As an interactive designer at Grafik, best practices for the web are always on my mind. Previously, David Collins posted the “Top five best practices for web design in 2015“; I’m going to expand on #4 on his list, “Make it engaging.” While content and information architecture are extremely important, design plays just as big a role in engagement. Here are the top trends to look for in web design for 2015.
1. Scrolling vs. Clicking
Scrolling sites are much easier to navigate on mobile devices than sites with click-through navigations. Scrolling makes interaction between the user and the device more intuitive, reduces load times and allows for dynamic interactions. As the responsive age continues to grow, so will the number of scrolling sites.
2. Flat Design
Due to a clean minimal style that lends itself well to mobile optimization, flat design was seen a lot in 2014 and will continue to gain traction in 2015. However, it might not look the same thanks to the debut of Google’s new Material Design— it’s flat design, only more mature with an even greater emphasis on mobile.
3. Beautiful Typography
2015 is sure to be the year of big beautiful type! Thanks to a drastic increase in the variety of web fonts, we won’t be seeing the same google fonts over and over again. With affordable resources for web type growing, you’ll see more big bold type helping to tell the story. There are some really fun ones out there, and I can’t wait to see them in context.
4. Large Background Images & Video
Large background images can give great context to a site and help tell a more compelling story. Higher resolution displays have helped make this more powerful than ever. Apple does a great job using large imagery in a simple yet impactful way. The subtle use of parallax over large images will continue to help create more depth in 2015 as well.
5. Micro-interactions
Micro-interactions should be so small and effortless that they nearly disappear, enhancing user experience by letting the site visitor more easily and intuitively get to where they want to go. They should learn from the past, seemingly reading minds to encourage a simple task or just create a more visually dynamic experience.
