It’s no secret that trends come and go all the time, especially in a variety of creative fields. As you can imagine, web design is no different. Most trends are brilliant and some, well let’s just not bring them up!
Have you ever wondered what the latest and greatest changes in the web design industry are? Wonder no more, because here is a list of seven exciting trends to look out for in 2017:
- Mobile first, desktop last
It will come as no surprise that the growth of mobile Internet usage in the world has exploded in recent years! In general, we spend more time going online from our smartphones and tablets than from desktop computers. 2017 will see a fresh crop of new websites that place a primary emphasis on mobile-friendly design.
- A greater shift towards responsive design
Yes, I know; responsive design is nothing new. What you will find over the course of the next few months is how more website owners will be adopting responsive designs than ever before. Google now gives greater clout to sites that work on mobile AND desktop platforms. So, in the quest for SEO nirvana, refreshing a site’s design to a responsive one is now a must.
- WYSIWYG website wireframing
Those of us that design websites for a living (or do web design as a hobby) might frown upon WYSIWYG (What You See Is What You Get) wireframing.
Gone are the days where you’d have to base all new sites on a boilerplate template or even sketch a design on paper. Wireframing or “prototyping” is getting more popular than even, both with designers and hobbyists.
- Bold and contrasting colors
Some forward-thinking companies use bright and divergent tones in the designs of their offices and even the products they sell. We have seen this used on websites to some degree, but such a strategy is now growing in popularity in the web design world.
Take a look at sites like Pixelchefs.com to see examples of what I mean. We are no longer chained to boring pastel colors and corporate blues and blacks!
- Hand-drawn illustrations
Vector illustrations using software like Adobe Illustrator is nothing new. We see plenty of website making efficient use of visuals that contain vector graphics. The thing is, there aren’t many sites that use hand-drawn illustrations – until now! We can expect to see more sites incorporating such designs from talented creatives.
- Quirky typography
Verdana not doing it for you? Helvetica a bit boring? There’s a whole world of fonts out there, many of which are free for use on websites! It’s easy to incorporate fonts on websites that users may not have on their systems.
What’s more, they don’t take ages to download. There is a typographical revolution in the making for 2017! Take a look at typekit.com to see a sample of what’s available!
- Full-screen photographs
You might balk at the prospect of full-screen images getting used on web pages. A JPEG that is at least 1Mb in size doesn’t take as long as you think to download. Internet speeds are fast these days for most people, and content delivery and distribution networks like Amazon S3 and CloudFront also speed things up.
