Web Design

2017 is approaching, leaving people wondering: What’s in store for web design next year? We’ve gathered some web design trends for 2017 that will most likely be seen throughout the year. Some of these trends are already being implemented now, and we only expect that to continue. Without further ado, here are our predictions.

1. Designing for Age

Next year, we’ll be seeing more websites catering their designs towards the age group they’re targeting. Much like online advertisements cater to the Internet user, websites should do the same thing. But how do you design a website to cater to an age group? Color schemes can change based on the user, as well as font size. These are just examples for the ways to implement this trend.

2. Creative scrolling/parallax

We’ve seen parallax explode in popularity this past year. As one of the web design trends for 2017, we expect even more parallax scrolling, with a unique touch. There will be additional interactions while scrolling, such as hover animations, and more functionality as well. It’s an innovative way of designing sites and holding the visitor’s attention.

3. Better Mobile Usability

Of all the web design trends for 2107, this should be the least surprising. Probably because this was a web design trend we saw in 2016 also. But this year we may be seeing websites designed first for mobile phones, and then for computers afterward. Designing this way will ensure less clutter on websites, and less unnecessary information.

4. More Website Animation

As brands move more towards story-telling in order to inject some personality into the company, animation becomes very useful. Animation is a great way to engage website visitors — whether a site is telling a story or simply animating a loading screen. Either way, it captures attention and keeps visitors on a website better than static images do.

These are the web design trends for 2017 that we expect to see the most. But who knows what the year will bring? There have been countless other predictions such as micro-mini interactions and more weather apps. We’ll just have to wait and see.

Creating a responsive website should be a top priority of web designers today. Responsive websites are websites that can be viewed on any device — be it computer, mobile phone, or tablet. And most people use both phones and computers to browse the Internet. In fact, more Google searches come from mobile devices than from computers. In lieu of that, here are some tips to successfully design for mobile users.

1. Don’t hide the menu

The navigation on your website should be easily accessible to all users, on any mobile device. Hiding the menu under a hamburger icon, while convenient, can confuse users. If you absolutely need to use a hamburger icon, be sure to label it “Menu”. That will at least ensure that people will find it.

2. Make it responsive for all resolutions

Different phones are different sizes. Therefore, all resolutions should be taken into account. You can’t just design a mobile website to work on iPhones, when millions of people don’t have them. It can be hard to make a perfect looking website for every single screen, so as long as the website functions properly on all of them, that is what matters most.

3. Let people zoom

Consider the screen size when you design for mobile devices. Mobile phones have small screens, therefore you need to let people zoom. Even if someone has great eyesight, they still zoom to look more closely at pictures, to highlight text, and just to put less strain on their eyes.

4. Make sure buttons are big enough to click

Big thumbs need to be accounted for in design for mobile devices. Short thumbs do too. Make sure that anything clickable is big enough to be clicked. And if a button is on the top of the mobile screen, make it larger than buttons on the bottom. People with shorter thumbs will have an easier time clicking a button on the top of the screen if it’s bigger.

Now you know key features to ensure when you design for mobile devices. While there are plenty of other things you should do when designing a mobile site, these little tips will definitely ensure better usability.

What are brutalist websites? They seem to contradict every website design trend that is currently popular. Brutalist websites deliberately look bad and are hard to use. Basically, brutalist websites look like they were created in the year 2000, that haven’t been updated since. They’ve become popular as an alternative to easy, nice, websites that are popular today.

Why do Brutalist Websites exist?

Well, these websites have started cropping up for a few reasons. One reason is that people want to create their own, individual websites. They want websites that can’t be re-created on WordPress, or Squarespace. Owners of brutalist websites create them by themselves, in hand-coded HTML. Another reason these sites are popular is that people want to show that we can still create interesting websites without all of today’s best practices and trends. It’s anti-establishment, and harsh. Even the color schemes are usually tough to look at. For example, craigslist can be considered a brutalist website — and it also happens to be very successful.

The History of Brutalism in Web Design

“Brutalist” websites got their name from Brutalist Architecture, a design movement during the 1950’s-1970’s. During this time, people created large, generally concrete, unattractive buildings. We could say the history of brutalist websites began with the invention of the World Wide Web. 15 years ago, all websites were brutalist websites. But, in the last 7 years there has been a major shift in website design. Today, websites are attractive and easy to use. Brutalist websites have started cropping up in the last couple years as a return to the old ways. These sites aren’t meant to please visitors; rather, they are an expression of the creator.

Overall, we don’t recommend a brutalist website design if you’re a business. However, if you’re an artist, a nonconformist, or someone who wants to practice hand-coded website design, try it out! There is something appealing about going against the status quo.

Here are 4 modern design elements that your site needs. As the Internet grows, and websites change, it’s important to remain relevant on the web. A good website design can ensure that you won’t be left behind. Here are the most modern design elements that are popular right now.

1. Flat or Semi-Flat Design

Of all the modern design elements, flat design is King. This means there aren’t any 3-d elements on the page — no shadows, for example. Flat design is easier for users to wrap their heads around. It also allows your page to load faster, and loading times are important for users. Your site shouldn’t take over 6 seconds to load. Besides this, flat design just looks neater. And since minimalism is popular right now, you can be sure that your site won’t look outdated with a flat design.

