Editorial
Web designers in 2017 have to deliver an interactive, personalized and relevant user experience.
One size no longer fits all, and design teams need to address this reality. But how do web designers rise to the challenge?
Here are some fast emerging web design trends you can expect to see more of in the year ahead — trends that will propel your website to the top in user experience.
Material Design & Material Motion
Material design is a visual language developed by Google to create a unified experience across platforms and device sizes.
Bold, graphic and intentional material design creates hierarchy, meaning and focus. It makes flexible use of grid-based layouts, padding, responsive transitions and animations, lighting and shadow depth effects.
Motion in material design provides meaning. Material can be spontaneously generated or destroyed anywhere in the environment and you can make it move along any axis.
Google wanted to give unified experience to all users regardless of screen size. It has applied material design to all of its Android mobile applications including Gmail, Google Docs, Google Drive, YouTube, Google Maps, and, to a certain extent, its Chrome browser.
Google design has become standard and will continue shaping many web applications in 2017. Earlier this year, Google removed paid right hand side ads from search results.
The Mountain View, Calif. search giant also rolled out up to four paid ads on top of organic results on the left side.
WhatsApp for web and Jetradar are the finest example of material website designing we’ve witnessed so far.
Cards & Minimalist Design
Web and mobile apps are moving away from pages towards personalized experiences based in the form of cards. Cards are rectangles of images and text that serve as entry points to more detailed information.
Card based design enhances the user experience by providing maximum information in small spaces, generating a notable, positive impact on user delivery.
Cards packed with powerful minimalist designs and motion graphics are irresistible to ignore.
Minimalism is big.
Netflix, for example, re-designed its website with a focus on cards. It eliminated its most annoying feature — carousel browsing — and dropped slow moving side scrolling to click-based browsing.
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The purpose of Netflix‘s rebranding is to give streamlined experience on all devices.
Recently, Netflix has changed its logo to a single letter N.
This logo — a single letter wrapped in a red ribbon — makes a better use of space in a square or vertical format. This is the most significant change in the Netflix logo in past four years.
Microinteractions
Microinteractions provides a good way for users to interact with a website or mobile app. As Dan Saffer explained in his book Microinteractions, these tiny details typically:
- Communicate feedback or the result of an action
- Accomplish an isolated, individual task (i.e., connecting one device to another, liking a friend’s post)
- Manipulate a setting
- Prevent user error
A well-designed microinteraction has a powerful impact on users. Examples include adjusting the volume on a music player, turning a feature on or off, adjusting a setting, accomplishing a task. Every touch, pinch, scroll, zoom, click and tap will get richer with more animations and interactive elements.
Big Data, Analytics & Visualization
Data is playing a crucial role in the web of the future. Big brands are also giving users the option to inspect their own data in the form of colorful charts.
Tableau, D3.JS and FusionCharts are some of the widely adopted data visualization tools. These tools are very useful in data driven documentation and representation.
Users are more likely to look at their data in visual formats, giving brands an impetus to turn customer data into graphical presentations.
Virtual Reality & Immersive Full Screen Video
Many companies have powered their web apps with video, which are excellent options for providing "how-to" guidance to users. Short videos clocking in at around 60 second to 90 seconds are good ways to introduce product to visitors.
Videos help satisfy user curiosity and provide a better sense of whatever they are planning to use or buy. Users can get a look and feel of a product on a website or mobile app, potentially driving decision-making.
How impressive can this be? Try getting behind the wheel and enjoy a full 360-degree digital experience of a new BMW.
Websites, 2017
Looking at above-mentioned fast emerging trends, the future of web designing seems promising.
In a nutshell, we can say that not all trends will be a good fit to your next web design project.
But you’ve to be prepared by adopt these trends to create a better web for your company or clients. Happy 2017.
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