Just finished going through an article at thenextweb.com about designs we’ll expect to see next year.
TheNextWeb: Web Designs Trends Can Expect to See in 2014
A lot of things I’ve already expected. The Flat UI design is gaining steam with it being heavily featured in Microsoft’s Metro UI. Metro is much maligned in the desktop pc region but from my experience, I like the tile design that they used to display information panels on the Windows Phone. My mom uses the Lumia 620 (which was recommended by me) and the design works well with navigation. I think the best compliment the flat UI can get is that Apple’s designer Jony Ive has used it as a theme for his icon design. Basically removing all the emboss and bevel elements on the icons. Heck, it’s even used by FIFA 14 for the menu interface.
Another thing I expect to gain steam is responsive design, a lot of websites have been catching up in terms of making their designs responsive. Of course, most of our local sites in Malaysia are still lagging but it’s nice to see that responsive design becoming a standard rather than a trend.
The growth of mobile phones as one of the primary quick “go-to” IT device or gadget is going from strength to strength. I would expect that there will be more applications coming out as the established organizations or companies make use of the current large user base on mobile. It’s never to late to learn, and I hope that my personal knowledge base continues to progress positively in developing on mobile.
Typography is usually one of my last things to consider in web design(because a bulk of my clients either don’t care or they have their own preference). But going through the article just now I do agree that the use of san-serif fonts are getting stale and repetitive. That’s something to consider when I go for my next web design. Another thing is simplicity, colors will need to be minimized and that trend will continue throughout next year with more sites adopting a “Hero” areas. I’m not sure whether sliders will be phased out in the near time, it’s still a relevant and useful way to convey information in quick succession. I assume that on E-Commerce sites the slider trend will continue but maybe perhaps on corporate and personal sites it will be toned down. But I do positively think that sliders on mobile or small screens, especially the responsive ones don’t quite work as well as scrolling down through hero areas.
Just a couple of things to consider for next year, it never hurts to stay in the game.
Cheers.