). It was important that the website was designed in a way that it could be easily navigated by both caregivers and clients, in order to obtain these essential services.

Over the last 10+ years our team has actively grown and developed the advanced skills in order to become experts in the website accessibility space. We are so proud that MBD was given the opportunity to guide them through the whole website accessibility process from design, to development, and then provide them with ongoing monitoring and auditing support by an IAAP Certified Specialist led service.

We’d like to thank RGD for the privilege of having our case study included in the AccessAbility website. If you would like to read the Case Study for Community Care Durham’s website redesign you can find it here. If you would like to visit the RGD’s website on web AccessAbility you can visit it by clicking here.

Hear ye! Hear ye! I’ve got a one-stop fix-it-all elixir for your accessibility issues here!  You’ll never have an issue with accessibility again! Just step right up and pay this marginal monthly fee and all your accessibility problems will be in the past!

If that sounds too good to be true…  it is.

As you look for website accessibility solutions you will encounter a lot of companies selling accessibility overlays or accessibility widgets to make your site compliant. They are a very tempting, quick, low cost solution. They come with promises of fixing all accessibility issues on your site and protecting you from complaints and litigation – but in truth – they don’t do nearly as much as they promise.

As with many things, accessibility overlays are not all bad, and not all good. The key is to know when to use them, and ensure you never rely too heavily on them.

What is an Accessibility Overlay?

Accessibility overlays or accessibility widgets are a set of user accessible tools that modify code on a website to allow for better accessibility. They are normally accessible through a small floating button that opens into an overlay window that allows the user to choose different options. The options allow the user to change the page in various ways in order to make it easier to consume. Some of these ways include: contrast, color, zoom, stop all motion, etc.

The Good

• If you have an already compliant website, this is a great way to ensure that inaccessible changes made by a contributor or editor are not completely inaccessible until it’s repaired. When using this solution it’s important to pair this with an ongoing scan tool that alerts the site manager when an accessibility problem appears.
• There are many times when a company cannot make all accessibility remediations at once. In these cases, resolving the items that cause the biggest hardships for your users is the priority. Using an accessibility overlay or widget could be an effective way to bridge the gap until the next update is ready. 

The Bad

• Relying heavily and/or long-term on an overlay tool can give you a false sense of security. In recent years, the US saw many lawsuits filed against companies who used accessibility overlays / widgets. 
• Accessibility overlays and widgets can have accessibility errors built right into them! As these are software, they have the potential to have releases with bugs in them. Having a separate automated scan accessibility tool can help find these issues as they arise.  
• Not all accessibility issues can be solved with overlays and widgets. Some of them are:
  • Missing headings or improperly coded headings
  • Missing Alt text on images (although some have AI alt text creation)
  • Missing link text
  • Missing form field labels
  • Missing required form field indications
  • Missing submit button on form / missing submit button label
  • Missing sectional landmarks
  • Improperly coded content structure causing the user navigation issues
• Users must put forth a fair bit of effort to turn on the feature(s) that they require. 
• Some users have issues navigating / finding the overlay launch button. If the user is unable to use a mouse, or unable to see, they may have difficulties accessing the accessibility options.
• Overlays and widgets can cause issues with assistive devices by overriding the users options and preferences.
• Accessibility overlays and widgets do not work if Javascript is disabled on the user’s device. Some users disable Javascript to ensure it does not affect their assistive device.
• Overlays can reduce your website’s performance. If your website is built with accessibility in mind it will usually run in an optimized state, whereas using a secondary program to change your website on-the-fly can cause performance issues.

Overall, accessible overlays and widgets are seen by the disabled community as a band-aid to cover up issues and not solve them. The good news is that overlays do have a real legitimate use case, and they are constantly evolving to become a better tool. BUT they are not a replacement for having a properly developed accessible website. 

Building an Inclusive Website

Making web accessibility a priority from the beginning of development does not necessarily increase the cost of development. The My Brother Darryl website team is experienced in the full scope of website development and post-launch accessibility monitoring. Contact us today for a quote on your next accessible website build.

Sources:
Photo by Cottonbro Studio

So with that in mind, let’s dig into the main SEO Factors for 2024!

AI will play a larger role in content creation.

