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If you want to survive as a web designer in the next five years, you can't keep playing by the old rules.
Discover 5 new rules to thrive in web design, focusing on uniqueness, ecosystem thinking, and authentic proof to stand out in a changing digital world.
Key Takeaways
- Web designers must embrace new rules to avoid being left behind in a rapidly evolving landscape.
- Creating highly personalized, niche-focused websites is essential to differentiate from AI-generated generic sites.
- Websites are just one part of a broader brand ecosystem that includes social media and influencer marketing.
- Authentic, verifiable proof is crucial to build trust with increasingly skeptical users.
- Designers who act as strategic consultants rather than just builders will command higher value.
Summary
- Traditional web design rules are outdated; designers must adapt to rapid changes driven by AI and evolving user expectations.
- Rule 1: Stand out by creating unique, personality-driven websites that attract the ideal client and repel the wrong audience.
- Rule 2: Understand that a website is part of a larger brand ecosystem including social media, influencer marketing, and multiple touchpoints.
- Rule 3: Build trust with raw, authentic proof such as voice recordings, videos, or third-party reviews rather than generic testimonials.
- Websites must evoke strong emotional reactions quickly to signal they are the right fit for the visitor.
- Design decisions should be deeply informed by the ideal customer avatar, including their preferences, dislikes, and lifestyle.
- The internet is becoming homogenized due to AI-generated sites lacking design intuition, making uniqueness critical.
- Designers should position themselves as consultants who understand brand strategy, not just creators of websites.
- User skepticism is at an all-time high, requiring transparent and credible evidence to back claims made on websites.
- Successful web design now requires integrating with broader digital marketing strategies, not just building standalone sites.
Full Transcript — Download SRT & Markdown
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Everything is changed and will likely completely change again just like that.
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So if you're using an old playbook or even one that worked maybe just a few years ago to build websites, you're going to get left behind.
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So here are five new rules that you've got to know if you want to make it through the next big shift in web design.
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And guess what, using these rules will put you ahead of about 90% of the websites on the internet right now.
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And the first rule is how you actually stand out.
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The ability to make a passable website is getting easier and easier.
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You used to need some design skills, maybe a little bit of coding knowledge.
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But now all you need is an AI subscription and a business idea.
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And that sounds awesome, but you know what it really means, right?
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The blanding of the internet is happening right in front of our eyes.
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Because people using the AI don't have any design intuition.
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So one website looks like another website, looks like their competitor's website.
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So the question is no longer, does my website look decent?
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It's, does my website look like everyone else's?
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And this is where rule number one comes in, which I'm calling, make your own kind of music.
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You know the song reference, right?
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Make your own kind of music.
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Sing your own kind of song.
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Okay, sorry, I had to do it.
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I did music before I did websites, all right.
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You can't be afraid to lean into what makes a business unique.
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So dial up the personality, make websites that couldn't be owned by any other business.
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But here's the thing, this isn't about minimalism versus maximalism.
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Or even one design style versus another.
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This is all about figuring out exactly who the ideal customer is.
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And then going all in on that one person.
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Every design decision that you make should do two things at once.
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First, it should pull the right client in really hard.
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And at the same time, it should completely repel the wrong customer.
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And you can't do that if you're just playing it safe.
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If your site doesn't repel someone within five seconds of them landing on a page, the dial isn't turned up enough.
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So get obsessed with the business's user persona or what in marketing is sometimes called an ideal customer avatar.
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What do they like?
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What do they dislike?
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How old are they?
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Where do they shop?
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What brands do they absolutely love?
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So figure out the answers to those questions and and when you find them, dial up the intersection between the business's personality and the user's world.
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Let me give you an example to help this really kind of sink in.
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So instantly when I see this site, without even reading a single word on the page.
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I know that it was made for a specific person.
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And based on the really dark color palette and and the simplified layout.
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That person probably takes themselves and what they do very seriously.
