Leading web trends 2015
The exciting and creative world of website design and development evolves every year, and there is a multitude of information about the latest trends being published daily. The top ten trends for web design in 2015 which are set to carry through well into 2016 include the following:
- Mobile browsing has become a popular phenomenon and websites are making use of longer landing pages. It’s easier to scroll and less linking to other pages occurs making it simpler for the user to see what the website is all about.
- Websites are becoming more interactive and designers and developers are making use of animations throughout sites. This, when done tastefully, can bring that ‘wow’ factor to a site.
- Big headers have been around for a while. The latest trend is to keep the large banner element or headers and populate the site with well-designed text. This optimises the site’s speed which is also ideal for mobile users.
- 2015 is all about simplicity. By removing unnecessary design elements one creates a clean site and again optimises the site’s loading speed. Less really is more in 2015 and will remain to be in 2016.
- Many sites are opting for a maximum width to keep their content centred in the viewport. This provides a nice focus for the site content.
- High quality photography is a must for a sophisticated site. Stock imagery will always have a place in design, but most websites make use of more natural, high quality photography these days. This gives the site a personal and unique touch without worrying about using the same image featured on another website.
- Responsive design has been around for a while, but is even more crucial since mobile browsing has become more popular.
- Top, right-aligned navigation bars are being replaced by hidden menu’s represented by an icon. In most cases when clicking on this button, the menu fills the whole screen. In other cases it only fills half or a third of the page. This helps to give a touch of uniqueness to the site.
- Large typography. This complements trend number 3. Using large type as an overlay on a banner or header image adds a nice design element to a site. This was very popular in 2014 and shouldn’t change anytime soon.
- Performance and speed. Everyone gets annoyed with sites that take ages to load. Ensuring the website is less content and image heavy will help increase the loading time and guarantee happy visitors.
Do you have any trends to add to this list? What trends do you predict for 2016?
