Some web
design trends have been gaining popularity for several years, others are more
recent. If you are an experienced online marketer or professional designer, keeping
on top of the latest web design trends.
Responsive Design
Responsive design is less of a “trend” and more of an
increasingly effective response to the variety of Internet capable devices in
use today. Users no longer view the web solely from their desktop computers.
Smartphones, tablets, laptops, retina displays, and televisions are used every
day to access the Internet, and each device has a different screen size and
should be considered in a different context. Responsive design enables a single
website to scale and change based on the device it is accessed from — without
creating multiple, separate sites.
Responsive design is more of a functional aspect of design,
rather than a visual trend. However, the increasing shift towards responsive
design has had an impact on other visual design trends, making it an important
aspect of design to consider in this list.
Content Focused Sites
There is a strong link between a greater focus on content
and the increase use of responsive sites. It’s difficult to execute one well
without the other. Many responsive sites establish “break points” based on site
content, and content focused sites often rely on responsive design to clearly
deliver content to a user based on the device they are using. We are seeing
more designers focus on the “function” of design before the “fashion,” and I
expect we will see more of this as designers and developers determine how to
provide the best web experience for users.
More Custom
Typography
Typography has been a growing trend in web design for
several years. Smashing Magazine published an article in 2012 claiming
“Typography is the Foundation of Web Design.” Despite the importance of type in
web design, early attempts at custom typography were made difficult by browser
compatibility. Thankfully, web browsers have come a long way in recent years
and services like Google Fonts make it easier than ever to use beautiful,
custom typography in web design.
Simple, Flat Design
I already mentioned that the functionality of responsive
design has had an impact on the appearance of sites. One of the more prominent
examples of this is the growing popularity of simple, “flat” designs. This
trending design style isn’t entirely the result of responsive functionality.
But the two are very compatible.
Simple,
flat designs tend to use fewer colors and avoid textures, gradients, and
shadows. The Apple iOS 7 redesign is a good example of simpler, flat
design. Microsoft’s Metro UI design also utilizes a simple, flat layout. As the
web becomes responsively focused on content, sites are opting for simpler
designs with flat design elements.
Single Page,
Scrolling Sites
This is another trend that has been growing in popularity
for several years. A popular idea with early web designers was “designing above
the fold.” “The Fold” is originally a term referring to newspapers, which
featured important content on the top half of the folded paper to entice
readers to keep reading. Early web designers borrowed this concept and were
worried that content placed too far down the page would seldom be accessed by
site visitors. While “the fold” is still a debated topic among designers, the
popularity and success of single-page designs seem to lend to the notion that
“designing above the fold” is no longer necessary. One benefit of single page
sites is that visitors can expect to find everything they are looking for on
one page.
Video Usage
Increasing broadband Internet speeds and new web
technologies like HTML5 video have lead to an increase in online video use.
Product videos, video storytelling, and even video backgrounds have all become
popular with web designers.
Larger Design
Elements
As designers simplify designs and focus more on content,
important site elements are getting larger. Large typography, photography,
video content, and illustrations have all been growing trends in recent years.
I would combine these trends to say design elements are getting larger as a
whole. This helps designers utilize screen real estate on large displays, and
increase usability on small displays.
SVG and Other Vector
Images
Scalable Vector Graphics (SVGs) and other vector images
provide designers with a way to address the need for web scalability. While
responsive design allows designers to create websites that scale based on a
user’s device, scaling images can be much more difficult. Designers need images
that are large enough to look good on large displays, but don’t want to
sacrifice load times for visitors accessing a site via a mobile device. Vector
images offer a much-needed solution as they are small in size and can scale
without any decrease in quality.
This is a trend that might be hard to spot unless you view a
website’s source code. It’s essentially the same as being able to tell if a
site is using a .JPG or .PNG image just from looking at it. Unfortunately,
vector images don’t provide scalability for photographs. I suspect as the need
for a responsive web increases, we will see a greater use of vector images and
may begin to see scalable solutions for photographs as well.
Other Trends
Web design is continually changing. I’ve already listed the
trends that I think are the most important and will have the greatest impact on
web design as a whole. Other trends that are worth noting include fixed
navigation, swipe navigation, long shadow design elements, improved parallax
support, and CSS3 animation. Remember, when dealing with design trends, what
works is more important than what looks good at the moment. Consider what will
provide the best experience for a visitor to your site before using a design
technique simply because it is trendy.
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