Web design Trends

Website design takes its lead from a variety of disciplines including psychology, business, marketing and ergonomics. With such a wide range of areas to draw expertise from, it is no wonder that web design is an ever changing, ever evolving creature. So far 2016 really has been the dawn of the simple, un-cluttered web space, where the clinical features of the advertising and marketing industries have really made their mark on the the face of web sites world wide. Here are some of the trends in web design explained.

Responsive Design

It’s the age of the mobile device. Each platform has massive browser capabilities and each device has a screen size and resolution that may be different from others. There is no common market for designing websites based on the appearance on one device, so thankfully there is no need for hosting five different websites based on different screen sizes and resolutions. Instead, many web developers choose a responsive design that allows the web page to adapt to any screen size, while still maintaining quality.

Animations

Yes, web designers still use animations to bring their web pages to life. I know you may be shocked to hear this, but hover animations, load screen animation and longform sideshows still class as animations, and are widely used. The trends have moved away from the random and distracting animations we used to see on web pages. Animation has grown up.

Interactions

Keeping consumers on your web page is no easy feat, and as a result web-designers are aiming to keep the user occupied as much as possible (without irritating them of course). Interactions, and micro-interactions are about keeping the user interacting with the web-page; liking, sharing, or in the case of the new(ish) Facebook reactions, reacting to the web page. This makes it more engaging for the user and again, similar to the use of the animations, helps to keep the web page vibrant and life filled.

Look Alikes

With website design taking a turn for the smooth, simple, elegant and professional it is no wonder that so many websites are starting to look alike. Similar navigation bars, page layouts, colour themes etc, are making it more difficult for individual websites to stand out from the crowd while also meeting the user needs, after all, every web designer wants the user to feel confident and familiar.