Since the birth of the Internet, web design has been evolving and continues to do so. Internet users today expect every single business, school, non-profit organization and club to have a website – this has kept the demand for high-quality web design high. At the same time, consumers continue to embrace mobile computing using tablets and smartphones, driving web designers to create sites that are touchscreen friendly, load quickly and can be easy viewed on a small screen.
Here are some of the top trends in web design over the past year:
Colors – Blues Rule
Blue continues to be the single most popular color among designers, thanks to the calm, professional feeling it evokes among visitors to sites. Reds, oranges and yellows have been used sparingly and the trend is to use red in websites just like it is used in home decor – as an accent color rather than the main one. White, cream and tan are also returning to favor among web designers who are developing sites that mimic the look and feel of books and magazines.
Creative Custom Typography
Thanks to online web font development tools like Typekit and Google Fonts, unique, innovative fonts are now both easily accessible and affordable. This has driven a trend towards increased creativity in online typography, with many designers experimenting with hand-made text, rugged-looking textured type and multi-type, combinations of fonts within the same copy (as is often seen in infographics). We’ve also seen more and more websites that mix and match font sizes within the body text to add interest and contrast to the copy.
The Homemade Feel
One of the most notable web designs trends has been the emergence of websites that look like a homemade scrapbook-style collage. These sites use muted colors, casual fonts and grainy textures to create an approachable, feel-good website, a design trend which has been embraced by small service-orientated businesses who want to appear friendly and informal.
Full Screen Photo Backgrounds
The trend towards photo backgrounds on websites received a boost from the recent Facebook makeover, which turned everyone’s home page into a massive photo mash-up. Web designers are embracing photo backgrounds to make strong visual statements, particularly when the focus of the site is on branding.
Infographics
Another notable web design trend is the widespread use of infographics across different industries as a way to add visual interest to a site while communicating a great deal of information quickly. Infographics appeal to the mobile Internet user, focusing on showing information to the site visitor rather than expecting them to read through lengthy, detailed copy that’s filled with facts and figures.
Focus on Touchscreen
With the explosion in popularity of web-enabled touchscreen devices like smartphones, tablets and touchscreen PC’s, web designers have responded by developing sites that are touchscreen-friendly. This has led to sites that use larger fonts and blocks of information that the user can touch to expand and navigate between pages.
Less Content
Internet users continue to demand that websites contain specific information that is free from extraneous content, driving a trend towards a reduction in the amount of actual content on a site. These minimalistic sites make it easy for visitors to quickly navigate between pages while reading as little as possible. This trend towards a reduction in website content has led to an increased focus on the artistic, creative elements of a site, pushing web designers to build pages that are both functional and attractive.
Solid Navigation Links
One of the biggest complains of website visitors is navigation links that are only located at the top or bottom of a page, forcing users to scroll back to the top to move to another page. The trend is towards placing links on websites that move as the visitor scrolls, making it easy to navigate throughout the site without needing to scroll back to the top of the page.
Less Audio
Thanks to the trend towards mobile Internet use, website visitors have made it clear that auto-launch audio on sites isn’t appealing, particularly when surfing the web at work, on a bus or in a waiting room. Web designers have taken note and dropped the inclusion of audio on many websites.
Compatibility Is Key
Today’s Internet users have come to expect that every single website can be successfully opened using any device or browser, pushing web designers to ensure pages are cross-platform compatible.
Social Media Integration
The trend towards designing websites that are integrated with social media tools continues, with users expecting to find links to their favorite social media feeds on every website they visit. Web designers have responded by ensuring that Internet users can readily like and share any page without needing to navigate away.
Thanks to the evolution of mobile computing, web designs have become cleaner, simpler and more responsive. Websites now include less information, but the information they contain is more specific and solution-focused. Internet users can continue to expect that websites will load quickly on mobile devices, contain less written content and be filled with images, info-graphics and creative fonts.