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In contrast, like I'm not seeing a lot of creative colors and a lot of graphic design and hand-drawn elements.
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And these rocks are signaling things like strength and stability.
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And that's probably something that's really important for someone who values order and confidence.
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And I can only imagine that that's something that's really important to a financial advisor.
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What about you?
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When you looked at this website, you probably had an instant gut reaction of either, oh, this is cool.
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Or, you know, I don't like that.
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That's exactly what you want within seconds, somebody knows that they landed on the right page.
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Now let's look at another example.
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The second I look at this website, I have absolutely no gut reaction, right?
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Because I've seen this website a hundred times or more.
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I mean, like, it's, it's fine, right?
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But it could literally be for anyone.
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What's really funny is that this site looks almost exactly like what other AI building platforms built for a competition.
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I did between me and four other popular AI builders.
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I'll leave a link in the description if you want to check out that video.
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But in the new rules of web design, you have to pick a side.
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So build sites that make someone feel something.
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Even if that something is, hey, this isn't for me.
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After teaching thousands of web designers over the last few years.
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Here's something that I found most just completely miss altogether.
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The website is a very small part of a much bigger picture.
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Think about how people actually make buying decisions.
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They don't just land on a URL and hand over their credit card.
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They might find someone through a Google search and then they'll go to their Instagram account, maybe check out a video on YouTube, maybe read a thread on Reddit.
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And then after all that, maybe they hit their website.
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The website is just one stop in a real big journey.
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And this is only increasing.
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Studies show that 82.4% of Gen Z discovers new products through influencer marketing.
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Not Google, not a website, an influencer.
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So if your client's entire strategy is just, build me a website and the customers will magically come.
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They are already behind.
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And if you as the designer just kind of nod and start figm-ing away without saying anything about it.
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Then you're leaving them behind too.
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That's why rule number two is so important.
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You're not just building a website, you're building a world.
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Now, this doesn't mean that you have to become a social media manager.
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Or a full stack digital marketing agency overnight.
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But you do have to understand how it's all connected.
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Because the second you walk into a client meeting and say, here's how your website fits into the bigger picture of your brand's ecosystem.
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You stop being the person who makes websites and you start becoming a consultant.
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And consultants make way more money than pixel pushers.
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But here's the thing, even if you build the perfect ecosystem for your client.
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It doesn't matter if people don't believe what they're seeing.
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The the world is in a really deep trust recession.
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But people are more skeptical than they ever have been.
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If a business makes a claim, like, we're awesome.
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They better have proof to be able to back it up.
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And in the past, you'd be able to have someone give you a testimony.
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And you throw it up on your website and that would be enough.
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Now, users question everything that they see online.
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How do they know that that person actually said that?
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Could you have just made this up?
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Is this even a real person?
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So number three and the new rules of web design is that you have to give people raw proof that what you're saying is actually true.
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So things like voice recordings or even low-fi videos.
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Something somebody recorded on a phone.
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Trumps written statements every single time.
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Or even using a third-party system like Clutch or or Google reviews is going to trump everything else because it's the source the business doesn't control.
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But if you can't get any of that from your client, then try to be as specific as you possibly can be in the testimonies and the claims that you're making.
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Real general statements like, we helped this business grow.
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Don't help nearly as much as something like, this business's income grew by 21% after we launched their new website.
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And if you're doing something visual, like us web designers.
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Or even a business like landscapers.
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The proof is in the pudding.
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Don't just tell people that you're great.
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Show them what you've done, tell them a little about your process.
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Give them a sneak peek behind the scenes as much information as you possibly can before you ask them to make a decision.
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That's going to help any skeptic feel a lot more at ease.
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Users have brand new expectation.
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That's why there's completely different rules.
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And that's not just about how to get a user to trust what you're saying.
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It also has to do with design details.
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Think about where people are spending 90% of their time online.
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It's not on you or your client's websites, it's on places like Netflix or Spotify or apps like TikTok.
