2014 saw some great new trends emerging in web design & this has laid the foundation for the year to come. As the range of devices we view websites on continues to grow in popularity & size, the need is to produce innovative new designs to take advantage of an ever-changing market place.
Here are our 10 predictions for the coming year:
1. Responsive for all
Over the last year or two, responsive design has risen from nowhere to be the new standard in web design. With more & more people viewing websites on mobile devices, websites need to respond to (& work on) the screen they’re being viewed on.
2. Staying flat
Thanks to the combination of Apple’s iOS, Microsoft’s revamped Windows, & Google’s Material Design guidelines, flat design is here to stay. The minimalist treatment helps to de-clutter designs, making them leaner & slicker, allowing users to focus on the content, rather than picking through “pretty graphics”.
3. Full screen images & videos
Increased broadband speeds & modern browsers are allowing larger images & videos to load quicker than ever before, immersing users in a richer web experience.
4. Ghost buttons
You wouldn’t want to ruin your nice full screen images with a solid coloured button, happily minimal “ghost buttons” allow your images to look at their best by simply having a white outline, they’re usually accompanied by a stylish rollover effect to complete the look.
5. Bigger & better typography
Long gone are the days of tiny, basic fonts. Modern browsers render typography better & thanks to webfont libraries we’re now able to use almost any font online, so the typography on your website can look as good as your brochure.
6. Hamburgers
Not the cheese ones, the three horizontal lines you’ve started seeing everywhere when browsing on your phone. The expandable menu graphic has finally gained enough traction, so people know what it is & aren’t afraid to click it anymore. “Burgers” are here to stay.
7. SVG’s
Scalable Vector Graphics are now being supported by all browsers (except IE <9 & Android v3) which means we can embrace high quality “retina” graphics & finally say “bye, bye” to horrible pixelated ones.
8. Less clicking, more scrolling
Lets face facts, scrolling through webpages is far quicker, & on the right site nicer than clicking. Thanks to touch technology a scrolling page offers a fluid experience, with the advantage of getting a lot more information in one place, instead of scattered on separate pages.
9. Pinned navigation
Gone are the days where as soon as you scroll down the page the navigation finishes out of sight, you look around the page panicked & lost, wondering how on earth you got there in the first place & how you’re going to get to a new page. Elements pinned to the top (& occasionally the bottom) mean you can always access the whole site with ease.
10. Subtle animation
Just because we can animate something doesn’t mean we should. The last thing your clients want to see is 200 bouncing icons on the screen all shouting for attention. Keeping things subtle is the way to go in 2015.
