The World Wide Web which is now over 25 years old has been through a roller coaster ride over the years. With many new features being introduced on a daily basis, the web has developed leaps and bounds enabling people to manage businesses and even their lifestyles with a click of a button. The recent past has also seen a huge growth in the web designing industry while it has come to a certain point where website and app owners are focusing on the design first and the content later. The strong belief of a picture is worth a thousand words is here to stay while customers are lured to websites and mobile apps by unique and creative designs that have managed to catch their eye.
When it comes to web design, if you are a serious designer or developer, you might have noticed that some trends that manage to make an impact stick around for sometime while others are seen fading away quickly. Here, we try to focus on some of the designs that have been predicted to make an impact on the web designing industry in 2015.
Bolder and more flexible Typography
It is well known to all designers out there that typography on the web is quite different from that of print media. 2015 will hopefully see a trend of bigger and bolder fonts which is leagues away from the old fashioned tiny squeezed together text designs. The readability of the site is affected by aspects such as the size of the font, column width and the line height. According to research, larger text sizes are conducive to convenient reading on the web.
Responsive Web Design
2015 will also see an increase of individuals using mobiles for browsing purposes rather than traditional computers. Since the evolution of tech gadgets have grown tremendously, people are always on the go with their mobile devices while it is a necessity to be able access websites from the device. If it is not accessible on the mobile, chances are that the individual is not coming back to it. This is where Responsive Design comes in. As a developer or designer, you should have a similar mindset to a customer. This technology detects the screen size of the device that the customer uses and automatically adjusts to best fit the screen. Responsive web design offers the best user experience possible regardless of the device and screen size.
The Comeback of the Flat Design
This trend has been seen in some of the main contenders of the industry such as Google, Microsoft and Apple. Some developers have come to argue about some minor issues in flat design when it comes to User Interfaces but in general, it has proven to be a favourable design technique. Flat designs consist of minimalist principles and in turn offer sites that are clutter free, lean, fast and content focused. 2015 will clearly see a flat design since customers are keen on less clutter and faster web designs. This design is known to be very practical allowing guests to browse through the site without much distraction.
Bigger Images will make an Impact
Clearly it will not only be the text that comes out bolder. Images will be seen in a bigger and better way. There was a time that images were somewhat limited due to the bandwidth issues. But with time and the emergence of advanced technology, adding images have become a lesser problem. The coming year will make images grab attention in a lot of interesting and new ways which includes being used for optimizing images, responsive resizing and also extracting all dominant colours from the background so that texts can be highlighted. Background images will comeback with blur and colour filter overlays without clouding texts.
Background Videos
Website backgrounds will not only contain images but also videos. It will not be unwanted promotional videos but videos using HTML5 which would easily run in the background of any web page. As technology has improved in the past few years and keeps on improving day by day, there are many methods that you can embed videos in HTML pages. Some of the major brands have tried this while unconventional ideas should always be disregarded.
Get Creative with Ghost Buttons
These have become prominent designs since they offer users minimal yet stylish animation that is easy to use. Experts say that this trend will continue in 2015 since it pairs well with large background images and videos.
Scrolling over Clicking
With the ever changing development of the World Wide Web, we see a lot of changes coming our way. We can see a rise of mobile web while it is always adapted to offer users effective and enjoyable mobile experiences. The trend of scrolling will continue to dominate the trend of clicking. This is easier for users and it also cuts down the loading times in turn offering a simpler interaction with the site.
Microinteractions will Trend
A microinteraction is a moment of a certain experience within a product or a certain element on a website that revolves around a single use case. A simple example for a microinteraction would be an email sign up box that pops up in websites. It gives a simple graphic and in turn offers user interaction with the website. The coming year would see more unique plugins that offers guests more than an email signup.
Card Designs will get better
This has been proven without a doubt as a great tool for designers to work on responsive websites. Cards are a fine way to keep things simple, while you can rearrange columns without disorganizing things. Users are able to browse general data without a hassle.
Elegant Themes
Themes are a great way to narrate a story and explain what you offer to a user. Themes which are made of various concepts are the ideal way to offer users a friendly user experience. You can experiment with various elements and promote your brand conveniently. 2015 will see well and improved themes.
Here are a few sites that display some of the above mentioned pointers perfectly.
- Apple Inc
- Divi
- Tesla
- Fitrocracy
- Imgur
- Supercook
What are the greatest and most unique websites that you have come across? Share your experiences with us today.