Content creators are going to use AI to create content at a much faster rate. But, content created by AI doesn’t automatically equal QUALITY content, and it doesn’t equal ORIGINAL content either. AI generates content based on what it has access to, therefore users can end up with factually incorrect content and/or plagiarized content. If you are using AI to support your content creation, it’s extremely important to play the role of an editor and thoroughly vet the content. Although Google does not directly downrank pages based on incorrect statements or duplicated content, there are other signals of low quality content that will cause a loss of ranking.

**Note: Google has mentioned that they may consider AI a negative ranking factor in the future.

Content quality is a ranking factor you should never ignore

Ensuring your content is palatable and consumable is at the very top of the list.  You should review every article for E-E-A-T (Experience, Expertise, Authoritativeness & Trustworthiness), — these are major ranking factors. The length of your content is not as important as the content itself, (although very short articles are not likely to contain the depth needed for good ranking). Your article should provide thorough coverage of your topic, without inflating it unnecessarily. The goal is to prove that you have expertise, that you’re a voice of authority on the topic and that you are a trusted source for this topic. This can be done by providing linked references to your conclusions, and ensuring that jargon, industry terms and processes are explained in layman’s terms. Also don’t forget the basics: check your spelling, grammar and punctuation!

Voice Search Content Optimization

Voice assistants like Google, Siri and Alexa are changing how we create content for the web. With the number of active voice assistant devices expected to shoot beyond the world’s population in 2024, optimizing your site for voice search is becoming very important. In short, this means using conversational language and long-tailed keywords, as well as providing direct answers to common questions.

Focus on high-intent keywords

One of the SEO tactics you may want to integrate on your site is the use of high-intent keywords. “High-intent keyword” simply means a word or phrase that often depicts a desire to purchase. Crafting content with this tactic can help customers find your business at the moment of their highest interest.

There are 3 different main intents to focus on:

• navigational (intent to visit)
• informational (intent to acquire information)
• transactional (intent to purchase)

Some examples of high-intent keywords are: “purchase” or “buy”, but it could also be “near me” or “directions to”. When using these terms, you should focus on the long-tailed keyword. For example; instead of just mentioning “best price”, be more specific: “We’ll give you the best price on Samsung Galaxy Z phones”. This is much more detailed and targeted using the same high-intent keywords.

Build it right – Prioritize technical SEO

Technical SEO is the process of optimizing areas other than content on your website, to improve both SEO and user experience. This includes: using secure https, mobile friendliness, Optimized core web vitals, structured data markup, xml sitemap, robots.txt, Canonicalization (fix duplicate content issues), site architecture, and meta tags.

Other items that encompass technical SEO are things like broken links or images, redirect loops, and other issues that affect user experience and readability. In essence, check your site for errors and use Google Search Console tools to help identify issues and improve your ranking factors.

Google Core Web Vitals

3 aspects to be the core of user experience when visiting a website:

• Largest Contentful Paint (LCP) measures website loading performance. This means improving image size compression, and minifying CSS and JavaScript files. Testing your pages using Google’s page speed insights can help you identify issues. Your aim is to have the LCP occur within the first 2.5 seconds of the page starting to load.
  
• Interaction to Next Paint (INP) is replacing First Input Delay (FID) in March of 2024. FID measured the time it took for a website to respond to a user’s first interaction. But the INP metric will instead focus on the measurement of the page’s overall responsiveness throughout its lifecycle. This is assessed through observing the latency of all click, tap and keyboard interactions. You should aim for an INP below or at 200 milliseconds.
  
• Cumulative Layout Shifts (CLS) measures the visual stability of a site. Specifically, the amount of unexpected layout shifts of visual elements on the page. The CLS should have a score of less than 0.1.

Video SEO has impressive results

Video content is increasingly important for SEO with video results appearing more frequently in search results. In video, SEO transcripts and/or captioning are absolutely essential. Remember that search engines cannot crawl video content – they need text-based content to be able to understand the video. (Transcripts are direct audio to text document, while captioning is the process of splitting the transcript up into text chunks and time coding each to synchronize with a video.)

Another key area of video SEO is timestamps. When you search for things like “how-to” videos with multiple steps, search will provide these key moments that match with search.