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And these companies have spent billions of dollars dialing in every single pixel down to the smallest components.
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So if you want your designs to even be taken seriously, you've got to follow rule number four.
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Stop designing by feel.
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Every visual decision that you make is communicating something to the user's brain.
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Bigger things feel more important.
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Elements that are closer together feel as if they're connected.
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So if you adjust font sizes and element placement by what feels right, then what you're really trying to communicate gets drowned out.
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So make sure that everything that you're doing is done with complete intention.
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And that starts with two things.
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First, your fonts should scale up and down in a way that isn't random.
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A tool that makes this really easy to do is a Figma plugin called Type Scales.
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And with it, you can choose from some really popular scaling systems fairly quickly and easily.
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I always like starting with the golden ratio and that's only because it gives me bigger options on the top end.
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But choose whatever you want, then click generate and it's going to do all the math for you.
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With the REM sizes and the pixel sizes, so they've just made it super simple to get this implemented on any project that you're working on.
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But whatever system that you pick to scale up and down, doesn't matter nearly as much as just actually sticking to something and not making random sizes.
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Another thing that you want to be really intentional with is making sure that all of the spacing between elements is completely uniform.
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So pick a base unit like maybe four pixels or eight pixels.
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And and make every single gap on your site a multiple of these numbers.
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We want visitors to be able to easily move through the site without having to bounce their eyes in unexpected ways.
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From one thing back to another, back to another way, all the way back to another headline.
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They might not consciously notice that, but your brain registers inconsistency as noise.
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And so this is a huge design element.
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But in all of this, know that a system isn't a prison, right?
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It's just the foundation that makes your creative decisions actually stand out more.
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After all is said and done, the reality is that AI has completely changed the way that we design and build websites.
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And it's going to keep happening.
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But so far, most people are using AI in the exact same way, right?
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And that leads exactly to the generic AI slop that people are already hating.
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That's why rule number five is so important.
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You've got to use AI in a way that only you can use it.
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You can do some amazing things with AI.
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And honestly, you should be doing them already.
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You can use it to create 3D shapes without having to open up a tool like Blender.
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Which I can tell you from experience is really tough to figure out.
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Or you can use it to take the limited photos that a client gives you and make a complete photo shoot for their website.
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And listen, I get that I just told you that AI is blandifying the internet.
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But there's a big difference between letting AI do all of your thinking for you.
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And using it as a tool.
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So use it, just don't delegate your brain to it, right?
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Bring all of your experience, your perspective, your unique style.
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And then use AI to develop all of those ideas even further.
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Some of my favorite tools for this are Kittl for design and Relume for site maps.
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I actually had a client recently that thanked me for all the hard work I'd done on our kickoff call.
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But the truth was, I just used Relume to generate a site map and a real basic brand guide.
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That helped me get to a starting point to get feedback from my client that I could go on to develop even further.
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Made the whole process a lot faster and a lot easier on me.
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But I didn't just leave it there, I I developed the ideas, I expanded them, I refined them a little bit.
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AI has set a new floor for the entire industry, good enough is now free and instant.
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So if you're just using AI to do all your work, you're actually going to be competing with a button.
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So bring all of your personality, all all of your unique quirks.
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The things that make you you to what you're doing.
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And then let AI help you do things that you wouldn't have without it.
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So take these new rules, implement them into every project that you're working on.
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But the picture is still kind of incomplete.
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The the truth is, is there's a lot more to building a website.
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More than design, more than testimonials, there's SEO, digital marketing, user testing.
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That's why I made this video.
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And in it, I cover absolutely everything that you need to do to become a web designer who is unstoppable.
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Thanks for watching and be sure to like and subscribe.
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And don't forget, if you don't quit, you win.
Topics:web designAI in web designdigital marketingbrandinguser experiencecustomer avatarwebsite trustinfluencer marketingweb design trendsconsulting
