The world of web design and web development is constantly in flux as new ideas and technologies take hold and change the medium. Here are a few trends that have remained consistent and are growing in popularity within the current snapshot of web design.
Large Images
A few years back the web design world exploded with sites utilizing huge images, and this concept has only increased in popularity. The increase in internet speed connection and monitor size only means that large images are going to be a mainstay of web design, and not just another fad.
The Fold is Dead
The fold—an imaginary line that marks the point of a web page where a user will need to scroll to see more content—just isn’t relevant anymore. This has been the case for sometime, but now more than ever web designers are able to ignore this archaic notion brought over from the world of print design.
Why? Well, for one, scrolling is a fundamental element to using the internet and all web users understand this concept. Two, the increased matriculation of users from desktop to mobile browsing means there is never a consistent fold for any web design, and in fact scrolling on a mobile device or tablet is expected functionality and a great way to provide an engaging and interactive user experience.
Responsive and Adaptive Designs
As expected, this trend continues to grow in popularity. Responsive or adaptive web design is a process that dynamically re-sizes and rearranges the content of a web page in response to the browser size or device that it is viewed on. This is a great way to deliver web content to various device resolutions yet still maintain control over how the content is displayed and viewed.
Content Driven Layouts
In the past all you really needed was a homepage and a generic secondary page, and that secondary web design handled all of your various content. That may not be enough these days. Users don’t always arrive on your homepage first, and a specifically tailored secondary page design focusing on your website goals can make the difference between a conversion and a bounce. Product pages, testimonials, and portfolios deserve more than a generic layout and they also add interest, trust, and connectivity to your site.
