Latest trends in Web Design

6 Web Design Trends You Must Know

1. The Proliferation of UI Patterns

2. Rich Animations

3. Microinteractions

4. Material Design: A Richer Alternative to Flat Design

5. Responsive Design

6. Flat Isn’t Going Away Anytime Soon

1. The Proliferation of UI Patterns

One of the side effects of responsive design has meant that a lot of sites look similar. But

having a similar look isn’t necessarily a bad thing. That’s because we’ve changed the way we

consume the web, which has resulted in a lot of common UI design patterns. UI patterns must

guide users through a smooth experience.

Here’s a few patterns you should be familiar with:

The hamburger menu

Account registration

Long scroll

Card Layouts

Hero images

The hamburger menu

While some criticize this pattern’s use, there’s no doubt that it’s widespread use makes the

function easily recognizable for users.

Account registration

You’ll find this pattern whenever you try to register for a site. There might be a form to fill out

or a button that’ll allow you to use a social account to sign up. Multi-step form wizards are also

effective since they “chunk out” the required fields, reducing friction and encouraging users to

flow through the process.

Long scroll

Placing all your important elements above the fold is now a well-known myth. Furthermore,

almost everyone is accustomed to long scrolls thanks to mobile devices. The technique works

especially well for sites that want to lure users through storytelling, and you can still mimic a

multi-page site by breaking the scroll into clear sections.

Card Layouts

Pioneered by Pinterest, cards are everywhere on the web because they present information in

bite-sized chunks perfect for scanning. Each card represents one unified concept.

2. Rich Animations

Animations are being used more and more to enhance a site’s storytelling, making the

experience more interactive and entertaining.

Animations can be thought of in terms of two groups:

Large scale animations. These are used as a primary interaction tool have more impact on

users and include effects like parallax scrolling and pop-up notifications.

Small scale animations. These include spinners, hover tools and loading bars, and don’t

require any user input.

3. Microinteractions

Micro-interactions tend to do, or help you do, several different things:

Communicate a status or bit of feedback

See the result of an action

Help the user manipulate something

4. Material Design: A Richer Alternative to Flat Design

The goal of Material Design is to create clean, modernistic design that focus on UX. While

Google’s design aesthetic has

detractors, it’s been mostly praised as a game-changer.

5. Flat Isn’t Going Away Anytime Soon

Flat design has been around for a while and is compatible with other trends such as

minimalism, responsive web design and Material Design.

Going forward, it’s likely that we’ll see the following further trends in flat design come to the

forefront.

Long shadows

Vibrant color schemes

Simple typography

Ghost buttons

Minimalism

6. Responsive Design

Responsive web design has become incredibly popular in recent years thanks to the rise of

mobile internet usage. It’s safe to say responsive design isn’t going anywhere soon, as it

represents a relatively simple and cheap way for businesses to build a fully-functional mobile-

friendly site.

Additional Advice on Web Design Trends

Trends represent popular techniques for good reason, but make sure it’s best for your users. For

example, an e-commerce site certainly wouldn’t do well as a single-page infinite scrolling site.

Source: http://www.awwwards.com/6-web-design-trends-you-must-know-for-2015-2016.html