In the New Year, web design has to take a turn. As websites are now, they all look pretty much the same way. Tiles, actions calls, banners, drop down menus…Twenty sixteen is going to break away from that mold in order to create unique and well-thought out websites, specifically designed for it´s target users.
This breakaway into a more unique user experiences isn’t the only trend that will come out of 2016. The following are some additional ones you need to know now to prepare yourself.
Custom Drawings
Hand drawn Illustrations tell a story, and while they haven’t had much of a place in web design yet, they will in the New Year. Artists will be busy creating custom drawings for website developers to help users understand what sites are offering within just a couple of seconds of landing on the page.
Typefaces
You can never have too many fonts. Google gave us the first library of free fonts, but the New Year will bring even more options to website developers. With different styles, weights, families and more, it won’t be difficult to find the perfect font for any website. Finding your perfect company font will be an important part of design and branding.
Moving Pictures
Web users love crazy pictures that move – cinemographs. They came out in 2011, but people really started paying attention to them in 2015, and the reaction has been phenomenal. In the New Year, more of these images will surface and designers will find ways to make them even more lifelike. The best thing about these moving pictures is they don’t suck up as much mobile bandwidth like videos can.
Website Stories
Under Armour became one of the most sucessful sport brands this decade by making sports visually exhilarating ie: http://slayyournextgiant.com
They tell stories to sell their products and consumers love it. Since most people have a high-speed Internet connection, there’s no problem in viewing the story. Consumers become personally involved and begin to relate more with the brand. The more interactive the site is the more engaged they remain. And these are consumers of all ages.
Semi-Flat Design
Flat design was desired for a long time, but now, people prefer semi-flat design. Windows came out with it, and now users expect it from their websites. Introducing semi-flat design to sites can bring a modern, trendy feel to them that users will embrace.
Parallax
Parallax is an advanced web design trick that gives a page depth. The background of the site moves at a different speed than the rest of it. This creates layers that appear as animations on the website, and it allows pages to hold more content. This is mostly used on the main homepage of a website and sers enjoy the sophistication of this design.
More Lazy Loading
Images are important to people, but as you know, it takes a while for image rich pages to load. Lazy loading will allow users to experience the page before it has loaded completely. This boosts use experience, which can increase conversions.
It’s going to be a huge year for web design. All of these trends will surely make the web better than it’s ever been. However, these trends didn´t just happen because they’re “hip” and have the cool factor in them. These trends represent popular mechanics for good reasons, but should never be overused. For example, an e-commerce site, they may require a complete different set of alternatives.
Happy 2016 everyone!
