'Change is Inevitable' – Thus, nothing is permanent in this world and that to which resides under a highly competitive matrix. With so many brains working and all towards attaining excellence one can never expect this web development market to be slow and sloppy. As web designing is getting more complex with people digging into deeper into cognitive analysis and impact of designs on human brains – thus this turns web design into a science rather than just being of aesthetic importance.
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As creativity has no seams one can actually not exactly tell which trend will hit the charts, but as it takes time to switch to new trends, wherefore the current trends will stay here for about a year.In this blog we will discuss the trends which are the horse of long race.
Typography- a Treat to the Brain!
Font compatibility issues with Google, constrained developers to use a variety of fonts for development. However, now the web is growing in terms of typography and with Google Fonts , developers can now use fonts as freely as they feel like and are no longer compelled to use the mundane Arial and Times New Roman.
It can be speculated that more stress will be laid on font size, weightage and obviously on the font styles. Website developers who are more performance oriented have already initiated towards this development, as this text style and size have a great impact on human brain which is derived from the study of cognitive sciences.
Micro Experiences- a Treat to the Hands!
As we know that screen sizes of mobile devices vary very frequently, though they can be beastly sizes phablets or normal smartphones, we must not forget that at the end of the day we will be designing for varied screen sizes. Therefore, you need to make sure that your app delivers very clear and lucid display of functionalities. Those who have payed cognizance to this thing will definitely adopt micro or fragmented interactions in their development.
To explain this further, let us assume that there are 5-7 menu heading on your home page which further leads to various other sub pages. Though, the content is very less in the beginning but eventually the application grow in terms of complexity. Clicking on one location area will open a new instance either in that area , in modal window or change its location and size which is optional.
Though resulting location might be simple or complex , but its main aim was to simplify the complex navigations along with presenting numerous choices. This technique will further reduce the length of your web pages which required long scrolling. The micro interactions have self contained places where you can display your cards or cells of your business. Web applications can be beautifully developed using this technique by not transferring the users to another screen and allowing them to complete the task right at the spot.
Photography – a Treat to the Eyes!
One of the most trending patterns in the current web design industry is the usage of images with high resolution and 100 % width. Along with this we saw that people incorporated a full fledged video as the cover for their desktop.
They used these videos to convey the message of the website in a succinct way and also to tell there success saga to their audience. This was further made more interesting by overlaying text, white space , picture and UI elements. As market is hogged with devices of high resolution and big screens, the trends of using big banner size images is trending along with them.
Retail and eCommerce sector are utilizing this trend to the fullest in order to deliver best visual effects so as to entice their users. One can use high resolution images in order to narrate stories about their brands and use them to make your website intriguing and appealing. Now we have incredible tools to convert html to WordPress, which empowers designers to use different types of images.
Flat design – a Treat to the Users!
This is the year when the designers shelved gradients in their design pattern and have embraced the new design hearth robe i.e. the flat design. I believe that there was no any discretion which was responsible for this, but the fact that users and more importantly the developers were bored from the gradient style. They needed some change and flat design turned out to be that very change.
Launch of iOS 7 or 8 and Android versions ignited the fire, as their new interfaces were based on flat design pattern. Further, this led to all the mobile app developers follow the flat design pattern in order to deliver apps which gave native look and feel to the users. Android further worked as the forbearer for taking these applications to the desktop screens from mobile, with it's material design approach.
This approach was further adorned well using other techniques such as card design, white spaces, videos, intentions and may such features to provide a 2 or 3 dimensional layered design approach.
Card Layout- A treat to the Brain!
Card layout was also one of the wide spread trend of this year as most of the well known websites, for instance Pinterest, Mashable and many others used this style and thus this became a hit trend. Though, we clearly know that these trends have a limited life line and hence eventually you will see something or the other, but for now on Card design is in and will stay. This is because that this can display a plethora of content in a limited web space. Further, whitespaces were also utilized very ingeniously in order make a cognitive impact on the users.
Conclusion!
It is expected that the minimal design trend will stay in the market for a longer period and the modern websites will expect to grow. However, the parallax design trend will certainly see it's doom due to increasing adoption of micro interactions. In their efforts to sublime and refine the design trends they will keep it simple yet of high aesthetic value, thus images will be aptly used in order to suffice their business motive.
