As this year draws to a close we are taking a look back on the website design trends that have taken off this year. Some old website trends have even come back into fashion this year too.
Full width websites
The tradition with websites used to be a background colour with the content inset on the page leaving a border around the edge. This trend was followed for many years but now more and more websites are following the trend of full width pages, like this site in fact (we couldn’t miss out on the action 😉). The main benefit of this is that it gives you more space as you are using an area that would otherwise be useless blank space, giving you a bigger area to be creative on your website and add more content and images. It also gives your website a more modern and professional look. We personally love it and think full width pages are here to stay!
Simplistic layouts
Websites of old used to try and cram in as much content and images as possible. This made websites look too busy and was confusing as to what to do on the website. The latest trend is having a simplistic layout with things like font spacing, placement of images all to make the website look clean and provide an overall relaxing but informative experience to visitors of your site.
Images
Using images on websites has been around for some time now but only recently images are being used in a completely different way on websites. There has been an increase in websites using larger higher quality images on banners and some even using images as a full background. There is a very fine line between getting this right or wrong. Having an image with too much going on will make the site look busy, but get the background image right and your site will look fantastic. One other thing that used to put people off was the image size and how long it takes to load but there are techniques to avoid this and make them load quickly now.
Transitions and effects
Lazy loading, effects when scrolling and objects moving around on page are also being used more and more this year. They are a great way to make your website look modern and more interesting than a static website where nothing moves. Again, done right this can look brilliant, but get it wrong and you risk your website looking tacky.
Asymmetry
The previous method when designing a website was to imagine a mirror line running right through the centre. This was to make sure that the content on the page looked symmetric and easy on the eye to look at, but it can look boring and conformative. A trend that has took off recently is to completely ignore this rule and have an asymmetric website, meaning that the content layout and size on the left hand side of the page could be a different layout to the right. This gives your website an individual look and the rewards can be great, making your site look trendy and keeping visitors engaged on your site.
More adventurous fonts
The very first iterations of websites were very basic and mainly used neutral fonts like Arial, Calibri and Times New Roman. This is fine if you are looking for a more professional appearence on your website, but can be a bit boring. This year lots of websites are changing this up completely and using more adventurous and creative fonts. This gives your website an individual look and is also good to help tie your website in with an existing brand.
Colour schemes
Website colour trends go up-and-down more than a yo-yo. The very first instances of websites were plain with white backgrounds and black text on top. Then creativity took over and websites used bold and brash colours, which at the time was great but people look back now and wince at how bright and bold the colours were. Only recently have bold and brighter colours taken off again, but obviously used in moderation. Bolder colours and backgrounds are great to get the website matching with your brand, like our site for examples using orange accents to match with our logo. Bright call to action buttons (buy now, call us etc.) are also great. They stand out and give a higher chance of someone clicking them.
Overall, websites are getting more and more modern, and one of the main things that people are improving is usability. If your website is easy-to-use and navigation is intuitive then you are going to maximise the amount of visitors who can use your website to its full potential, even people who are not tech savvy.
