Blog Post
Top Trends In Web Design 2016
- By grant@sitezwebdesign.com
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- 28 Aug, 2016
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With Google's ever changing search algorithm, it's more important than ever to be up to date on current web design trends and best practices. Dive in to some of 2016's top web design trends from SITEZ.
Responsive Website Design
With Google now favoring mobile friendly and optimized sites it's extremely important that your website is not only 'mobile optimized' but completely 'responsive' to all screen types and sizes. From the endless screen sizes of phones and tablets to the newly emerging screen sizes such as the Microsoft Surface Book's oddly tall display, there is an incredibly large variance in screen sizes and most people access their data, info and websites from multiple devices.
This importance of responsive design has lead to many websites beginning to look similar, or at least portions of them...but that's not bad. When a properly functioning design/flow that is accepted as a best practice, it's usually because it's the best way to go. A checkout feature, or reservation feature is going to function vary similarly from website to website. The common 'hamburger menu" (three line pop up menu) on a mobile device is going to be very similar from website to website. This is because these things are currently the best ways to go about developing these functions.
With Google now favoring mobile friendly and optimized sites it's extremely important that your website is not only 'mobile optimized' but completely 'responsive' to all screen types and sizes. From the endless screen sizes of phones and tablets to the newly emerging screen sizes such as the Microsoft Surface Book's oddly tall display, there is an incredibly large variance in screen sizes and most people access their data, info and websites from multiple devices.
This importance of responsive design has lead to many websites beginning to look similar, or at least portions of them...but that's not bad. When a properly functioning design/flow that is accepted as a best practice, it's usually because it's the best way to go. A checkout feature, or reservation feature is going to function vary similarly from website to website. The common 'hamburger menu" (three line pop up menu) on a mobile device is going to be very similar from website to website. This is because these things are currently the best ways to go about developing these functions.
Animations are key! (Don't get tacky though)
I'm sure you've seen websites with extremely tacky and overly done animations. It can be very distracting and detract from the overall feel and usability of a website. This doesn't mean animations are useless...like many web designers/best practices has said for the past few years.
Design is shifting back to animations...but nothing over the top like a spinning in text. Simple fades, slides and bounces can very powerfully draw the users attention to important information, text or media. Tastefully using animations can really bring a website to another level of interesting engagement and it can be as simple as sliding in the text over a parallaxing background.
I'm sure you've seen websites with extremely tacky and overly done animations. It can be very distracting and detract from the overall feel and usability of a website. This doesn't mean animations are useless...like many web designers/best practices has said for the past few years.
Design is shifting back to animations...but nothing over the top like a spinning in text. Simple fades, slides and bounces can very powerfully draw the users attention to important information, text or media. Tastefully using animations can really bring a website to another level of interesting engagement and it can be as simple as sliding in the text over a parallaxing background.