Don’t forget to optimize your video title and description. Whether your video is using YouTube or another video streaming service, you need to ensure that the video’s description has at least one live link back to your website. 

Local SEO keeps playing a big role in 2024

Local SEO is a strategy that allows  your company to be found in local search results and increases local traffic.  Beyond your website, a very effective tool is Google Business Profile. It’s important to ensure that you’ve optimized this profile, and ensure that it is actively managed, updated and maintained! Make sure your listing’s business hours are up-to-date, add and remove products/services as needed, and respond promptly and professionally to online reviews – both negative and positive!

Whatever avenue you use for your local SEO (Google, Facebook, Homestars, etc.) I cannot underscore enough, the importance of ASKING happy clients to give you an online review. Some clients have a business card with the Google review instructions on it, so it’s easy to leave behind. You never need a PERFECT 5 stars – (in fact, perfect sometimes looks fake.) – but having a large amount of good reviews is important to offset any bad reviews that might come in. This absolutely contributes to a healthy local SEO!

While I’ve tried to give you a high-level look at the SEO factors for 2024, there’s always unique situations and circumstances. My Brother Darryl is proud to help companies thrive online.

You can contact us by email or give us a call at 1-905-852-2615.

Sources:
https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/future-seo-predictions-trends-2024-omoseye-alebiosu/
https://www.juniperresearch.com/press/number-of-voice-assistant-devices-in-use
https://www.tutorialspoint.com/the-role-of-technical-seo-in-site-security
https://developers.google.com/search/docs/appearance/core-web-vitals

Photo by Monstera Production: https://www.pexels.com/photo/excited-black-woman-using-laptop-9429552/

Oversized Typography

Might as well start with the biggest trend! Oversized font sizes have become more popular, but looking at 2024, you’re going to find it even more so. Whether the text is paired with images or simply standing alone, the text is oversized and bold with lots of contrast. Overall the trend is using sans-serif fonts and ultra-bold for headline fonts.

Text-Only Design: While some sites are image heavy, there is a beauty and a simplicity to text-only (or minimal-image) designs. They allow the user to focus on the message and are perfect for messages that need to get to the point quickly and effectively. For many, the lack of distractions is refreshing.

The trick to success is to LOVE your white space! (“Love her, leave her alone“). As well, understanding when, where and how to style the most important emphasis words is key to a flawless execution. Remember big text means mistakes are HIGHLY visible.

Bold Text Paired with Bold Images. Bring the WOW factor by pairing SUPER bold text with strong and moody imagery! This treatment really embodies the feel of a book cover or a movie poster. It really invites the user to engage with the site to find out more.

Animated Text

Movement on load/scroll: Text with motion on load adds a new level of user engagement. It gives them a feeling of truly interacting with more than just a static website. As with anything, it can be taken too far, but simple elegant movements can really give the site polish. Generally this type of animation is accomplished with HTML & CSS, which allows for the maximum compatibility with assistive devices. When adding this to your website, you should consider the readability impact on various consumer groups.

The impact of text animation speed, repetition, complexity and flashing are all things that should be carefully considered. Movements that are too fast or feature non-stop animation can be too distracting. Animations that are too complex, or animate letter by letter may be hard to read. Flashing could cause headaches or seizures. In the end, the animation should add to – not take away from – the understanding and comprehension of your site.

Kinetic Typography: Although the definition of Kinetic Typography is simply “moving text” – this term is used to refer to a specific motion technique that integrates animation with text to express ideas. This effect is normally used most often in film and video applications, but with the web becoming a more interactive video-like space, this technique is transitioning over to webspace more and more. While this effect is very engaging and can be used to effectively enhance storytelling, it does pose a problem when it comes to those who are visually or cognitively impaired.

Kinetic typography is often created with programs like Adobe After Effects, and exported as gif image or video files which will need to have assistive information added. Even with adding alternate text or captions, it’s easy to see how people with visual impairment will have a lesser experience. Those who have cognitive issues may have a problem with the speed and/or flashing, and it could lessen their experience as well. That doesn’t mean that these graphics cannot be used, but this means that special attention should be paid to how the site will be experienced by users with differing abilities.

