With each New Year comes new website design and development trends. As an SEO franchise and web design agency, we ranked the top 5 website design trends of 2015.
1. Longer/Scrolling Layouts
As mobile devices become a staple in our everyday lives, it’s becoming more common for websites to rely on scrolling layouts rather than linking as a means to display content. When participating in website design & development, it is crucial to understand what devices your consumers are accessing your webpages on. These scrolling, sometimes one page, sites make it easier for mobile devices to access all content at once, rather than waiting for spotty coverage to load each new page.
2. Block Grids
Block grid layouts have been gaining a lot of traction in recent years, particularly in ecommerce website design. These blocks (or circles, diamonds, etc) allow for the user to easily navigate your site, while also allowing you to subtly guide them exactly where you want. This grid essentially doubles as a larger, more enticing navigation bar. Grids also help organize the content and remove clutter, which transitions us into our next trend…
3. Simplicity
We’ve come a long way since the advent of the internet. Dated websites often boast too many graphics and special effects while newer, advanced sites are going for a clean look. Removing non essentials in favor of simplicity will make a site stand out against image-heavy, cluttered sites. Removing excess stimuli also speeds up page load time which makes users more apt to explore the site.
4. Story Telling
Every good web design agency knows that in order to increase the time spent on a site, the visitor must be engaged enough to access the inner pages. Dynamic story telling through parallax effects or through content can make the progression of page exploration feel natural. Creative plot lines and a beautiful presentation can be enough to pull a consumer through the depths of a site.
5. Header Options
Over the last few years, website design & development teams have brought us large background header images with equally as big text overlaid. In order to stand out, many companies are ditching this trend in favor of simply large text headers with no background image (this also improves the performance and speed of the site while making it appear cleaner). The perfect image can be enough to grab a web surfer’s attention, but so can simplicity. Currently there seem to be an equal number of companies utilizing both options but time will eventually tell which trend comes out on top.
