Trends in Web Design: Part 2
In Part 1, I talked about interactivity and multimedia. As I see it, those have become crucial to building a “sticky” site. So, besides adding interactivity and multimedia, and making your site mobile-friendly, which is essential, what are some of the trends that are out there?
The following trends are purely visual and why you would want one design strategy over another gets squishy pretty quickly.
1. Header image vs. no header image: One of the newest trends is to use no image at all in the header. It makes your site load faster and it stands out from the visual clutter on other sites, like this one. I love The Wave Company site for it’s absolutely uncluttered site and minimal color use.
You could say this is in direct opposition to the Big concept, number 2 in our list. Interestingly, The New Wave Company has also bucked the conventional wisdom of not having much copy. They felt they had something to say and couldn’t reduce to a few sentences. However, you’ll notice there is only one page. Simple, clean, mobile friendly.
2. Big: The New Wave Company also went with big headline type and few photos.
Big graphics, especially on the home page, are becoming more and more popular. It started with Flash, but HTML5 (our wev dev language of choice) has really made it work. These big graphics are the ones that really grab your attention when you land on the page – emotional, evocative, and always top quality. Born Group has taken BIG to the max. It can’t help but make a bold statement.
To really be effective, though, your photography must be big, lush, and supersharp. Your type should be imaginatively applied, colorful (even black becomes a color in these circumstances), and perfectly kerned for higher impact and to make the statement you want. Big, bold type, more than ever, is the true design element here. Rock group Rush’s site for its 40th anniversary tour makes a statement with type. Very large typography makes a visual statement that isn’t likely to be missed and it enhances the visual hierarchy.
3. Lots of white space: Minimal or no images, not only in the header but throughout the entire site. I love how the University of British Columbia has used white space and a minimal color palette to present a unified statement about the varied offerings at the university. The white space invites you in and gives you mental space to move around.
4. Bold color: This can be mostly in the type, but also color blocks with type in them or as independent design elements. UBC, above used blue and black. Commercial Type uses bold rainbow blocks of color to highlight their font offerings. All color all the time. Plus fonts, of course. Bicycle Speed Shop uses hot cyan blue with a little black to make the statement that they are all about fast bikes.
Bold colors and bold type demand that you are make a bold statement. These are not the choices for organizations that want to convey an image of comfort and conservative choices. Can you imagine any of these design devices being used for a bank or a retirement community? Likely not.