Upcoming Web Design Trends For 2016
Web design is a constantly changing industry, and you need to keep aware of the latest trends if you want to stay relevant and appear modern. Websites with outdated design practices will feel old-school to a user, making them question the credibility of your business.
1. Intuitiveness. With artificial intelligence and automated systems playing an increasingly large part in website structure, it has sparked a design movement to make websites feel more personalised and intuitive. You might not use an AI system like Google’s on your website, but you may have intelligent and predictive booking forms, purchase pages or quotes – a big trend for 2016 will be making these automatic services into a warmer and more personalised experience.
2. Go bold. In recent years, web-safe colours have been preferred and many websites use muted colours to create a tasteful, inoffensive palette. However, this means there is a glut of blues, pale toned and white-orientated websites around, so if you’re looking to give your site more visual impact then go with brighter, more saturated and unexpected colour combinations.
3. Flat design. Kicked off by new designs in Windows 8 and iOS7, the trend of flat design (simple shapes, minimal shading, no drop shadows, no 3D effects) is set to continue. Aside from looking fresh, sleek and modern, they’re also easier to design and to update an existing design. Flat design suits a huge range of websites, and is a fast and easy way to modernise an older site.
4. Freehand illustration. Personalised and hand-drawn illustration can be an investment for your website, but the effect is immediate – a wow factor, and a major distinction for your website. It won’t suit every business, but where appropriate it can enhance the visual appeal.
5. Interactive elements. Most web users these days are also smart phone users, which means they’re familiar with the use of apps. They take naturally to interactive elements, and you can use this to your advantage when constructing the navigation of your site. Navigating to find the right option, entering information and viewing samples can all be done with a more app-like interface.
6. Long scrolling sites. This has already begun as a trend, but having a tall, long-scrolling site is set to become more popular. Of course, you need to balance the pages so that they aren’t too intensive and won’t slow down your loading times. This also allows you to do storytelling with your content, leading users on a journey that gets them immersed in your product and leads to a call to action.
Web design is a constantly changing industry, and you need to keep aware of the latest trends if you want to stay relevant and appear modern. Websites with outdated design practices will feel old-school to a user, making them question the credibility of your business.
