Our Web Design Exeter office has been so busy over these past months that, almost in a flash, we have passed through some enormous changes in the styles, trends and techniques inour craft in 2014. What are those that really jump out?
Close working between of web design and online marketing or SEO
Local SEO/online marketing company The Click Hub point out that: “Having a website and not marketing it is like waving in the dark: you know you’re doing it but nobody else can see you”. Therefore we web desingers have to be savvy to SEO and conversion rate optimisation (CRO). This involves designing structures that keep the user on site and sufficiently interested to make that sale or enquiry. It also means ensuring that a stie has well-structured and relevant content, as well as strong integration with social sharing sites such as Twitter, facebook, Google+ and many more.
Scrolling down the Street
Responsive design and the ‘Mobile First’ priority in web design and development means that scrolling down a page has superseded clicking and zooming. Think about it: isn’t a quick swish of the finger better than squinting, enlarging and being ovewhelmed by lots of content in a small space?
Images as far as the eye can see
One of the most engaging ways to make your site stand out from the crowd is by having beautiful content displayed prominently. This means top-noth photography or video clips forming an impressive, large visual landscape on which your visitors can land on and roam.
Material Design
Material design is flat design with a twist: a bit of perspective here, some gradients there, and you have a stronger connection between a website’s user interface and the real world. Google recently talked of their own graphical style: “A material metaphor is the unifying theory of rationalized space and a system of motion. Our material is grounded in tactile reality, inspired by our study of paper and ink, yet open to imagination and magic.” You can see their concept everywhere.
Typography for Everyone
Once upon a time, elegant fonts were the preserve of the expensive web designer, where fonts were purchased for a premium and sometimes browsers still refused to remnder them nicely. Thanks to the likes of Fontsquirrel and Google Fonts, the choices of affordable and free fonts are dovetailing. Websites are no longer restricted to a cluster of ‘web-friendly’ fonts, nor does it cost a much to execute wonderful web typography. It’s a real dream for the graphic designers on our team, who simply want to see the elegant type translated onto webpages perfectly.
There are many more changes going on that we can’t document them all. But we will continue to give a shout out to those that stand out.