Web designing is exciting and changing by the day. But if you are planning to build a website then you need not panic.
Websites that are clean, simple, uncluttered and fluid are being preferred. We have information and more information staring at us from everywhere, right from desktop and laptop screens to tablets, phablets and smartphones.
So when under an avalanche of online content, both visual and otherwise, it is relieving to be confronted by minimalist, clear and uncomplicated stuff. And that is clearly what works best in web designing.
BaseKit co-founder Richard Healy says “think bold, graphical and intentional” this year. But he also emphasizes that responsive web designs should also be fluid to touch and help visitors glide through, and most importantly, must “delight users”.
So what can we expect to work best in web designing this year?
Websites Will Go Visual
The quality and beauty of visual content online has improved drastically and dramatically in the past few years.
Photo sharing apps like Instagram, SnapChat and WeHeartIt have acquired massive user bases and continue to grow and evolve every day.
It is impossible to ignore Pinterest which has wowed millions. It has over a billion pins and drives 23% referral traffic to e-commerce sites.
So if you want a website worth its buck then you definitely cannot ignore imagery. The bigger, bolder and unique they are, the better. Large and beautiful background images help highlight important content, and arrests attention.
You Should Have Got RWD Yesterday
Google has warned that sites that are not mobile-optimized will suffer in their search rankings.
80% of internet users own smartphones and 48% start their search for a product or service on search engines. If you do not optimize your website for mobile phones you might very well get buried somewhere in the second page of Google search, or even beyond.
Responsive Web Design ensures your site scale down well and offers good user experience no matter what the size of the screen is, on smartphone, PC, tab or phablet.
Flat Design Will Remain Popular
Flat design gives the visitor the best user interface. It is clutter-free, easy on the eye, has plenty of whitespace, but at the same time offers you all that you want.
But web design gurus predict that flat design will metamorphose and grow up into a beautiful butterfly.
Google’s Material Design aims to combine the layered, textured feel of paper and ink with digital “imagination and magic”.
That means flat design is expected to look more natural and real, with subtle and layered graphics and animations.
Material Design is in short is the best of everything and gives the most real-life and amazing user experience possible. Here are a few examples.
Plenty of Infographics
We love infographics don’t we?
Data as such is mundane and boring. But an infographic makes it deliciously palatable. In fact many research firms are choosing to present data through infographics, which nudges ordinary non-numerical people to click on their online reports.
But keep away from making any glaring mistakes.
You can expect infographics to be popular for quite some time to come, unless something more entertaining, compact and power-packed replaces it.
Device APIs Will Reign
A device API is an application programming interface that allows web applications to interact with the device hardware, and in the case of mobile phone hardware, with the camera, location, contacts and a wealth of other traditional installed applications.
This puts immense power in the hands of the end user.
Facebook, Apple and Google lead the way, and all big names follow. New trend suggest that companies will give equal focus to building a great API and a responsive website.
Conclusion
There is no sure shot way to predict what will work in web designing. We can only make educated and informed guesses. But if you believe in Google’s mantra “focus on the user and all else will follow”, then you cannot go very wrong.
March 10, 2015
