Web design is now equally a deep science and a multifaceted art. The science and art of website are in a flux of creativity. Design trends are continuing to keep coming replacing of fading out the earlier ones. Many of these trends help to push a brand image towards more luminance. There are other trends that are mostly aesthetic and quickly draw the attention of the audience. As we are approaching the year end it is time to take a backward look at the evolving design trends and assess the trends that are going to shape the web experience in the months to come. This is why we are here, to assess and anticipate the hottest web design trends of 2017.
-
Rapid prototyping tools
Most designers these days heavily depend on prototypes to assess how their final output is going to look. It has evolved for past few years as an inevitable tool for UX and UI designers. In the recent past, we have seen many rapid prototyping tools to come up and all of them help users to assess the usability and aesthetic of websites without requiring to write a single line of code. They are extremely easy to use and functionally superb to allow designers assess the design output in browsers. This results in not only quality high-performance design but also save precious development time. With so much on offer these tools will continue to remain top on the list of preference for designers.
-
Microinteractions
Microinteraction is not a new trend. It is already there in most web interfaces and mobile apps. Actually, we make use of hundreds of microinteractions every day when browsing the web or using apps on our handheld devices. Can you think of Facebook without the ‘Like’ function? Yes, that is how microinteractions are inseparable parts of web and app interfaces.
Microinteractions are nothing but small interactive feedback following an action by the user. They work superbly bringing responsiveness to the interface. These small but often satisfactory interactions make browsing or app usage more pleasurable and value-added an experience. This is why every website is trying to incorporate some kind of unique microinteraction in their interface to help users memorizing the brand and its interface longer. With such popularity and effectiveness, they are going to remain a constant attribute if future web design.
-
Creative use of GIFs to draw attention
GIFs are great for the standout visual output they offer. But using GIFs with consideration to your UX is important. First of all, you cannot use abusing GIFs that actually can make many of your users threatened or silently humiliated. You may consider such GIFs funny but the fun elements do not extend to the web developers. You can get the full potential of these new visual tools with a creative focus. Why not use GIFs that describe the pleasure or haughtiness of the users who use your products? If you need to incorporate fun through GIFs that cat can be done in a positive way as well.
-
Using CSS frameworks, grids, and themes
CSS frameworks are there for quite some time. Grids and themes are also matured now after being used widely in web design for many years. Naturally, instead of developing a website from the scratch designers and developers prefer using these pre-made tools. It not just results in faster time to market and cost saving but using these frameworks, grids and themes also help coming out with a sophisticated web design with least amount of codes. As frameworks are built to address mobile view, they easily help to make a website responsive. A lot of new frameworks keep coming in addition to the ones we already know.
-
Material Motion
The material design has been there for some time becoming a widely popular option for flat design. Now as material design after the rolling out by Google became matured with widespread adoption, it is now showcasing another way of the evolution of the trend and it is Material Motion.
While material design took the principle of flat design further by incorporating natural shadows, padding and gradients around objects, the material motion takes this depth further by incorporating animation effects, transition, etc. Material design is already popular while material motion is the new kid in the design world with a lot of promises.
-
Using images high on relevance and authenticity
Using high-density effective images has been an established trend so far. But in the recent past, we have seen more efforts from designers to stand out from the web by offering more authentic and relevant images that can quickly orient the user with the objective.
If you are using product images ask yourself whether they are relevant or really meaningful in regard to what the user is looking for. If you are using images of people, it is time to ask whether it does convey a message it story with an authentic connection to the image? Does your image explain about the quality of your products or services? Does your image offer a community feeling with an ethical ground? You need to ask all these questions to evaluate and bring perfection to your use of images.
-
Experiment with typeface
For few years in a row, we have seen web typeface to grow bigger and more attention-grabbing with every passing day. The typeface is no longer just viewed as a carriage to offer readable contents, they are itself design. The creative focus in designing a typeface with new experiments will continue and there is no sign of stop. Instead of creating chaos and clutter in the name if the experiment in typeface design, more organized and clean design output will hold the key for choosing fonts and font size as well.
The Bottom Line
To conclude, we must admit that visual pop art and illustrations will hold water for many web designers to bring creative excellence in design. As the design is trending to become visually outrageous and functionally superb, we can expect new design trends to unfold creating more opportunities for usability and aesthetics.