Interactive Fonts: Interactive fonts are exactly what they sound like. Standard fonts can be coded to change on user interaction such as: hover, click, etc. but will cause a content shift as seen below:

But multiplexed fonts allow the font to change its weight with minimal shifting to the surrounding content. Regular and bold weights can occupy the same amount of horizontal spacing, causing the transition to and from the hover effect to feel seamless.

To create these effects, the developer must code the bold using a variation setting – versus the traditional bold font settings. You can find more information on variable font coding at Mozilla developer resources.

Variable fonts can also do more than just a standard normal/bold shift. Multiplexing fonts can also have a variable italic axis and hover effect options that can create really fun little animated touches:

Source: Google Fonts, Multiplexed hover effects with more expressive variations, on a letter-by-letter basis.
Typeface: Cheee Variable.

An Important Note about Animated Fonts Animation is fun — BUT the motion can cause actual headaches, and other physical issues to some people. This can really harm your overall user experience. Whenever you’re adding animation you MUST ensure that your animation respects the users choice for reduced motion. Please also keep in mind that if your site is relying on the animation/motion to communicate an important message to the user, there are many people with disabilities who you will not get the chance to connect with.

In Conclusion: User-First Thinking Wins

These trends are fun, engaging and can really push the boundaries of what we can develop for our users. As much as we may long to incorporate these trendy features, we have to ensure our main priority is always on user experience for all. But as long as we incorporate them in a user-first design way, the site will be a success.

If you’d like us to help you make your site a success, give us a shout! Our studio of seasoned web professional designers and developers will take your site from concept, through to creation.

Hero photo by Octavian Dan on Unsplash

Black & White

Clean, simple and easy to read. Black and white punctuated with bright vibrant color touches is absolutely on trend. It pairs perfectly with the current trend of large bold text treatments. Dark backgrounds are ever increasing in popularity as they have been shown to reduce eye fatigue & save battery life.

We love the way the bright colors sit on the black! We feel it really represents the dramatic and fun energy of the TikTok brand. Remember that you don’t have to use the black background everywhere! Swap that out for a soft background color to accentuate a separate area, but keep the text bold and highly contrasted to keep the trend throughout.

Boldly Earthy

Environmental colors don’t have to be soft and sweet. Instead of light and airy colors, try creating serious drama with dark earth tones! Accentuate your messages with bright pops of yellow, green and orange. This palette also works quite well with the Pantone 2024 Color of the year Apricot Crush.

The right treatment of these colors can be extremely sophisticated and luxurious while still giving off an inspired-by-nature feel. Throw in more shades of bright green to get a more fresh spring-like feel. While adding more oranges and shades of brown will inspire an organic fall feel.

80’s Craze

Pull out your florescent windbreaker, tease your hair and throw on another layer of hair spray – the 80’s are back baby! This decade wasn’t called the ‘Decade of Decadence‘ for no reason! This style is all about over-the-top boldness, confidence, crazy luxury and even gaudiness! In retail stores and film, we’re seeing more fashion and characters from the iconic 80’s ‘pop’ back up – which is a huge influence on web design trends. Don’t forget to add abstract patterns and irregular shapes to help pull the look together. But you don’t have to go full 80’s “mullet, shoulder pads & boombox”, you can use these retro colors and design touches to bring a little excess into the 20th century.

The main thing to be cautious of with this particular trend is how it will affect colorblind or visually impaired users. Remember to ensure that your text is always paired with background colors that give it enough contrast to be highly readable.

Pastels are not Passé

While we’ve focused on mostly bold colors, pastels are still being used, but in more of a supporting role. As 2024 keeps accessibility in higher priority than ever before, pastels move to the background, while bold colors take precedence for the sake of readability.

Three pastel color combos that are trending are:

White & Blue

Beige & Dark Grey/Back

Orange & Blue

And Finally Complex Gradients

Gradients are back but in a slightly different way. These are gradients that are adding depth and movement to an otherwise boring static page. In the case of Marble the background gradient has texture and moves as though it is a real item blowing in the wind. For those who have problems with motion or attention issues, the speed of the animation or the motion itself could be an issue, but this is a very creative and unique gradient treatment nonetheless.

