2024 Association Chapter Web Design Trends
Updated: Jan. 8, 2024 | Categories: Website, Inconsistent Branding
Your association chapter members -- along with all the other audiences you’re trying to attract to your association chapter website, like perspective members, sponsors, vendors, etc. -- want to be excited when they land on your association chapter website.
Ok, maybe they don’t want or need to be excited, but they should at least get to your association chapter website and like what they see enough to continue checking it out, right?
It’s your job to make information easy to find on your association chapter website. But you also want to make the site engaging enough visually, but not overwhelming, so that they stick around and come back looking for more. If your site is stale, or feels ugly or out of date, they won’t see much value in being there and may not bother to look around.
Your association chapter website design plays as much of a role in audience engagement as your content does. Being aware of website trends and incorporating some of them where it makes sense can help your site, and your association chapter, have the right impact on those different groups, for an impact that will go far beyond the website itself.
When was the last time you spent more than just a few minutes thinking about your association chapter website design? The end of 2023 and the beginning of 2024 is a perfect time to review the design of your site and make some needed design adjustments.
Here are five trends that are already showing themselves in association chapter web designs at the end of 2023 and show no signs of going away. These trends include visual elements that are making a bit of comeback and the use of text instead of, or in addition to, graphics.
5 2024 Association Chapter Web Design Trends
Overlapping text. This website design trend overlays text over graphics and pictures. It may seem like you’re creating a bit of chaos by doing this, but when overlapping text is used correctly, it makes a positive statement and makes an association chapter’s site, and its content, stand out. One of our customers, the Project Management Institute, Dallas, uses overlapping text in some of its hero images to highlight upcoming association chapter event information.
Typographic designs. Some association chapters are choosing to skip the flash, big images and bright graphics and go back to more of an old school look, just by using fonts, like our customer customer SMPS Philadelphia. This idea of “going back to basics” works well for SMPS Philadelphia, through their use of large text at the top of their home page, with just a single image at the bottom of the page to balance it out.
Large typographic hero images. Hero images are “classic web design,” with a single powerful image at the top of the page. Large typographic hero images update this timeless design by using oversized type in the hero in place of an image for impact. Images aren’t always needed to attract attention in a hero, sometimes single-color typography in a unique font can be just what you need. The Orange County chapter of the Public Relations Society of America (OCPRSA) is a good example, with large type in their hero and at the top of their home page. Newspapers always put their most eye-catching, important information “above the fold” to increase sales. Consider doing the same in your hero.
Social proof. Your members trust your organization and the information they find on your association chapter website. Adding social proof, through statistics, testimonials, case studies and other easy-to-see credible information is a great way to continue to build and maintain that trust, on your home page and other pages of your site. The Chicago chapter of Professional Women in Construction does that on their home page, with a member testimonial on the bottom of their home page.
Dark mode. Give your association chapter website a modern look while also highlighting different parts of the site by using dark colors for certain elements and sections of the website. Dark mode can also help reduce eye strain, which is great for those of us who spend a lot of time looking at screens. The American Culinary Federation of Rochester uses this trend in a few places on their site, including in their hero and their navigation.
Whatever 2024 design trends you decide to implement on your association chapter website, be sure to keep mobile responsiveness in mind, as many of your website visitors will be looking at your site on their phone or tablet. Keep your website relevant with your design as well as your content, and visitors will keep coming back for more.
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