The ever-evolving technology market demands that design moves with it, or sometimes, ahead of it. This year’s trends will feature a mix of those revamped from previous years as well as relatively new design approaches.
Here are 10 trends that you are sure to come across in 2015:
1. Interactive Storytelling
When timed and executed correctly, interactive storytelling provides websites with a powerful way to engage with the user. By using a range of visual cues – such as animations, videos, and images combined with subtle parallax – designers can deliver an enriched experience, provide more informative content, and add context to the website or application.
Get ready to participate in more interactive journeys in 2015.
2. Responsive Design
The process of designing and building websites and applications that can be viewed optimally across all desktop and mobile devices, known as Responsive Design, is a continuous design practice that improves with time.
The constant change in user behavior, and the fact that a large majority of people now use more than one device to view the same website and application, mean that designers will come up with new approaches and explore new ideas in the responsive design field in 2015.
3. Flat Design
Flat design and matte-painted cars have one thing in common – they both prove that things don’t need to be shiny to be visually pleasing.
The ongoing improvements to screen resolutions now means that designers can omit visual effects such as gradients, 3D aspects, shadows, and embossing, and still produce an attractive design. The use of flat design helps clear up the user interface and allows designers to avoid heavy graphic elements that can quite often disrupt the overall look and feel of an image.
Companies such as Google and Microsoft have recently applied the concepts of flat design to their products with great success, so you’ll be sure to see more examples and variations of it in 2015.
4. One-Color Dominance
Nothing says simplicity like one-color design.
Opting to use just one dominant color creates a memorable experience, assists in emphasizing certain areas and features, and makes it easier to associate that color with the brand.
5. Data, Graphs, and Infographics
Weren’t a fan of math in school? Design will help you unearth your love for numbers and statistics in 2015.
Big data is no longer a buzzword; it is a growing industry. Real-time web analytics and other data-driven applications are becoming increasingly vital to the survival of modern-day businesses, and the traditional spreadsheet just isn’t cutting it anymore. The challenge designers will face in 2015 is making all this data look beautiful, compelling, and captivating.
Also, the popularity of infographics will no doubt continue into this year, because, let’s face it, who would rather read an 800-word blog post when they can get the same information from a well designed graphic?
Also, the popularity of infographics will no doubt continue into this year, because, let’s face it, who would rather read an 800-word blog post when they can get the same information from a well designed graphic?
6. Subtle Parallax
Designers that opted for parallax in the past will take a step back in 2015 and focus on delivering parallax in a more subtle way. The full-blown parallax that has been featured in designs from previous years can often come across quite intrusive and get in the way of content and other more important features. Subtle parallax still offers the attention-grabbing effects, but now allows the core elements to take center stage.
7. Personalized UX
A number of websites have already incorporated many personalized UX elements through the use of cookies, but 2015 will see designers take it further by using information from social media and other avenues to deliver a truly personalized experience.
8. Background Images and Videos
If a picture paints a thousand words, how many words does a video paint?
Attention-capturing images and design-embedded videos not only grab the user’s attention, but they also get them to stay on the website longer. Be sure to keep an eye out for impressive background images and cleverly made videos this year.
9. Human Touch
The uniqueness, individuality, and intimate user-brand connections provided by hand-drawn illustrations and lettering mean that these human-designed touches will continue to appear throughout 2015.
10. Scrolling, Not Clicking
Your left-mouse button will get a well-deserved rest this year while your scrolling wheel may get a serious workout.
Scrolling pages have proved to be a crowd favorite for both desktop and mobile-device users and will continue to be implemented by designers again this year due to the optimized interaction and ease-of-use it provides.
Here at Clearcode, our designers focus on perfecting all areas of web design to deliver a fully captivating and optimized user experience. Find out how our talented design team can help you create a visually impressive web application by viewing our offer here.