In the case of Stripe, they are also using an animated color gradient treatment that runs through quite a few smooth and bold color changes. The speed is much slower and it’s less likely to cause a distraction, but it is best to follow WCAG accessibility rules and have these animations stop for those with the reduced motion setting.

Cosmos has created an amazing example of how you can use complex gradients to create depth without the distraction of motion. The stunning gradient design actually creates an illusion of movement without any actual motion.

Conclusion

As for all color trends, the developer and designer need to work closely together to ensure that no matter what treatment is used, UX and accessibility is retained. There is no point in creating an amazing website if your users have issues using it! If you’re struggling with any areas of development – from User Experience, to Accessibility, to planning or testing – contact My Brother Darryl for more information on how we can help support you.

Hero Photo by Pete Godfrey on Unsplash

PERSONALIZE, PERSONALIZE, PERSONALIZE!

The most important user experience trend is personalization. This trend is increasingly difficult, but will often give you the largest ROI. Customers are increasingly finding themselves with limited personal time. They want to find their products quickly and efficiently then move on with their day. This means presenting them with dynamic content generated based on their preferences.

Ensuring that customers retain their privacy is extremely important. This means that you may only be able to give a personalized experience to those who are logged-in and have given access to their preferences. It also means that you will need to ensure high security hosting.

Average Development Cost:

Accessibility Impact:

ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE (AI)

Chatbot or virtual assistants are the most common place to find AI integrated into websites right now. These technologies can offer substantial labor savings since they only redirect customers to a human if the question cannot be answered by AI. But – the startup costs can be high and these technologies are not seamless from the start. The upfront cost to integrate AI can be steep, and the technology needs time to learn – which means you’ll need to partner the AI with human labor for a while.

Pricing varies wildly depending on complexity, technologies, features, customization and integrations needed. While a simple, low-volume, out of the box AI solution might be free, a high volume company might choose to create their own in-house AI solution costing $500,000+ USD.

Average Development Cost:

Accessibility Impact:

VOICE SEARCH

Every year voice is on the trends list – but it’s not something that is still widely implemented on the average website.  Users can easily add a Google Search with the voice search option to their site for free – (example: the WordPress website search widget comes out of the box with a voice button) – but will it give users good search results?

Unlike typing into a search block, a user is more likely to use full speech instead of a short text snippet. For example a user might type “Color Theory”, while a speech search user might search for “I want to know more about color theory”. While these searches might look the same, the system can recognize them as two distinctly different searches. This is why it’s highly recommended that if you’re going to target a voice search audience, you employ specific changes to optimize and help drive good quality search results. Optimization includes ensuring that you’ve added structured data markup to help search engines better understand your content. It also means ensuring that your content is phrased to answer specific questions – for example “If you want to know more about color theory please read….”. Voice search is very conversational, so ensuring that your content is more closely related with natural speech is extremely important.

Average Development Cost:

Accessibility Impact:

AUGMENTED REALITY (AR)

Touted as “The next big thing” for the web, the application of this technology has already made waves in sectors such as retail, tourism, marketing, etc. Web-based AR can use a device’s camera, digital content and/or sensors to create a 3d interactive experience. A potential customer can virtually add different furniture to their room to see how it looks. They can virtually try on different styles of glasses, clothing or change the colors and options of a vehicle to see it in real-time.

For the marketing industry – creating this real-time visual application creates an emotional connection between the product and the customer. The customer no longer needs to guess about how the product will look, they can actually SEE the product in use in their unique environment.

Average Development Cost:

Accessibility Impact:

MICRO-INTERACTIONS & MICRO-ANIMATIONS

Creating tactile experiences is still very important to help bring the website alive and give the user helpful feedback. Overall this enhances user engagement. Ensuring that this trend has enough contrast to ensure that users see the change is important.

Button Design by Cooper Coeke

Average Development Cost:

Accessibility Impact:

USEFUL 404 PAGES

Your user hits a 404 page – “Page Not Found!” – don’t leave them hanging! 

Savvy website authors have transitioned a “page not found” from a frustrating experience into an opportunity! Oops the page isn’t here, what about other products? Can we help you find something? Instead of forcing these people back to where they came from, give them the opportunity to easily find something else that might be of value to them.

