The better part of 2015 is gone already, and we’ve been seeing a number of new design trends all through it. Will they survive next year? How many of them have chances of being replaced by new trends? And how many offer benefits to brands? I’m going to discuss all these in this article.
Let me begin by first considering:-
Split-screens
It has been endorsed by many designers as an alternative to single-screen. I personally don’t think there’s any loggerhead between the two as both are used to achieve the same purpose; getting the site visitors.
When it comes to benefits, a single screen layout captures the complete focus of visitors; only one image with no chrome means there’s hardly any scope for the visitor to distract.
But the problem with the single-screen layout is it’s hardly called design. How many design elements are there on the layout apart from a button and captivating fonts? None. Split screen, on the other hand, gives you the feel of a design. Among the two screens, one can feature a simplistic and minimalist design and the other can have flashy elements. The split screen trend serves a brand by allowing it to feature two products instead of one.
So in my opinion, split-screens is here to stay.
Adaptive web design
There are differences between adaptive and responsive web design. The latter features only one layout, which constantly changes depending on the screen size and other specifications of a device.
An adaptive web design (AWD), on the other hand, features multiple layouts. It eyes at progressive enhancement (PE) to articulate design methods. Users are on the focal point of those design methods, not the browser; when AWD selects a layout size from a list of available sizes, it takes cues from JavaScript, the device screen and CSS.
The biggest benefit of AWD is it takes care of all the following areas:
- The content segment
- The client side scripting segment based on JavaScript
- The presentation segment
Many websites are making use of adaptive web design. My opinion is, this technique is going to stay.
Ghost buttons have been in use from 2014, and all through 2015, they have gained nothing but popularity. There are reasons behind their surging popularity. A ghost button is unobtrusive as it doesn’t hinder anything on the screen. It offers scores of benefits, and because of those benefits, it is all the rage.
A ghost button is no less than a blessing to brands. It can capture the attention of site visitors almost in no time, and generate an immense call-to-action response. The success of a lead generation campaign heavily depends on call-to-action, which means ghost buttons render favorable results for lead generation.
Not everything is welcoming about a ghost button. It has its share of disadvantages. One such disadvantage is it doesn’t not look okay with all types of themes. Some themes support it while other themes don’t. There are design techniques that are overly reliant on branding. Ghost button is one such technique, which means if brands lay their hands on a more effective technique tomorrow, they’ll say adios to ghost buttons. So, even though effective, ghost button may not stay in 2016.
Animated storybook
It’s a highly innovative design technique. A number of websites used it in 2015 and got immensely benefited. It works in a very fascinated manner; an animation sequence waits for a user to reach a particular scrolling position. The moment that scroll position is reached, the sequence starts.
Just because the sequence is animated, doesn’t mean it’s huge in size. Designers often use the XML-based scalable vector graphic format, which is fairly lightweight. They use JavaScript too. They can even keep the weight of the total page under 2MB.
That’s not all! There’s enough scope to add sparks of creativity. Animation sequences are interactive. By using those sequences, a brand can tell a story, or keep its audiences hooked to it in some other way. A very common example of animated storybook is featuring multiple fragments of stories on a page, but users need to scroll down to read one at a time. 3D CSS animation can make this technique incredibly appealing.
Since interactive and useful for brands, animated storybook will probably stay in and after 2016.
No rectangular boxes
For a long time, web designers had been trapped inside rectangular boxes, and of late, they’ve started to come out of them and use various geometrical shapes such as circles, polygons, and sometimes irregular shapes.
But implementing this technique is easier said than done. Since HTML elements of a page are rectangular, a designer applies different strategies to get rid of rectangularity. Those techniques include creating a page layout using all shapes other than rectangular.
This technique doesn’t offer any direct and visible benefit to brands. But it helps a designer do away with monotony. I am not too hopeful about it, and won’t be surprised if it doesn’t stay in the practice in 2016.
The biggie
The big experience has been popular in 2015, and my prediction is this trend is going to make it even bigger in 2016. The big layout experience has been interpreted by some designers as a whole comprised of many parts. To a large extent, they are right because the “make big” layout experience combines two dominating trends, which are minimalistic design and a large image in the background.
The layout doesn’t display too much text. It helps the full image in the background to add a cinematic feel. Some have even found similarities between the layout and a book cover. Considered as one of the best website design trends of 2013, the make big trend is still relevant. Even some top brands like PayPal are also using it.
New trends
Many new trends are going to show up next year, which is evident. As for the existing trends that we’ve discussed in this article, most seem to have a bright future prospect.
Images: “Trends for 2015/Shutterstock.com“
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