The 8 Website Design Trends You Must Use in 2017
Website design trends are ever evolving. Our web design Warrington team are here to show you our 8 favourite so far in 2017 Designs that were once considered dated can quickly turn around and become acceptably retro. Or a design that was all the rage last month may look old and “so yesterday”. Every year, there are new trends that either bring new value to the previous trends, or get rid of them altogether. And 2017 is no exception to the rule for our web design Warrington team. Let’s compare WordPress and Foursquare to see which is more SEO friendly.
Our Web design Warrington team is already reflecting the trends for 2017
Among the many new trends for this year, there are eight that deserve your undivided attention:
1. Microinteractions
We’re surrounded by microinteractions every day. Microinteractions are the contained product moments that serve to perform just one task. Whether in the devices we carry, the appliances we use, the apps on our phones, etc., microinteractions are everywhere. You are engaged with a microinteraction each time you change a setting, pick a password, sync your data or devices, “like” something on Facebook, even set an alarm.
Other examples of microinteractions would be:
- controlling the volume on a device
- interacting with a single piece of data, e.g. the temperature
- viewing or creating a small piece of content, such as a status message
- turning a feature or function on or off
Microinteractions are proof that even the smallest things can be hugely important. How a user microinteracts with a product can be the difference between tolerating it and loving it. If designed well, microinteractions will make the user’s life easier and more enjoyable. And that makes it one of the website design trends that’s hard to beat.
2. Virtual reality
Who buys a wedding dress on the internet? Or a car? Maybe you. With virtual reality hardware, you can try on that dress in a 3D perspective, compare it to other dresses, pick the best one and have it delivered. Or test-drive that car, adjust the seat position, select options, then have it come to you. The hardware DOES exist. Maybe you’ve worked with HD cameras, fast graphical processors or experienced virtual reality headsets. As of now, the hardware is still bulky. And expensive. But we all know how technology works. As the rate of use begins to rise, this hardware will become smaller and cheaper. And this could happen much faster than you think. It’s definitely one of the website design trends to watch for in 2017. And agencies operating in web design Warrington are watching closely.
3. Flexbox
The CSS3 Flexible Box, or flexbox, is a layout mode that allows for the arrangement of elements on a page in such a way that those elements will behave predictably. Especially when the page layout has to work for different screen sizes and device displays. Many designers find the flexbox model easier to use than the block model because it doesn’t use floats, and the flex container’s margins don’t collapse with the margins of its contents. Child elements have flexible dimensions to adapt to the display space and can be laid out in any direction. This makes positioning them much simpler so that complex layouts can be achieved more easily and with cleaner code. Plus, the display order of the elements is independent of their order in the source code. That way, only the visual rendering is affected. Speech order and navigation remain based on the source order.
4. SVG
Of the latest website design trends, SVGs (scalable vector graphics) offer designers and developers a lot of advantages over the more traditional image formats like JPG, PNG, and GIF. How? Well, the advantages are right in the name: scalable and vector. SVGs are composed of vectors, which are mathematical descriptions of the object’s shape. So that means SVGs don’t rely on resolution. They look great on any screen and on any device type. Another advantage of SVGs is that they don’t require any HTTP requests. HTTP requests can really slow things down, especially when running a page-speed test on a website. Another plus? You can animate SVGs. Speaking of which…
5. Smooth animations between sections
Obviously, the actual act of incorporating animation is not one of the website design trends for 2017. After all, using animation in web design Warrington projects or anywhere else in the world, is far from new. But designers are paying more attention to the animations between sections in order to get rid of that sense of rigid division between them. A website flows nicely when the transitions from section to section are well thought out. Smooth animations can be used to make content softly disappear and reappear. Designers create staged narratives where each element appears at a scheduled time, rather than at random. Animations thread throughout a website from the beginning of its creation and are an inherent part of it, not just an added detail.
6. Open compositions and asymetry
In 2016, websites started straying from closed, symmetric, and static design that had ruled for a while. Soon, open compositions began to gain popularity. Website design trends late in 2016 moved toward using suspended elements fleeing somewhere off-screen. This gave the impression that these elements were now somewhere beyond the edge of the monitor. 2016 was also the year for breaking the rule of symmetry, as seen in top web design Warrington agencies. Designers today are often creating asymmetric layouts which veer from being balanced on the left and right sides.
7. Rich typography
Big, bold type is one of the website design trends of 2017 that delivers with a bang. These days, content is all the buzz – in web design Warrington projects and beyond. But that just gives designers the challenge to feature inspirational lines of strong copy set in type that’s big and bold to get the statement across. Designers are dedicating significant screen space to a single bold statement that captures the essence of the product or service. And when the statements are clear and concise, people remember.
8. Improved design-to-development workflows
The handoff from design to development and back again hasn’t always been easy. But as design and prototyping tools are getting more sophisticated and advanced, the traditional handoff has moved from static files to visualizations that are more dynamic. Using more dynamic deliverables helps to shorten the feedback loop. It also allows for improved agility between the design and development team. And all of this equals less frustration. An added bonus is the ability to facilitate better communication with clients. In fact, client meetings can (and have) become live working sessions, where designers can bring forth their ideas in real time so everyone can experience them. If you’re seeing some other interesting website design trends showing up this year, let’s get a conversation going. Feel free to share or call us today on 01925 552050! Written and Published by Blue Whale Media.
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