In the past, web designers have embraced minimalist designs, but this year saw a pivot toward new trends and styles. Supported by new technologies and software options, designers shifted toward more stirring design and visually comprehensive trends.
(Pixabay / fancycrave1)
What will 2017 bring? Consider the following web design trends expected to leave their mark on the design landscape for the coming year.
- Subtle microinteractions – Microinteractions have new and sophisticated tools for implementation and design. New interfaces will make it easier to design more appealing interactive animations. Even complex animations will be much more accessible to designers.
- Overlapping depth elements – Overlapping elements can create a perception of depth. The trend is becoming popular, particularly in the use of large shadows and contrasting colors. The result, both subtle and high impact, can produce a seamless transition between elements as the user works down the page.
- Hand-drawn iconography – Web design and icon trends often correspond. Hand-drawn icons are caching on as an effective foil to highly uniform, clean typography. Hand-illustrated icons are also catching on as call-to-action pointers in the continuing quest for subtle design innovations to increase conversions.
- Colorful shape gradients – A developing trend in website design uses bold and impactful styles in shape-filled gradients. Gradients can be added to text boxes and basic shapes, as well as shapes from charts, SmartArt, and WordArt. You can add pre-set gradients or create them using custom colors, transparency, positioning, and gradient patterns.
- Minimal mockups – The new trend in web design is the use of minimal product mockups instead of their more realistic counterparts. Minimal mockups provide more subtle flow to the website. They also allow for the work within the mockup to stand out.
- Large colored shadows – Designers are in pursuit of more creative ways of employing shadows. This can be done by using large, colored shadows instead of small monochrome iterations. Used with a colored background, this style can enhance elements and improve the overall design of the site.
As 2016 closes, web design is shying away from the flat trends that were popular in the past few years. Visually interesting and bold styles are favored to more effectively convey a brand while improving the viewer’s ease of use.