The web turned 20 this year. And as all young adults discover, it’s time to look a little more sophisticated. If your website still is full of teenage angst, it’s time to get on board with some of the pretty radical changes to web design that futurists are predicting.
Here is a roundup of the hottest web design trends you’ll see in 2014:
Flat Design
Computer and smartphone screens are flat. Yet, until now, website designers tried to trick your eye and use drop shadows and heavy textures to fake a 3-D experience. No more. The most-hyped website design trend that marketers can consider is flat design. According to LunaWeb, a minimalist interface, solid blocks of saturated color, creative typography, strong lines, no shadows, and few or no gradients characterize flat design. Microsoft’s Windows 8 is an example.
Neon
We can blame the fashion insiders for this trend. Yes, the hot pinks and glowing greens of the 80s are back, and web designers are using neon color palettes to make websites pop. The marketers at Smartcheck point to the Create Digital Media site as an example.
Responsive Design
One of the most talked-about trends in 2013 should reach fever pitch in 2014, as more and more websites will be optimized to view on a variety of screen sizes and resolutions. The growing army of people surfing the web from their mobile devices is driving this trend. For more information, read “Responsive Web Design: Any Device, One Seamless User Experience,” from our library.
Mix-and-Match Typography
It may seem like an ADD-riddled trend, but some web designers say that mix-and-match typography will be popular in 2014. LunaWeb points to the Brooklyn Soap Company site as a “good example of three font styles mixed beautifully.” To try out this trend without creating some wild modern art experiment, “stick with one font in each larger typographical category,” according to LunaWeb.
Parallax Scrolling
If you’re a gamer, you’re already familiar with parallax scrolling. It allows designers to control the depth of objects. Combined with HTML5 and CSS3, parallax scrolling makes animations come alive, with very little design cost. Shani Nestingen at GovDelivery calls parallax scrolling a “cosmetic tool that can impress visitors that have never seen your site before. It’s your ‘wow’ factor.”
Single Page
This trend often is used in conjunction with parallax scrolling, and it’s as simple as it sounds. Many website designers are pouring all content and images on one single page, allowing readers to scroll through instead of skipping from page to page. “You get to eliminate the uncalled-for clutter that’s unfortunately so omnipresent on many professionals’ and businesses’ websites,” says blogger Marc Schenker in Web Design Library.