Shifting trends are well known changes that occur within all creative industries, and web design is no exception. With innovation and technology evolution driving constant changes and shifts, here is what we have noticed are some of the big changes throughout 2017.

Continuing rise in mobile first design

Smartphones and other mobile devices are still on the increase and are now the most common way to browse the web, and web design strategies will continue to adapt and provide even better browsing experience on smaller devices. The mobile-first approach to website construction as well as the improvement of adaptable grids and CSS media queries are continuing to increase in popularity.

Bespoke Illustration & genuine photography

Less stock imagery is being used, with a large increase in both custom illustrations and genuine photography.

Illustrations are being used to push a brand in a different way, producing a style that is unique, interesting and stand out in an increasingly crowded web.

As well as looking fantastic, the use of real photography can provide a positive emotional connection with the user that will be linked with the website’s brand. Whereas over-use of stock images that looks cheesy and fake can leave a negative impression.

Large, custom typography

Typography can be used to great effect to add personality and tone to a website. We expect to see the limits of typography to be pushed as high-definition screens allow for much sharper looking types. Large and hand rendered typography can be used with layering and parallax effects to create beautiful, unique and memorable designs.

Animation

Modern browsers have come a long way, becoming much more advanced. This is allowing designers to move away from static imagery and integrate seamless animations to catch the users’ attention and provide a fluid and satisfying browsing experience.

These animations can be anything from hover effects and loading animations to integrating scrolling and interactive. No matter the type, we think we’ll be seeing a lot more fancy effects in the future!

Asymmetry

Last year, use of the ‘grid’ to produce standardised layouts was immensely popular. While this trend is continuing, there’s a style that’s starting to appear that’s much less conventional: asymmetric and broken layouts.

This is a style of design where there are elements completely break outside of the standard grid. Done well, this can be combined with many modern techniques such as animations, bespoke typography and parallax effects to produce a truly beautiful and unique website.

Conclusion:

There’s one common theme that links all of the popular and up and coming trends – website need to tell a story. Static blocks of information is no longer enough, we need to add emotion and life into our designs from the use of real imagery, custom typography and animation to create bespoke  and engaging  websites that connect with users on an emotional  level.

Nick Wearing

Developer

Although Nick only has only been in the web design industry for a couple of years, he quickly became a valuable member of the Nexus Websites team.