One of the most crucial aspects of user experience is web design. An intuitive user interface can attract more organic traffic which is a traffic that comes to your website as result of unpaid search results, increase brand exposure, and ultimately, increase more revenue. A well-planned and properly executed web design can have a huge impact on a business’ success.

Brand recall can be achieved by making sure that each web page represents the brand with logos, colors, messaging, and multimedia. When all content is placed effectively throughout the website and pages are linked properly, a well-built web design can boost a business’ SEO (Search Engine Optimization) efforts.

Throughout the years, the field of web design has been through a lot of changes and development, all of which have contributed to trends like parallax, micro-interactions, and flat design, among others.

We could be seeing more of these trends this year as the web design industry gets more competitive. There is the trends based on WP Shrug, released in December last year, that can help you understand these trends better.

1. Micro-Mini Interaction

This concept has swept the feet of many web design enthusiasts since 2015. It allows to make the user interface more appealing and approachable to the user. And as it becomes a fundamental concept in web design. There can be no doubt that more and more brands will implement this on the website.

However, as apps and services are becoming detailed and gritty, we are expecting to move towards micro-mini interactions- where individual interactions are further broken down into smaller bits with a greater degree of interaction.

2. Weather App Development

One of the first things that people want to know in the morning is the weather. Because weather can either make or break our daily activities, we often take delight tracking its course, making our plans subsequently.

In 2017, the demand for weather apps will increase as more and more people need to keep themselves updated with the latest weather. So, expect to see more UX designers shift their intention in creating mobile weather apps.

3. Mobile First Approach

Prioritizing mobile devices in the design process is not new. More people using their smartphones to connect to the internet and access their favorite apps. More companies are likely to take the mobile-first approach in designing their sites and apps in 2017.

Because designing for mobile has more restrictions than designing for devices with larger screens like desktops or laptops. The mobile-first approach will also give the brand insights on what core content and messages they really want to communicate.

4. Interactive Web Storytelling

Storytelling is one of the most powerful approaches that can attract a lot of visitors to your website. Here are the storytelling trends that brands are likely to implement on their website in the years to come:

• The use of videos to communicate brand messages to users has been abundant, and there is more to come in 2017. With video taking 79% of all consumer internet traffic by 2018.
• In an effort to achieve a more natural and interactional interface, web designers are currently experimenting with using chatbots to create the interaction between the website and the user more personal as possible.

• The developments with HTML5, CSS, and jQuery have allowed brands to include animations on their websites to engage with users. Through most websites employ animation as a UX-enhancer device.

5. More Responsive Design

It is predicted that more brands, regardless of their size, will build a more responsive-based website. Responsive design, which refers to the use of CSS media queries and flexible grid/layouts to build a website – can be very useful as the mobile-first approach gains more importance in the industry.

Responsive design makes a website dynamic, allowing it to adjust and rearrange its content depending on the screen size of the device. In result, brands can make significant cost-savings using this approach since they only need to build a single site, which effectively delivers content on various devices.

6. More Flat Design

The material design from Google, which was introduced back in 2014, is still considered to be the best way to achieve simplicity in today’s mobile-dominated industry. With its flat colors and simplistic design, users can interact with the website more fluidly and intuitively, making it a consistent trend in the web design world in the years to come.

7. Parallax Scrolling

In 2017, we likely see the number of brands that will use parallax scrolling on their websites. Parallax is a scrolling mechanic which gives the illusion of 3D to users. This can be very useful for brands who want to make their website as unique and dynamic as possible while serving its purpose to users.

8. Performance and Intelligent Analytics Insight

More brands will consider the performance metrics of their website that goes beyond page views and unique visitors when designing their website. With insights that tell you which part of the website should be improved or discarded, a brand can further increase its engagement, which is one of the primary goals of web design.

References

Watts, S., 2016. WP Shrug. [Online]
Available at: https://www.wpshrug.com/10-web-design-trend-predictions-2017/
[Accessed 27 March 2017].