Source: nintendo.ca 404 page

You can quite easily add a search area, show alternate products, blog posts and more to redirect the user to alternate content. This is a much better user experience that will increase your engagement rate! 

Average Development Cost:

Accessibility Impact:

SOCIAL PROOF

One of the biggest factors in a positive overall website user experience is trust. To turn a visitor into a customer, you need to find ways to quickly prove that your business can be trusted. Over the last couple of years, we’ve seen consumer trust levels fall. For 2024, online businesses need to work hard to show their worthiness. Provide statistics, consumer testimonials and other forms of reliable information to help build a relationship with your users.

Things that reduce consumer trust online:

• Unaddressed complaints and/or a large number of social complaints
• Website spelling and grammar mistakes
• Website bugs and glitches
• Low quality website design

Giving customers “proof” might be supplying them with coupons or samples for a product. It could be video product reviews, testimonials, product ratings and/or other types of social commenting. This type of ‘social proof’ can be implemented in many different ways. It could take the form of product ratings and comments or it could be client testimonials.

Average Development Cost:

Accessibility Impact:

NOW LET’S GET DEVELOPING!

If these concepts are intriguing, you’ve come to the right place! Let us help you get your website on the right track to succeed in 2024! Contact My Brother Darryl today.

Sources:
Hero Photo by charlesdeluvio on Unsplash

On average, email drives an ROI of $45 (USD)
for every dollar spent, higher than any other channel.

(CPG, E-Commerce & Retail Industries)
– litmus.com

Email Personalization improves open rate by 42% (source: WebFx)

Adding the users name is great but segmenting your audience to tailor promotions or recommend specific products for them is even better! For example: for customers who purchased a specific software program, send them an email with promos featuring products that complement that software.

Subject line is a make or break

After reading your subject line, a consumer will decide whether your email is worth opening or if it’s spam. Subject lines that are exciting, allude to a deal or invoke FOMO (Fear of missing out) can be extremely effective.

Mobile first in every way

81% of emails are opened on mobile devices. This means your email design MUST cater to mobile first design. Email text must be high contrast for all environments, bold, easy to read text, touch-friendly button sizing and clean, uncluttered design.  Don’t forget about graphic file size and ensuring that your graphics are clear on small screens.

Absolutely no bait and switch

It might seem obvious; but if you’re hoping to get more eyes on product “A” by promoting a more popular product “B” but ensuring the email link goes to product “A” – you will annoy and potentially lose your audience. This is spammy,  disingenuous and it will erode consumer trust.

Test, Test, Test

WYSIWIG (what you see is what your get) is not meant for email. There are too many programs, platforms and devices that will change how your email is viewed.  You should never send an email without proper testing.

• Device testing: Building your email within a templated email marketing platform does not mean your email will look perfect on every email program and device. 
• Dark Mode Testing: Many find it easier on their eyes to use dark mode. Darkmode can make areas of your design unreadable when it swaps out background and foreground colors. Forgetting to test darkmode could lead to some consumers receiving a unreadable email. 
• Accessibility & Text Only: Ensure all graphics have alternative text added, just incase graphics do not load, or the end user uses plain text email or an assistive device. 
• Spam Testing: Specific words and phrases can trigger spam filters. Make sure you run that spam check to ensure you end up in the inbox.

Tracking Email ROI in a Privacy Conscious World

Data privacy measures are stripping away the reliability of the open rate metric. To be able to track ROI we need to move beyond open rate, and focus on measuring direct engagement. This means using the links in your email to track how many visitors engaged with the email content. Adding UTM codes to your email links is an extremely important step to be able to track email campaign traffic to your website. Once you have these visitors identified you can use your website analytics to determine your ROI.

Caution: 

The unsubscribe button is only a click away. 

• If your emails do not provide value, if you do not cater to their needs or wants and if you do not actively make them feel valued as a consumer, they will unsubscribe from your mailing list.
• Evaluate how often you send and what time you send at. Too often is annoying, too infrequent and you become forgotten.
  
  “An insurance company increased revenue by 45% by sending MORE email. An ecommerce store’s revenue dropped 30% after adding a weekly email newsletter. These are both examples of the powerful effects changing email cadence can have on your bottom line. “ 
  – theseventhsense.com
  
  Your industry, products and customer behaviors will all contribute to finding the best email frequency and send time. Research and testing will be needed to find your specific sweet spot!

