Since the emergence of technology becomes more ingrained into every facet of our daily lives, users get to see more optimized solution in a way of technology therefore demand high from their online user experiences (UX). So I think for a new year innovative idea, it’s time to take a look at the future direction of web design.
The term user experience(UX) has gained significance in a domain of computing because whatsoever is a program it revolves around three keywords personal, interactive, and relevant which users want from their UX. So basically today the challenge is not to create a website that only allows you to navigate through pages like newspaper but the idea has evolved to web designs which understands and entirely responds to its users throughout the process.
What’s new in 2017?
It’s for the first time that I am writing about the web designs before that I wrote about Best Practices for Long-Scrolling Websites to highlight the newest trend of long scrolling being followed in a world of web development. Since the new trends fascinated me so I thought have a view over all the new trends that are predicted to be followed in a coming year. Let’s have a look at the comprehensions of the latest web design trends for 2017.
Let’s get started.
- traditional web designs are ending
In a recent Off-screen magazine Eric Meyer called himself an “experience designer” rather than a web designer.
Traditionally the role of design was more to make the tech look good to its audience but concept of web design in the traditional sense is fading away.
Experience designers not only make beautiful websites rather they look into the user experience(UX) and their stories thus it has morphed into something greater.
Further recommended read:
- Conversational UI
As Chris Messina, the founder of the hashtag and former Googler predicted:
“2016 will be the year of conversation commerce.” and 2016 really turned out to be a big year for conversational interfaces.
In his following article he stated that natural language interfaces and Human Computer Interface(HCI) techniques will rule around making people to interact with companies, services, and bots through chat and messaging.
Keeping messaging platforms such as Slack, Facebook Messenger, or WeChat as an inspiration companies are moving towards utilization of this change by injecting live chats or support on their official websites. These platforms are overtaking social networks and app downloads, companies have started making strategies about utilizing this change.
There are still a lot of questions which are to be answered but rest assured: conversational interfaces and the experiences of those are becoming a big topic in 2017.It is expected that in 2017 the design of conversational user interfaces (for example for websites) will become an increasingly important topic for most web designers.
- GIFs & other animations
As Ash from Buffer states:
“Anywhere there’s a message; there’s the chance for a GIF.”
GIFs going mainstream is a new thing we know. Its widespread usage is due to its support and portability. Because it supports animations which are used to draw a user’s attention, a lot of websites and apps use them for a while. But obviously over usage of anything may raise the size of cons as heavier as its pros.
GIFs however provide a richer product experience, by explaining a workflow, or guiding your users. And several GIF tools such as Photoshop, Giphy, or record.it allow web designers to design their processes in an unrestricted environment.
- Next generation of responsive design
Responsive web design (RWD) is an approach to web design which responds desktop web pages to be viewed in according to the size of the screen or web browser on which it is being viewed. It also adapts the viewing environment layout by CSS media queries which offer websites flexibility and allow them to adjust according to the different devices the site is being accessed on. This type of design will continue dominate because of being one of the most effective ways of achieving a good UX.
Google changed its ranking algorithm last year in April to prioritize websites which have optimized content and throughout this year in 2017 we’ll see companies hurrying to re-boost their Google ranks.
Though, that there’s not a hard and fast rule in a form of size that fits all situation but the rule about offering fewer options through less responsive views will rise the conversions of those websites.
- Minimalistic web design
Minimalism is being transformed to a next level, now users are now presented with a ‘card’ instead of being hit with a homepage. Multiple cards enable suggesting a topic through visual effects and entice to click on them. As it says a picture is worth than thousand words.
These are entry points which act as the doorway to more information.
The minimalism goes for menus, navigation and everything. As an example a website ‘Netflix’ which uses cards along with the images which explain more about a show or movie than a written description or bio-data and using less space all of which will be as simple as possible.
Basically, people now follow a rule of ‘keep it short and simple’ yet visually explanatory web designs.
- Data visualization
Data and analytic have gained importance than ever that even big brands lets the users to see stats for themselves.
Visual representation of data increases user interaction particularly when it comes to understanding user representation, graphs, charts, bars etc are the ones you can create using Tableau, are eye-catching and draw user’s attention. The data especially the one that involves stats, represented through colorful charts allows the users to visualize it with clarity and the colors eliminate the boredom of looking at the data.
- Fewer stock photos, more authenticity.
There’s an interesting web design which is quite a simple, yet worth mentioning.
We often see a decline of stock photos on websites because web designers would use no image at all other than using a stock photo and today it is preferred by people to see bespoke pictures relating to the company or business, rather than a generic image.
From the last couple of years photography has gained interest and power than ever before and the thing that matters is how to use the powerful innovation within your website to serve a purpose so everything on it, including the image, must do so too. ‘Meet the team’ in your menu strip is an important tab for putting a face to the brand.
Screenshot from Codeship
Cartoons, comic strips, and authentic imagery and illustrations all are inn theses days. Tech communities are now heading towards making a comic strip as a part of their format while discussing a particular topic or explaining something in detail.
- Material design
Material design showed up in early 2013, however, it only went mainstream in 2015 basically it is a method of designing to draw the user’s focus to different areas by creating a hierarchy of meaning and importance on the page, all over moving and responding to the user’s actions apart from that design elements include colors, typography, imagery etc. Here ‘moving’ refers to geometric shapes to visually enhance their site, precisely a grid-base layout that creates depth, and realism. Its flexibility, and its compatibility across all devices especially from mobile design is making it more and more popular across the rest of the web too.
Material design was introduced by Google and has been developed by Google in recent years and is being steadily used in its applications, like Gmail, Google Drive, YouTube and Google Maps.
Here is an info about Material design, check out Google’s introduction.
- Long-scrolling websites
We do get to see more and more long-scrolling websites, a trend which has been set through the success of seemingly bottomless websites like Facebook, Twitter, or Instagram which allow users to constantly seeing new content by scrolling for hours. the scrolling action has now become cognitive to date because of practices people have been following these days. menus and tabs are getting old for sites whereas the focus has gone over putting everything on one, long page. To add some excitement to the experience the site can be broken up with images, typography, and videos.
Better keep on scrolling.
Recommend read: Best Practices for Long-Scrolling Websites
- Typography goes big.
Typography already grew in 2016 however it is still growing and getting bolder and this trend isn’t stopping any time soon. For drawing and keeping user’s attention typography seems to work well
We would get to watch more eye-catching, and even full screen brands. Dynamic screens with an amalgamation of colors and textures will still pursue to addition on screens to make it more interesting and vibrant to create an overall amazing effect. if the site has a long scrolling page large typography can be an effective way to break up the grids of a page.
Screenshot of victoryjournal.com
Concluding remarks.
For the year 2017 we have got amazing design trends so pick the one which suits best for both your needs and wants. These are vastly enhanced designs which will definitely increase the UX of your website. But you need to be selective and careful, to call yourself creative by your client.