2. Simple Navigation Menu

Navigation menus shouldn’t be over-complicated. For one thing, they should be self-apparent. Users shouldn’t have to think to find and use a menu. Also, make sure the navigation menu has a Home button, so users can get back to the place they started.

3. A Contact Page

There are two ways to design a contact page. One way is to simply create a page with all of the necessary information: phone number, e-mail, and business location (if applicable). The other way is to include a contact form. Visitors use forms when they need to leave a comment or ask a question immediately, without leaving the website at all. Once the visitor fills out the form, it is sent as an e-mail to you. Honestly, both options are great.

4. Informational Footer

Headers are for essential information that you want visitors to view. So, headers contain things like products, a blog page, and an about page. Footers are for other information. They include things like career opportunities, a contact page, and some social media links. Both are important, but the footer is the secondary attraction.

If you include these modern design elements in your website’s design, you’re guaranteed to have a better looking, and better functioning site.

There are many different ways to include menus in your website’s design. They’re an essential feature — you need to give visitors a way to navigate your website. One way to do this is to include an accordion menu. Accordion menus are menus that can expand into larger sections when clicked on. They’re good to get across a lot of information, without overwhelming a visitor.

What is an accordion menu?

Accordion menus are a good way to manage the content on your site. For example, if you click on a section of an accordion menu called “Writing”, more options would come up, such as “blogs” or “news articles” — that lets users pick and choose what they want to read. This way, they can avoid what is uninteresting to them. Now, accordion menus aren’t a necessity for every site — but they do help with larger ones. Just make sure the accordion has a purpose when designing. Sometimes accordion menus don’t list other clickable options, but open up a brief description of the section on the menu. This is great for people who are unsure of what the sections may contain.

Pros and Cons of Accordion Menus

There are pros and cons to using accordion menus. Much like everything else in web design, it’s up to the website creator to decide what is best for the site. So here are some pros and cons of an accordion menu.

Pros:

• they minimzie scrolling
• they can hide an overwhelming amount of information
• they give people control over content
• users can ignore what they don’t want to see

Cons:

• they hide content that may never be seen by a user
• they force users to make an extra “click”
• they’re less accessible than full menus

Accordion menus can be wonderful things, especially on smaller screens. However, if you don’t make the extra click to expand the menu worthwhile, the user might not want to return to your site.

User Experience, also known as UX, is a way to design websites. When websites are designed with user experience in mind, that means the website should be easy to navigate and use. It’s more of a concept than a concrete design. UX is made up of different parts, such as: usability, human-computer interaction, and more. Here we’ll explain how UX design helps websites grow.

What is User Experience?

The goal of UX design, according to Oxford Journal Interacting With Computers is to, “improve customer satisfaction and loyalty through the utility, ease of use, and pleasure provided in the interaction with a product”. This means that designers created User Experience design in order to make websites easy to use, and user-friendly. But how is a user’s experience navigating a website measured? Specific designers, called UX designers, study how people interact with websites. They evaluate the website’s ease-of-use, efficiency, and how users feel while interacting with it.

Why is UX important?

Designing for user experience is a relatively new way of creating websites. Back when the public first started using the Internet, too much information cluttered websites. Back then, nobody thought about user/website interaction. But now, since billions of people use the Internet every day, websites have started becoming more user-friendly. Now, people won’t use websites if they aren’t user-friendly. Therefore, UX design is much more important for the success of the website. Besides just being user-friendly, User Experience design tries to take into account the way people feel while using a website. Are they happy? Satisfied? Confused? and designers address those feelings.

Overall, User Experience design is being used much more today than it was just 10 years ago. And when you design for UX, you’re not only helping users navigate your site, but you are help your site grow as well.

When designing a website, you’ll need a navigational menu to get to the different pages. While using a header on the top of the website is the most common way to do this, there are other ways to style your site. Here we’ll list the different types of website navigation, so you can decide which is best for you.

1. Full Screen Website Navigation

In this case, the navigation menu isn’t just a feature of the design, but the design itself. A full screen navigation menu makes it quite obvious to the visitor how to get around the website. If it’s done well, users won’t be thrown off by it. The key is to make the page as visually appealing as possible.

2. Hamburger Menu

The hamburger menu has become popular with the increased use of smartphones for web browsing. This website navigation feature is three little lines stacked upon each other — it vaguely resembles a hamburger. When you click the hamburger, the entire menu pops out, or slides out from the side. It saves space on websites, however, if people don’t know what the hamburger menu is, they will get confused and leave your site. This practice is best used for smartphones.

3. Vertical Website Navigation

Vertical navigation is a lot like header navigation — only it’s on the side of the site. It is a menu going down the left side of the website listing the different pages you can click on. This type of website navigation allows you to design in different ways. It is also effective, as users read from left to right, ensuring that your menu (on the left side) will be easily seen.

There are plenty more types of website navigation, but these three are a great alternative to header navigation. They are all easy for visitors to use, as well as recognizable.