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The vast and speedy encroachment of tech innovations, such as machine learning (ML) and artificial intelligence (AI), has been the talk of the town for the past few years.
A powerful tool driving everything from content recommendations to optimized user interfaces, machine learning is a technology deeply integrated into our day-to-day product experiences.
Machine learning has already become an essential element of digital marketing, with companies increasingly relying on it for customer data analysis and improved consumer targeting. Likewise, machine learning promises ample opportunities across the digital realm, including web design.
ML can benefit the web design process by helping designers create a better and more intuitive user experience, reduce design time and costs, and ensure greater site functionality.
This article will help anyone interested in employing machine learning in web design get a better insight into the possibilities and benefits of ML integration in creating more clever and better site designs.
The Role of Machine Learning in Web Design
As you probably already know, machine learning refers to the practice of developing computer systems to learn and act like humans.
ML’s focus is on creating computers that work without obeying explicit instructions by emulating human intelligence through real-world knowledge, thus continually enhancing its understanding and capabilities.
Machine learning aims to improve task performance – the computer executes functions more accurately and faster, thus processing large amounts of information with minimal human involvement.
In web design, machine learning assists in closely observing and assessing user needs, behaviors, and preferences. Basically, ML’s learning algorithms analyze vast amounts of data on how users interact with existing web products and pinpoint aspects of design that yield the best results.
The Benefits of Machine Learning in Web Design
Although ML has taken many aspects of the web by storm, some web designers and agencies are still hesitant about integrating machine learning technologies into their design processes.
However, designers should get acquainted with the key advantages and test out different ways of implementing machine learning practices into their design projects – otherwise, they risk being outstripped once ML grows into a typical component of web design.
In the following section, we outline the main reasons why machine learning can help create the perfect web design.
Machine Learning Helps Create an Excellent User Experience
Web design is all about crafting a valuable site UX that attracts, engages, and converts customers.
Unfortunately for designers and business owners alike, there isn’t a one-size-fits-all solution for what makes a great UX. In general, websites should be fast to load, have intuitive navigation, and easily-accessible information, in a design that doesn’t strain the eyes.
So, designers know what they should achieve – but not how. And this is exactly where machine learning can help.
ML technologies can improve the website user experience by providing means to analyze a myriad of data points and draw actionable steps. Moreover, machine learning can ease and automate certain design tasks, such as A/B testing specific design elements.
Machine Learning Allows Designers to be Creative
Sadly, much of the designers’ work is dull and repetitive. Designing identical design templates for site pages, tweaking the positions of site layout elements, and testing different button colors take up much more time than envisioning the overall website design.
Yet, thanks to machine learning, designers can now focus on truly creative tasks and leave the tedious ones to algorithms.
In addition, machine learning can automate wireframe design, thus speeding up the repetitive process of creating initial site layouts.
Machine Learning Ensures a Consistent Brand Image
A brand consists of various visual and textual elements, such as a logo, fonts, colors, messages, media, etc. All these work together to create a unified brand story; thus, their consistency throughout your digital channels and across marketing activities is key to establishing a trusted and recognizable brand.
Maintaining a consistent brand image is, however, challenging – especially in enterprises with numerous sectors and dozens of employees or businesses with large websites operable in various markets and languages.
Luckily, machine learning can be helpful here too – it can be used to create a consistent experience for website visitors. For instance, ML technologies can simulate distinct user experiences across different devices and browsers, thus ensuring site responsiveness.
Machine Learning Boosts SEO and Advertising Efforts
Great web design, unfortunately, isn’t enough to get you top search results positions for all the keywords you target.
To boost visibility and profits, companies commonly engage in digital marketing activities, such as search engine optimization and paid advertising (on social media and search engines).
Digital marketing is inseparable from web design – good design can help a website organically rank higher in search results and improve web traffic, and boost the ROI of paid advertising campaigns.
A well-designed website is optimized for mobiles, loads quickly, has quality content and beneficial backlinks, represents a great starting point for both SEO and paid ads, promising maximum marketing results.
Yet, anyone who manages PPC ads or does SEO knows there isn’t a universal approach to digital marketing. For instance, the design of a single landing page that would be targeted in SEO/PPC activities can take months to perfect, and even after substantial testing, the campaign may fail.
Machine learning can help create a performance-driven web design that guides and encourages visitors to take action.
Through automated A/B testing of landing page designs, analysis of keyword data, and identification of quality link-building opportunities, ML technologies can significantly improve the performance of a site’s design.
Final Thoughts
While web design is still far from being largely driven by the practices and possibilities of machine learning, ML’s role in creating powerful designs that attract and convert customers is undeniably growing.
Machine learning is the ideal solution for automating repetitive tasks and handling immense amounts of data, simultaneously allowing web designers to focus on more creative tasks.
If these benefits got you wondering about the possibilities of implementing machine learning into your website project, we recommend you reach out to some of the top-rated Chicago web design companies and discuss the ML-powered web solution that will meet the needs of your business, industry, and clients.