Do you want to find out how email marketing can impact your business?
Contact us today to find out how My Brother Darryl can help you create and implement email marketing campaigns.

Hero Photo by Joshua Chun on Unsplash

Sources:
https://martech.org/its-time-to-say-goodbye-to-your-email-open-rate/
https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/7-hot-email-marketing-trends-2023-alyson-shane
https://www.theseventhsense.com/blog/email-marketing-frequency-best-practices

“The number of job listings with “accessibility” in the title
grew 78% in the year ended in July from the
previous 12 months, LinkedIn said”

– Wall Street Journal (2021)

While a good Web Accessibility Specialist doesn’t HAVE to be certified to be competent – hiring a certified professional is the best way to know that the candidate has proven their capabilities through a comprehensive certification examination. Certification also ensures that the person has, and maintains a high level of knowledge and skill with current technology, guidelines, and laws.

We ARE IAAP WAS Certified

What is IAAP?

IAAP stands for the International Association of Accessibility Professionals. IAAP is a Division of the Global Initiative for Inclusive Information Communication Technology Services (ICTs) – otherwise known as G3ict.

“G3ict is an advocacy initiative launched in December 2006 by the United Nations Global Alliance for ICT and Development, in cooperation with the Secretariat for the Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities under UN DESA. G3ict relies on an international network of ICT accessibility experts to develop and promote good practices, technical resources and benchmarks for ICT accessibility advocates around the world. G3ict is incorporated as a nonprofit organization in the State of Georgia, USA, and headquartered in Atlanta.” – IAAP

What is a Web Accessibility Specialist (WAS) Certification?

Many countries have created or are in the process of developing guidelines and laws supporting a base accessibility level for websites. Because of this, the demand for web developers and designers with WCAG accessibility knowledge has increased dramatically. 

With this demand, comes a need for a verified level of expertise. The WAS Certification gives web professionals the credibility that they can perform the evaluation and remediation of websites and digital content. For front-end developers and designers this certification shows their proficiency to create, code and maintain accessible websites. 

WAS certification also includes not just being aware – but how to use assistive technologies, such as screen readers and common iOS and Android assistive apps.

Before applying for a certification exam, the professional must provide proof of a minimum of 3 years of experience in Web Accessibility and must have first-person experience in the following areas:

• HTML
• JavaScript 
• Accessibility/usability testing in iOS environments
• Accessibility/usability testing in Android environments
• Accessibility/usability testing in Windows environments
• Accessibility/usability testing with multiple forms of assistive technology
• browser-specific assistive technologies
• ARIA (Accessible Rich Internet Applications) 
• ATAG (Authoring Tool Accessibility Guidelines)
• WCAG (Web Content Accessibility Guidelines) 2.1 Standards
• Understanding and implementation of accessibility best practices.
• Web accessibility auditing and remediation.
• Understanding the impacts of web accessibility on disabled people.

The WAS certification exam is a 2-hour exam, and once certified, it is valid for 3 years, during which the professional must earn Continuing Accessibility Education Credits (CAECs).

What are the Real World Implications of Hiring the Wrong Person?

Shortcuts are Leading to Lawsuits

Inaccessible websites are affecting companies in a real tangible way. Lawsuits due to inaccessibility in the US have continued to increase. According to Usablenet, “ADA-based cases, where the subject of the claim was either a website, mobile application or video content, reached a rate of over 10 per day in 2021 with over 4000 in total.”

Chart full-text alternative

Number of accessibility lawsuit cases in the USA between 2018 and 2022

2018: 2314 cases
2019: 2890 cases
2020: 3503 cases
2021: 4011 cases
2022: 4061 cases

