The end of 2013 is upon us and soon we will be celebrating the end of another year and the welcome of a new year: 2014. So what can we expect for web design trends in 2014 ?
In this article, i want to explore some trends in regards to web design trends in 2014 you can expect to see more of.
Our Menkom website has gone through a multitude of updates over the years and most recently the move to a full Mobile Responsive layout which means our website looks great on Mobile devices. We have tried to employee most of the latest trends at the time to showcase the ‘NOW’ in web design trends, of course it is impossible to encapsulate every facet of web design in a single website but we try.
Web Design Trends in 2014: What to expect
Full Width Layouts. The fixed with layout is something that has been with us for a long time, it is still being used and commonly found in corporate, business related web design. However for a more modern touch full width layouts are now becoming increasingly popular. I have to agree that fixed width layouts seem to ‘BOX’ in the design rather than set it free. A full width layout can give the sense of ‘openness’ with less ‘restrictions’ on the design.
Big Images & Less Text. We really love this trend, showcase large images with minimal text in the content. This technique is often used on homepages, Google even uses it. As they say images speak louder than words and this is true, no one really wants to read 5000 lines of text on a website unless of course they are reading a book, an article or something along those lines. A good balance between text and images is necessary especially for a homepage as it is the most important page on any website.
Bigger Fonts & Increased Line Spacing. You will start to see larger fonts being used in web design, even Menkom a few months ago quietly increased our font size of general text layout. A bigger font size is easier to read on screen, it also allows ‘focus’ on the content. Line spacing is also being increased mainly due to the bigger font size, more line spacing often means the text is easier to read and does not look squashed.
Continuous Scrolling. This is a design element that focuses on a beginning but no end. Depending on the information at hand it can be of very good use. For example a continuous scroll on a portfolio index makes perfect sense – who wants to click ‘NEXT’ 50 times to get to the next page.
Responsive Mobile Design. Menkom have been creating Responsive websites exclusively for the last 6 months or so, the reason for this is simple – mobile devices are being more actively used to browse websites then desktop’s or laptop’s, when was the last time you checked your Google Analytics and seen how many of your visitors are from mobile devices ?. Walker Sands, a public relations firm found that mobile devices account for 28% of total website traffic in Q3 2013, up 67% from the same time last year. This trend has been going up for years and will continue to do so in 2014.
One Page Scrolling Websites. The one page scrolling websites are becoming more and more popular, they are often associated to websites that do not need to showcase a lot of content for example if you want to showcase your business some information, a map, a contact form, some pictures then this is a great alternative, they are however not without its issues, for example it is well known that they are much harder to SEO than non one page scrolling websites, primarily because there is no physical ‘pages’, it is like one long page. We are sure that new ways of SEOing these websites will come about but you need to be aware that it may be limited compared to a standard website. One page websites are often associated with Parallax Scrolling websites.
Flat Design. Are you still using gradients ? Gradients are so 2012-2013, Since Windows introduced the Metro UI, Google even Apple have followed suite. This has transcended to web design also, you will see cleaner, flat web elements, less gradients and shadows. I personally love this design, and try to adopt it in as many projects as possible.
Parallax Scrolling. Have you seen this being used yet ? When you visit a website and you scroll you sometimes see what looks like a section of the website that looks like a window and in the background of that window you see what looks like another background scrolling at a slower pace than the foreground. Hard to understand ? Well maybe check out this example to see what i mean.
http://www.spiralpixelthemes.co.uk/ichi/light/index.html
Menkom will be introducing Parallax Scrolling themes for our clients in 2014
Does your website employ any of the Web Design Trends in 2014 ?
Is your website using any of the latest web design trends in 2014 ? If you have been thinking of getting a new website designed you can rest assured that by dealing with Menkom you will be on the cutting edge of web design trends in 2014.
