The web evolves quickly. New technologies and programming languages emerge, as well as languages that have been updated for more than a decade to meet the demands of their users. Every year, new tools are created for designers and developers and new design styles evolve and are widely used on the web.
We want to review some of the web design trends this year. Many of the trends mentioned are not entirely new and have been gaining popularity in recent years.
Evolution of Material Design
Material Design is a design style proposed by Google. It is in constant evolution and many companies and designers have decided to adopt it due to the incredible advantages it presents in mobile devices. Its popularity has been such that a large number of frameworks based on Material Design have been created by app development companies so that designers and developers can quickly create interfaces for websites and mobile applications in this style.
As the popularity of mobile devices continues to increase, it is likely that Material Design will continue to evolve on a par with the technology used in mobile devices and both in small and large projects.
Use of large font size
The typographies in large size are not a new trend and in fact, its use has proliferated in recent years. Its popularity may be due to the creation of smart televisions and audiovisual playback devices that allow us to surf the Internet using large screens. Although these new technologies may be one of the reasons why this trend has become popular, the main reason is that they are a technique to capture the attention of users. Since it is the only element found in the composition and contrasts with the background, users have no choice but to pay attention to this source.
Using the retro style
For some years now, it has been possible to appreciate the return to vintage in all fields of design such as fashion and interior design. Although in web design, “vintage” refers to styles of the 50s, nowadays this term is also used to refer to design styles of the 80s and 90s. The retro style is not only used as such but also combined with current technologies so that a modern retro style is created. In fact, any image that is taken as inspiration with some vintage element and combined with current photographs can be considered as “retro modern”. It can be an appropriate style for many brands, according to their target audience and the brand’s own personality.
Use of animations at a lower and higher scale
Animation plays a very important role in any digital interface. Although before most of the animations were made in Flash, they increased the weight of the page and in some cases took a long time to load. Also, they were not allowed in all browsers. However, thanks to the development of technology, CSS and JavaScript can now be used to make animations and implement them easily on websites.
You can create animations in native languages for the web and more developers and designers choose to include animations on their websites as an effective method of storytelling.
Improvement of micro-interactions
The micro-interactions serve to inform users about the result of certain actions performed. They tend to go unnoticed as they are minimal and can be seen in any interface, so the user considers them as natural. Despite being small interactions, they are of great importance for the same fact that they notify users about certain actions. A clear example of micro-interaction in websites are the different states of certain buttons in the menu, such as when the cursor is placed over the “Start” button and it changes color to inform the user that it is being selected.
Micro-interactions are also used in mobile devices and in fact, the experience can be better in these devices because users use their fingers to interact with the screen, an experience totally different from computers.
This year, designers focused on micro-interactions. In fact, many social networks have improved micro-interactions in their applications and websites because they know they have the power to enrich the user experience.
The use of conversational bots
Conversational bots are programs that answer people’s questions and have a conversation with them. In fact, if you have an iPhone, you should already be familiar with one of these systems called Siri. Siri is not the only example as there are a number of other applications like Alice.
Many of these programs may provide answers that do not seem logical to users. However, there are advanced bots that have been developed using C++ and Delphi. Apart from being a research topic, bots are currently used in dialogue systems to offer help to clients regardless of the time at which the query is made. Although the type of help they offer may be very limited, this technology could be very useful when implemented on the website if perfected.
Greater use of SVG graphics
SVG is one of the suitable image formats for the web. It makes reference to a vectorial graphic and not rasterized images as it happens with JPG and other suitable formats for the web. The great advantage of SVG graphics is that they do not lose quality if they are resized. For this reason, it is most often used in logos. It does not matter if the website is displayed on a mobile device, computer or even a smart TV. The SVG graphics will not lose quality and will look the same on all these devices.
The use of SVG has been increasing since 2013 according to Google Trends information. Due to new technologies such as retina screens and the large dimensions of smart TVs, it is likely that the popularity of the SVG format will only continue to increase.
Conclusion
As you can see, many web design trends are styles that have already been gaining popularity in recent years. It is likely that you have noticed some of them and that others have gone unnoticed for you. Either way, it is a great idea to keep these trends in mind when designing so you can analyze how they can be used and be helpful in your website or application.