Quick-Fix Plugins are Leading to Lawsuits

The simplicity and growth of plug-in web accessibility solutions are also causing companies some unexpected headaches. Plug-in, widget or accessibility add-on solutions are marketed as a way to quickly become compliant and prevent lawsuits. These solutions do have their place but it’s important to know their pros and cons. Unfortunately, many companies are using them as a fix-all solution and in all cases I’ve seen, they’re not able to fix malformed code or major issues leading to a barrier for assistive device users.  Lawsuits have been filed and settled against companies using accessibility plugins for this exact reason.  One of the largest examples is the suit against ADP. When ADP started receiving complaints about the inaccessibility of their site, they installed an accessibility overlay – which created a host of accessibility issues. What’s most important about this case is that it wasn’t the accessibility plugin developer that was sued – it was the company that deployed it.  In July 2022 alone, UsableNet reports there were 79 defendants sued while using a 3rd party accessibility-related control (widget) (source: https://info.usablenet.com/ada-website-compliance-lawsuit-tracker)

In Canada, Ontario already adopted AODA legislation, and other provinces are working on their accessibility legislation. In Canada a user cannot sue, but instead, the government evaluates the sites and can levy stiff daily fines to both the company, the directors and officers of a corporation.

• A corporation/organization that is guilty can be fined up to $100,000 per day
• Directors and officers of a corporation/organization that is guilty can be fined up to $50,000 per day (source: https://accessibilitycanada.ca/aoda/)

Some Eastern European countries are far ahead of the curve, having developed website accessibility laws well before the Western world. Companies with international websites need to be reviewed by an accessibility professional to ensure that they are meeting web accessibility standards in that specific country, as international penalties can be very expensive.

Advantages of Hiring a Certified Web Accessibility Specialist through an Agency

• You’ll save money. Pay for only the time you need, when you need it.
• An agency can give you the full backbone of multiple disciplines that can intertwine to help with complex issue identification & resolution
• Not having to worry about the cost of ongoing education and certification

Is Your Website Accessible?

Website audits are the best way to start and see if you’re website needs work to become accessible. If you’d like more information on how to find out if your site is accessible or how to fix your website, click here to contact us.

Sources:
Photo by RealToughCandy.com
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What is considered quality web content?

“Quality content” is content that has depth and richness within the topic. It should make sure that special terms have descriptive explanations either within the copy or via links. It should also make sure that the reader gains a deep understanding of the subject. Writing the article at an eighth grade level is a good way to communicate to a large audience. It should be well researched, original, engaging and relevant. That is a VERY high bar for content to hit – but it is achievable.

AI-generated content in Google

It’s important to note right off the bat that Google is not AGAINST AI-generated copy, and you will not lose ranking JUST for using it. AI can be extremely helpful to help you come up with topics, ideas or re-writing content. The issue is that AI can only spit out what it has been given… meaning that the content it spits out is not 100% original material. So no, if you’re using AI-generated content, you are not going to lose your ranking — but you do need to keep some things in mind that WILL cause you to lose ranking.

SPAM: Black hat SEO techniques are still bad no matter who writes the content. Stuffing your content with keyphrases, cloaking, and private link networking is still bad. If your content was created to manipulate search engines, search engines will still drop your ranking. 

DUPLICATE CONTENT: Google does not “penalize” duplicate content — but there are a host of other issues duplicate content can cause. When Google finds pages with the same content, it has to decide which content is the most relevant to the user. Often, this can lead to the wrong version of your content being shown, or your content being virtually invisible. Going back to Google’s E-E-A-T, the content that will rank is the one that has the highest experience, expertise, authority and trustworthiness.

As budgets tighten and AI becomes more affordable, it’s important to understand that AI does not create unique content. AI (at this point) can only create and regurgitate content from what has already been published. Which is an important consideration for those using an external content creation company. How do you know the content that you’re paying for is unique?

Get a premium tool to identify plagiarism and non-original Ai-generated content

After you’ve finished confirming that the article you’re about to publish – follows E-E-A-T, we recommend checking for plagiarism. One of the tools we recommend is Originality.ai. This is a modern content checking solution to help identify content duplication across the web. They boast that they are currently the most accurate ai detection application on the market to date. This could be really helpful if you want to ensure that your are publishing unique content that will benefit your website ranking.

If you want to know more about SEO and how we can help with your website ranking contact us at hello@mybrotherdarryl.com

Sources:
https://www.searchenginejournal.com/google-says-ai-generated-content-is-against-guidelines/444916/
https://zenbrief.com/blog/why-content-is-king-is-no-longer-the-rule/
https://developers.google.com/search/blog/2023/02/google-search-and-ai-content
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