Website Design Trends 2015
Website design, like fashion design, is incredibly fluid. Major changes of direction are rare, but it is vibrant and always evolving. But what will be important in the industry in the coming year, and what are the key web design trends of 2015 to look out for?
The Essentials Will Become Even More Essential
In 1942 the science fiction author Isaac Asimov wrote the short story Runaround. It was set in this year, 2015, and envisaged a world where robots would be commonplace. In the story he set out three rules for robots which are now famous and are known as the Three Laws of Robotics. In brief they say a robot cannot harm a human, disobey a human, and it must protect itself.
Asimov was wrong about the advance of robots, but technology has given us new rules in various industries and fields, including web design. So the first web design trend of 2015 is that the essential rules of website design will become even more essential.
There are three of them:
- A website shall work and look great on all devices.
- A website must always put the user first with intuitive design and simple navigation.
- A website must be optimized for speed and performance.
Here are the other design trends to look out for in 2015.
Simplicity
Flat design was important in 2014 and that will continue in 2015 but it will go further, with website designers opting for simplicity and removing non-essential design elements.
Things like sliders and cluttered pages will make way for simple designs, beautiful imagery, and function.
Natural Stock Photography
Staying with imagery, its importance will continue in 2015, but the type of images that are popular will change. This means natural stock photography instead of staged images photographed in front of a white screen.
Video Backgrounds
Video backgrounds will also become more popular in certain situations. Not all videos work, though. They can’t feature sales messages or be long or amateurishly put together. Instead they should be short, emotional, beautiful and memorable.
Centered Layouts
There once was a time when websites were left justified in browsers. This then moved to centering the website which then evolved into 100 percent designs that used the whole browser window. Many designs in 2015 will come back to a fixed width layout with the content held in the center.
Hidden Menus
Many people browse the internet on smartphones and tablets so they are familiar with the style of menu that works well on these devices. Those menus are not the same as menus on a desktop, which are often long horizontal bars at the top of the page.
On a mobile device the menu is often a button which expands to reveal the content when tapped. The obvious question is: why should the menu on a desktop site and a mobile site be any different? As a result, expect to see a lot more mobile-type menus on desktop websites.
Out With Infographics, In With Interactive Webgraphics
Infographics are fantastic tools for communicating information, including complicated and detailed information. For this reason they are usually shared extensively, which is why content creators love creating them.
But 2015 will see the rise of the interactive webgraphic over the infographic as designers seek to make their infographic-content more interactive and effective.
Modular Design
The final web design trend to look out for in 2015 is modular design. This looks at websites differently than the traditional model – a collection of pages where users move from one page to the next. With modular design, the user doesn’t move between pages. Instead they stay in one location while the content changes as required.
You don’t have to employ all of these trends in your website (except the first one – that is a must). But incorporating one or two will help to keep your site looking fresh and modern.