Crushing Cones Blog
Lessons Learned from 8 Years of Web Design in Toronto
- May 23, 2024
Crushing Cones has led the Toronto web design scene for over eight years, providing digital experiences for businesses across Canada. Being active and participating in the growth of Toronto, we closely observed the urban landscape and saw significant changes over time.
Today, we’ll take you on a nostalgic trip back over the past eight years as we explore key trends that have influenced web design in Toronto and how we’ve changed our approach to stay ahead of the game. In addition, we provide an in-depth analysis of our experience and predictions for the future of the web design industry. Let’s begin!
The Early Days: The Foundation of Our Expertise (2016 - 2028)
The web design scene when we launched in 2016 was filled with new trends and some established techniques. CMS platforms such as WordPress continued to gain popularity with easy to use page builders. This eliminated the need for coding knowledge when building simple websites.
During this time, we focused on bespoke websites that met the specific requirements of our clients in order to build a strong foundation of expertise. Our main priorities were clean and efficient designs that looked great and offered a superior user experience.
We discovered how important it was to understand each client’s needs and requirements. We began each project with detailed discussions to identify core goals, brand strategies and more. This was key in building long lasting relationships with our clients, many of whom we work with today.
The Rise of Responsive Design (2018 - 2020)
The growing number of smartphones and tablets has made responsive design essential. In order for websites to provide a consistent user experience across all screens and devices, they had to adapt effortlessly.
Crushing Cones welcomed this change as we developed all of our websites in a responsive manner since starting our business. Our sites looked great on desktop, but still maintained the same viewing experience on smaller devices, which was essential to appeal to Toronto’s ever-changing customer base.
The Era of User Experience (UX) Focus (2020 - 2022)
Leading agencies around the world prioritized visual appeal when designing their websites, at the cost of a lacking UX and conversion focus. We noticed an increase in demand from Toronto businesses for a more user-friendly, conversion focused design, ultimately leading to better UX optimizations. Web pages can strike a balance between being eye-catching, but also painless and easy to use. Crushing Cones specialized in the art of UX design, making sure usability testing and user research for a website would help bring out the best solution in responding to user needs and facilitate seamless navigation.
During this time, content marketing also started to gain traction as one of the important drivers of website traffic. We saw the value in this and decided to add content strategy to our web design services. We worked with clients to create informative and engaging content that resonated with the target audience and improved search engine ranking.
The Age of Emerging Technologies (2022-Present)
The past two years have brought an influx of new technologies influencing web design in Toronto: from artificial intelligence and voice search to the new dimension of VUIs such as Google Assistant, Siri and Alexa.
At Crushing Cones, we’re always on the lookout for these advancements, learning and adjusting our way of design to utilize the power of AI and voice search. This includes natural language optimization for website content and accessibility for voice-activated interfaces.
The Crushing Cones Approach: Beyond the Trends
Being up to date with trends is important, but we believe that our approach should also contain core elements that go beyond trends. We focus on:
- Understanding Client Needs: Through calls, emails and in-person meetings, we identify WHAT their website is looking to accomplish and WHO it’s for. At the same time, we begin to explore a desired look & feel for the project.
- Data-Driven Design: We use data analytics to trace website performance and user behavior. With such data, we can fine-tune how we design and develop our websites for maximum effect.
- Collaboration and Communication: Open communication with clients and within our team leads to a better results. Design iterations, transparent procedures, and active participation of clients ensure that the project is successful without issues.
- Long-Term Partnership: We believe in developing long-term partnerships with all of our clients. This allows us to better understand their business and constantly evolve their website as their needs change.
The Future of Toronto Web Design: A Glimpse Ahead
Looking ahead and anticipating new trends & technologies has been an important measure of being a leader in our industry. Here are a few upcoming trends that will influence web design in Toronto:
- Personalization: With the help of end user AI tools, sites will progress toward being more personalized to each individual user, where content and experiences are highly tailored.
- Voice Search: With AR/VR and other hands free devices entering the market, voice searches continue to grow in popularity. Optimizing websites to allow natural language interactions to easily find information will increase in importance.
- Evolving Search with AI: Copilot, Gemini and other generative AI tools are changing search behaviour and how users interact with search engines. This will put pressure on businesses and website developers to create site content that can easily be discovered and used for AI-driven recommendations.
To prepare for future shifts and new technologies, we continue to learn and upskill our team as we have in the past. This allows us to utilize these technologies in developing the latest web design solutions for our clients in Toronto and across the continent.
Conclusion
Experiences and lessons from the past eight years have helped Crushing Cones evolve into a leading web design agency in Toronto. Our focus on creativity, innovation and a continuous need to improve helps us deliver outstanding results for our clients. Reach out to us today to work with a web design partner who can truly understand your needs and help you grow online.
Written by
Narius Khambatta
