Web design trends are constantly changing. Just like with mobile devices, websites are typically upgraded every three years to stay current. Are you wondering what are the most recent new web design trends? We attempt to present our summary below, please read on.
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Flat or flattened navigation structure
Perhaps influenced by the simplicity of WordPress templates, one of the most notable web design trends is a flattened menu structure. Often times the fly-out or drop-down options for the main menu are replaced with additional line of links above or below the main menu. For large websites, this often results in confusing navigation where breadcrumbs (or hierarchical path) is hard to establish. We don't foresee the flyout menus would go away. Some websites create an impression of a flat navigation by having only a few top menu tabs and adding huge on-point mega menus (as shown on the last screen shot in this section).
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Heavy use of graphical elements
Images, images, more images. Vector images. Icons. Cartoons. These days it is certainly a feast time for photographs and graphic designers! One of the most noticeable web design trends is the heavy use of graphical elements. You can't have a page without an image or two on it. Only people over 40 will attemtp to read half a page without any graphics on it. Even serious companies use vector and cartoon-like images. Icons, diagrams are a must. Illustrate or die. We like images too, so thumbs up on this web design trend.
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Typography is king
Another highly noticeable web design trend is the use of contrasting typography. Often, page titles or module headers are presented in huge fonts, with subtitles or text next to them in much smaller fonts for contrast. In the past, it was customary to use one, maybe two font types. Not anymore, the typography is not restricted anymore. We saw the use of up to five different font types on one page. If done well, this can look good. However, the roundish nature of the most popular fonts make the overall effect somewhat juvenille.
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Use of bold contrasting colors. Pink is huge
The disco style spread to web design trends. Bold colors are on. Contrasts are on. Even websites of large consulting companies with conservative strictly-business reputation begin to look like children coloring books. Below are examples of corporate websites of two largest consulting companies in the United States. When not overdone, use of bold contrasting colors can be very visually pleasing. Overall, our thumbs up on this web design trend.
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Large images, teasers and calls to action buttons
As in case with typography when section and title headers are purposefully oversized, images too are often closeups. The same goes for buttons. Large buttons with bold colors for calls to action are one of the most noticeable web design trends. We think it is good to show what you want your visitors to do on your website and show it clearly, so thumbs up for this web design trend.
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Layering of images. Use of transclucent images
This is one of the most visually pleasing web design trends. Modern websites often have a central main slider with images that are layered one over the other. And in addition, the whole slider can be layered onto the background image. When done well, the effect can be stunning. Our thumbs up for this web design trend.
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Boxes, boxes, more boxes
Windows 8 is a good example of this web design trend. But the box-ed design has been getting popular before Windows 8 was released. We are not surprised, it is easy to create for web designers and appropriate for mobile devices, boxes are probably here to stay. Not our favourite web design trend, though.
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Long home pages
Once again, influenced by the tablet technology, home pages are now designed to be scrolled and scrolled. Many boxes stuffed in rows and columns on a long page are meant to be convenient for mobile devices where you don't want to load another page unnecessarily. This can be used for SEO purposes but at some expense of the overall design and style. Some websites are just one long page. One of the latest website templates by Joomlart Ja OnePage, for example, is a good example. We noticed that Shopify's site is done this way too (they may be changing their site often, though). We find navigation gets confusing is the site has more than several pages. Not our favourite web design trend.
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Large stylized footers
A couple years ago, footers contained a copyright statement and a link to a Site Map and maybe a line of the company contact information. Not anymore. The current web design trends demand fancy and very busy footers, often times with a large map image, newsletter subscription box, full address, and a summary of the site's main content areas. We find that there is no harm in this trend and stylized footers can add some zest to a plain website. Our thumbs up for this web design trend.
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Use of white space
Because of the huge images, icons and fonts, it is not surprising that one of modern web design trends calls for generous use of white space between all elements. It is must easier to scroll and read fast if all sections are spaced away from one another. Bullet points are easy to grasp at a glance. Once again, good for teenagers and for busy executives alike. Thumbs up on this web design trends.
There are other new and trendy web design elements, of course, but we thought that these 10 are the most noticeable ones. Feel free to add to the list, let us know what you consider the most notable web design trends nowadays.
