Top web design trends for 2016

Latest trends in web development smoothly and effortlessly push the boundaries of imagination and human interface. Over the last year, a lot has changed (or let’s say evolved) in web page designing. New trends, design styles and user engagement techniques have emerged. While some practices have been reinforced, some have been modified to cut down monotony. Implementing these specific modern web design styles into your client’s website keeps you relevant, competitive and enhances your value to your clientele. And because these are in keeping with the changing web design trends in 2015, they are SEO compliant and can better your web marketing efforts.

As we look forward to another New Year, we identify the leading design trends by Webdesigners in 2015 and how we presume things will change in the months to come. We will discuss in detail the changes that have surfaced, but in short, we can safely say that designers have finally moved away from excess information and loud designs to simplistic, minimalistic (read aesthetic) design trends. Modern web design focuses on being bold and light, with a purpose. As more and more sites get mobile ready, the focus is on keeping the sites lite and easy for mobile viewing. Let us take a look at the newest website design trends that every designer should know about, and which ones are believed to remain in trend this year:

• Simplicity is the new mantra in web design. Styles like grid layouts, background videos and flat designs were quite popular last year. Websites are now focusing more on simple typefaces. Even assets like logos sport a minimalistic look to do away with distraction. Borders, footers and side bars are less visible to offer an uncluttered user interface.
• We see the dominance of a single color or monochromatic colors in many popular web designs. The benefit of monochromatic color schemes is they help to create an unforgettable experience, thereby correlating with the brand easily. Single color creates a more intriguing visual effect on a user. Black and white are among the top web color trends.
• Bold/vibrant color schemes have also been popular in the latest web design trend Websites and mobile applications are opting for bold colors to grab user attention. Keeping small screen and mobile browser users in mind, the trick is maintaining the right contrast.
• Until sometime ago websites (and even those websites redesigned over the last six months) were built with large header banner/background image with text on top. Some have even dramatized it with video loops. This trend is probably here to stay, eventually leading to some typographic designs against more solid background! As we embrace mobility in 2016, design trends will be guided by what’s light on page speed and boost site performance.
• Facebook feed and Pinterest are the right examples of card-based design trend that are emerging. Cards are an excellent way to format content for diverse screen size. Cards are eye catching, responsive, functional and provide an edifying look to a page. Google and Twitter have also applied this trend. This web design trend is ideal for pinning, liking, sharing or buying a product – basically all sorts of social share. Hence brands will most likely use this trend to their advantage.
• Going responsive is a ranking factor for Google. With one third of the traffic generated from mobiles and tablets, responsive website is not an option anymore. Themes for responsive web design are available in abundance, both in WordPress and vendor themes. With time, responsive web design is more of a designer’s best practice than a mere trend, and it’s here to stay!
• Technologies like CSS3 and HTML5 have created sophisticated styles like parallax scrolling for web layouts. It’s a technique where background image move slowly than foreground image and this is done via camera. It creates a fascinating 3D effect on the users. The website of Sony is an example of this enthralling website design trend.
• Application of a hero image gives a website a smarter look and draws more attention to the theme. Hero images have big eye-catching headers and it can be effectively used for single page designs. As discussed, they have been around for a while and are expected to get more creative and intricate with time.
• For the last three years, flat design has remained the trend experiencing some recent updates with the introduction of material design. This new variety developed by Google is based on bold graphics, visual metaphors and meaningful motions thereby adding more depth to an image. This trend is here to stay creating a clean and modern design with greater focus on UX. Ex
• Apple in its iPhone 6 page showed the world the way to incorporate loads of information on one page in a convincing way. Mobiles taking over desktops, scrolls are becoming popular than browsing through different pages in the upcoming 2016 website trends. A recent research conducted by Rebecca Gordon, research lead at Huge Inc. shows that people love to scroll more than clicks. With improved UX, scrolling is also helpful in speeding up the page. So the rise of single long one-page designs are expected to dominate web design trends this year and next.
•  Using prominent and interesting fonts are fast becoming an effective tool for branding. Big, bold and engaging fonts exude power and make a website stand out. Fonts and typefaces of websites will be as crucial as other visual elements in modern web design trends for 2015/16. Large typography gets your message quickly across.
• If you have two products or services to promote, split layout would be an excellent business website design layout. Split screen also conveys duality of your business in a compelling way. This trend of vertical breaks is among the latest and is becoming immensely popular in web design layouts.
• Use of professional photos of major landmarks, events, places and real life people instead of clichéd model images are on the rise. Stock photos are bought royalty-free and its one of the trends getting quite popular with website developers and designers. It’s cost effective and provides a credible look to your website. Important thing is to choose photos that have real people (with proper consent to use the photographs) and professionally edit the undesired bits.
•  Most web designers prefer to hide site menus behind buttons and tabs in today’s context. Only when the mouse hovers on the icon, the menu appears. It offers a cleaner look with less clutter and especially recommended to ease mobile viewing. Also, going by the trend, we’ll hopefully see some really creative solutions in web navigation with slide up, slide down, pop-up, dynamic animations and captivating imageries.
• Modular web design allows display of more content. Popular web designers are opting for modular design to give a streamlined look to a website with greater efficacy in responsive frameworks.
• Many websites are using animation to describe a company product or service. When a user arrives at a particular scroll position of a website, the animation sequence begins. It’s a way for Brands to tell stories about their product and services in a visually appealing manner to their audience. In most cases the products or services are remotely related, and more significantly the videos convey a strong human ideal or philosophy that the Brand stands for. The visual elements, be it animation or background videos are used to exquisitely motivate, encourage and inspire an entire market segment of the brand’s values and efforts. Replacing texts with compelling videos are a better way of engaging visitors with have a higher chance of getting your story across. Note that videos can slow down your page loading time.
• Transparent rectangular or square ghost buttons bordered by thin lines are replacing the more prominent circular buttons with solid colors. A contemporary web design technique, web designers are embracing this to highlight more of the content especially to benefit small screen mobile viewers. Works best with flat user interface or minimalist interface, this style also goes with websites having large-scale photo backdrop.
• Google map integration is on the rise and does not seem to go out of fashion nor necessity, with more and more businesses and customers referring to the medium for sales as well as purchase.
• Lazy loading design trend enables a viewer to view the immediate content without waiting for the entire webpage to load. It makes viewing simpler with smaller chunks loading at a time. Highly visual websites like Instagram and Pinterest are the best examples.

To wrap up, with every passing year, design trends continue to evolve and grow big. Some of the trends discussed here have already been quite popular and some on the rise are expected to grow in the coming year as well. As a web design professional, you should be well aware of the trends and best practices in web designing to service client needs while at the same time provide best user experience.