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.

1. 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).

   
   
   
   
   
2. 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.

   
   
   
3. 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.

   
4. 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.

   
   
   
5. 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.

   
   
   
6. 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.

   
   
   
7. 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.

   
   
   
   
   
8. 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.

9. 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.

   
   
   
10. 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.

If you would like us to build a custom website completely from scratch we will be happy to do that for you. We guarantee that your website will be unique and built from scratch and it will not be based on any pre-made template. Please note that in this case, the website design project will take a longer time to implement and it will also be more expensive.

But if a custom design exceeds your budget, you are not going to lose out with Joomla Bliss! You will still get a great website. In fact, the end result can be much better than many "custom" websites we come across these days. Just check out our portfolio. We use templates provided by the most reputable design houses in the world. There are many commercial Joomla templates. But there is a huge difference in quality between them - which may not be immediately apparent to an outsider. We will only recommend the best templates to you and will  be sure to clarify pluses and minuses of each.

Please take a few minutes to review our web design packages:

01Gold website design package 

02Silver website design package 

03Bronze website design package

04Bronze+ website design package (SME)

05Custom website design 

06Ottawa website design promotion 

When we customize the look and feel of a template, we change the color scheme, navigation structure, fonts, and other visual elements - to simulate or create the desired look and feel. We then install and configure various pre-made modules and components to enable various functionalities our clients require, such as a registration form, newsletter subscription, e-commerce shopping cart, polls, forum, user blog comments, photo galleries, etc.

Our clients watch the site's development through several stages, and at each stage they are invited to provide feedback and make recommendations. Once the website is launched, we provide training to your whole team on how to manage the site, how to add content to it  - at no additional charge. Please download our web design questionnaire to find out what type of information we will need from you to start working on your website.

As a web design firm, we can tell you that nowadays it is very rare to build a website completely from scratch. Most professional website design firms use pre-made website templates and themes, which they sometimes develop in house, sometimes purchase from template design houses, and sometimes a bit of both. Most web design firms re-work and enhance those templates to accommodate their clients' requirements. The end result is presented to clients as custom, from-scratch, design, and in many cases this becomes true, as the original template gets reworked and customized so significantly that it is virtually impossible to tell what the final website was based on it.

Take a look at this example. Can you recognize the original template in the customized version?

Original Template	Customized Version

It is possible to take this approach a step further. Joomla Bliss invites our clients to have a say in the process of selecting the base website template. Using website templates provided by some of the most reputable design houses in the world, we help you select the most appropriate template for your needs; we then modify and customize this template to create the desired look and feel and add required functionalities.

We are proud to help businesses with limited budgets to get a highly professional modern website without sacrificing quality. If you are technically savvy, here is what you can do:

1. Download an open-source free web content management system (CMS) like Joomla
2. Source a quality pre-designed template, provided by reputable design houses, and upload this template into Joomla or other open-source CMS (do not get yourself locked into a proprietary CMS, this will be a very expensive mistake in the long run)
3. Customize this template's visual elements, add your own content, upload images and/or video - and voila!

You have a great website, SEO-friendly, scalable and easy-to-manage, and at ~50-80% the cost of a custom "from scratch" design!

The problem is... few business owners are aware of this route! 

In fact, we were surprised to discover (time and time again!) that not only small businesses, but even technology companies are seldom aware of all the benefits Joomla and other open-source content management systems can deliver. We think the main reason behind this is that Joomla and other open-source projects are run by non-profit organizations; they do not engage in aggressive marketing; their main marketing vehicle is word-of-mouth referrals by users - something Joomla Bliss is striving to achieve as well. As a result, most businesses pay premium for custom "designed-from-scratch" websites (that often end up being of questionable quilty) and in addition get themselves locked into some proprietary CMS where they have to pay annual fees or programming fees for each additional tweak or modification.

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There are hundreds of articles and blog posts written on the topic of keywords for the purposes of website design and SEO. So JoomlaBliss would like to contribute our knowledge to this very important issue as well.

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There is a long discussion going on about which one of the three leading open-source web content management systems (CMS) is better: Joomla, Drupal or Wordpress. Here is our view on the topic.