Do you remember the last time you waited for the bus, without scrolling through your Instagram feed, or doing some sneaky Tinder swiping at the same time? Whether or not you’re a fan of the T, the chances are, you don’t often find yourself doing just one single thing at a time. Our lives seem to be getting busier and busier, as we simultaneously juggle multiple activities, conversations, and screens. Arguably, this contributes to our generation’s patience levels not being what they used to be, and as a result, our attention spans are going down the drain.

But before this takes too much of a dark turn, let’s think of the positives: this new situation means that designers are facing new and exciting challenges, leading to high levels of creativity in the world of web design. Having to compete with so many other things that our site visitors could be doing while browsing our websites means that we have to, more than ever, design in a way that will captivate our audience and attract their attention. While there isn’t one simple definitive way to do this, here are some insights into the direction web design should be going in this era of short attention spans:

Incorporate movement and interaction

In order to compete with the overload of information constantly bombarding our current audience, you need to stimulate them. That’s why static screens don’t really make the cut anymore. Using interaction in web design is a great way of engaging your audience and grabbing their attention, especially as our eyes are automatically drawn to movement. However, be careful of overdoing it, as too much movement can end up distracting your visitors and having the opposite outcome that you were going for. There are multiple ways to use motion effectively, from integrating animations, to creating addictive scrolling experiences with