Latest Trends in Web Design
The world of web design is always moving at an accelerated pace. Web designers are constantly refining their best practices as web users become increasingly savvy about which site configurations and styles are most easily navigable. Looking back at older web design trends, even from just a few short years ago, it’s easy to pick out styles that are outdated, difficult to use, or even cringe-worthy. Gone (at least hopefully) are the days of layering on Photoshop effects that make images and text far too overwrought. Dramatic bevels, drop shadows, cursive text, and a host of other embellishments are also a thing of the past.
Modern web designers have been focusing on minimalism for a while and the trend continues to be refining that minimalism to its greatest potential. If you desire to be taken seriously as a web designer, you will want to know the latest trends and use them. Here are some trends that are defining web design right now:
Responsive Web Design
With users utilizing a variety of different viewing environments to access the web, including tablets and smartphones, responsive web design is the way of the future. Essentially, responsive web design indicates that a website is crafted to adapt to the layout of the viewing environment, resulting in pages that are easy to read and navigate with only minimum resizing, panning and scrolling needed.
Modal Boxes
Web users want nothing more than to navigate through a site quickly and efficiently. A major roadblock, and cause of great annoyance, is when they have to endure conventional window pop-ups or page reloads. With a modal box, you can overlay a small element over a website, showing information to users on the same page they are on. The end result is a much more usable site with fewer unnecessary page reloads.
One Page Layouts
Moving as far away from complicated navigation as possible, one page layouts force the web designer to edit away all that is unnecessary. A one page layout website is very much akin to a business card, offering the most basic and important information such as what you or your company do, where you are located, and links to your blog, portfolio, social media hangouts, and other vital areas of the web you choose to share.
Big & Beautiful Typography
Typography has been around for centuries and when used at its best, regardless of the medium, careful consideration has been given to size and style. As web designers choose to embrace substance over style, realizing that the emphasis should be on content first, they are eschewing small and chic looking fonts and instead using typography that is easy to read. With big and beautiful typography styles, you guide your reader’s eye directly to and through the content, ensuring a pleasantly interactive experience for them.
Hand Drawn/Sketched Websites
Hand drawing and sketching has long been a tool available to web designers, but it is infrequently used. Perhaps this is because many web designer are not confident in their drawing abilities, as well as for other reasons. However, one thing is for certain: nothing personalizes a website like a hand drawing or sketch, which also further adds a degree of whimsy. In keeping with a minimalist theme, hand drawings and sketches should not be the main focus of the website, but rather leave a personalized stamp on it.
If the latest trends in web design interest you, learn more about designing modern, dynamic, efficient websites through our Multimedia Design program. It takes just 15 months to complete an associate’s degree in Multimedia Design at Fremont University, preparing your for an exciting web design career in a short amount of time. Enroll today and be on your way to pursuing the career of your dreams!
