What’s “in” is constantly changing. One day, all the cool kids have their hair cut like Scrillex and the next they look like they wandered out of 1920’s barber shop. This doesn’t just apply to hairdos. Web design trends change just as rapidly as high or low fashion. When it comes to staying competitive with your website, it’s important to keep up on what’s in style when it comes to web design. Here’s a look at some of the current trends that will be sticking around, at least for a little while.
Responsive design is going to be lasting. It’s not a superficial matter of preference, but a method of design that is focused on providing the best possible viewing experience. Responsive design focuses on making a website just as easy to view from a home computer, laptop, notepad, or a smartphone. Sites should be easy to navigate without tons of scrolling or zooming. Responsive design is basically design that makes sense for a world that’s on the go.
Booming backgrounds are in style. Big, striking images that are beautiful to look at are becoming more and more common. Backgrounds are stepping out of the shadows and becoming the focal point.
Flat design has been big for a while, but the next big thing could be Google’s material design, which will combine, “classic principle of good design with the innovation and possibility of technology and science”. It’s a very visual and simplistic style, making use of shape, color, and large typography. Material design hints at the physical world by digital means, “material is the metaphor”. The design is governed by physics, and emphasizes motion and user actions.
Front load the typography. In the past, if you wanted elegant or sophisticated fonts for your website, you had to pay more for it. However, typefaces are becoming more accessible. From free options like Google fonts to cheap subscriptions like Typekit, there are now plenty of ways to get good and affordable typefaces, so prepare yourself for fancy fonts galore.
Many websites are looking to make scrolling cool again. Instead of clicking links and tabs, the most important pages can be accessed by scrolling. This fits in with making websites easier to view from mobile devices. We’ve been stacking our sites for a few years now, but we still find that most people don’t scroll to the bottom of the homepage — just inner pages, once they’ve committed. Maybe 2015 is the year when this will change.
These trends will be around over the course of the next year or so, but who knows exactly how long? Responsive design will stick around, just because it makes sense; however, big background images might just be the flavor of the month. Just as with haircuts, styles come and go, but some things stick around.
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