As of time inches forward years come and go. In web design new designs take shape with the changing times as new tools are developed, more workflow is handled and best practices for layouts are rolled out. The 2016 web design trends are already growing like wildfire and the trends are affected by myriads of factors. While some trends might be passed from 2015 here are the web design trends that are likely to dominate in the year 2016:
Custom Explainer Videos
E-commerce companies, big and small, have taken up the explainer video trend. The use of real-life footages such as Instagram Direct and animations has proven efficient over the years and is not fading away anytime soon. Custom made explainer videos showing how services or products work on sites is easily one of the most efficient web design tool.
Front-page Carousels
Carousels seem to be everywhere. Web designers use them to reduce clutter and add visual interest to web contents. Statistics have it that 1% of site users click carousels while the rest of the users ignore them thanks to a phenomenon called banner blindness. When carousels are excessively used they make the site feel like a cooker cutter compromising on accessibility and UX. Nonetheless the use of the sliding animation powering carousel is likely to dominate web design in 2016.
Parallax Scrolling
This technique allows both background and foreground contents to scroll but at different speeds. The resultant effect is an illusion of depth. While parallax scrolling can be used as a user-amusing effect it is debatable to describe it as having a good UX. 2016 is a fancy year for web designers and that’s why parallax scrolling is here to stay.
Touch-Supported Website Features
The use of iPads, tablets and smartphones will certainly increase even more compared to the previous years. To maintain backwards compatibility websites will have to support touch features. With plugins like Dragend.js and Photoswipe users can handle tapping and swiping on their touchscreen displays.
Sketch App for UI Design
Almost all UI design tasks no longer use Photoshop ever since Sketch crept into web designing. More pictorial representations are expected not only in 2016 but in the coming years and so the use of Sketch App will be on the rise. Besides, the Sketch App offers sleeker work environments for crafting vector elements in any interface.
Automated Task Runners
It is no doubt that the lifeblood of quick turnaround is automation. The use of built systems and task runners such as Grunt and Gulp will prevail more in 2016 because no manual effort is required. Besides, machines don’t make mistakes. The more automated task runners used the lesser the issues you will have with your site.
Typography and Color Transformation
These are message presentation tools. The trend in 2016 is likely to be of larger, more refined and bolder fonts. Designers are also not likely to prefer muting colors. Fonts and colors are very important tools in the creation of sites and designers have never ceased from using them.
Hiding Everything under a Hamburger Menu
The extensive use of mobile phones to access sites has prompted web designers to simplify the navigation process. It is understandable why the use of hamburger menu increased over the previous years; it makes the site sleeker and cleaner. However, when most site contents are hidden under a hamburger, especially for the desktop versions, it hinders discoverability.
Material Design on the Web
The release of material design by Google was a success, especially for Android designers. It is a design language that simplifies interface crafting process. Many web designers will attest that using the Google design language is still taken at heart. The trend was initially used for application development but is now the in-thing for web design.
It is never the best idea to follow a trend simply because they are trendy at the moment. While trends are a representation of popular technique web designers should ensure the trend is best for users.
