Trends of Web Design - ActualThemes

In 2017, web designers will work closely with developers, create more bots and try to embed virtual reality technology into the sites. Such conclusions follow from the article head of the content strategy section of the Webflow project John Williams (John Moore Williams) about the trends of web design in 2017.

1. Content is more important than form. Designers realized that people visit sites because of their content, and not because of how they look. There is a transition to minimalism. Designers believe that the design of the site, its elements should allow the reader to focus on the message without slowing down the reading speed.

2. Close cooperation between designers and developers. Collaboration will be necessary because of the need to create mobile applications for sites. Such platforms as Google, Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn require the team to design work and more effective ways of solving so that the user remains on their page. Experts believe that the future is behind joint design.

3. Font is the main design element. To use a large and noticeable font began a long time ago. This trend will continue in 2017. All this is the influence of the theme of minimalism. Popular is a fat, catchy font, often replacing the main image pages. Fonts became larger and due to the fact that we had to optimize the site for mobile screens. And they simply ousted other elements.

4. New opportunities in graphic design. In the past few years, web designers have focused on the technique of CSS design. But in March 2017 in Chrome and Firefox will support CSS Grid. This will make more expressive layouts. Therefore, we can definitely talk about the evolution of graphic design.

5. The popularity of SVG-files. This scalable vector graphics presents great advantages for web designers and developers than traditional images in the format of JPG, PNG, GIF. SVG has many advantages: files are loaded quickly, they are adaptive and interactive, and they are easy to change.

6. Bright minimalist color. In 2016, designers looked for a form that would give the project an identity. They came to the conclusion that you need to use bright and bold colors. Redesign of some projects led to the revival of the brand. Take, for example, the Asana or Instagram service, which has been significantly transformed by the redesign. Gradients became quite popular. So the trend towards bright, monochrome images will continue in 2017.

7. The popularity of Flexbox. This is a convenient and functional module called the CSS Flexible Box Layout Module. He solves a huge number of tasks: all blocks are easily made “rubber”, which follows from the name “flex”. Elements can be compressed and stretched according to specified rules, occupying the necessary space. It is developed fairly quickly and allows you to use an effective way of making layout.

8. More attention to creating animations. Animation has long played a key role in interfaces. More and more there are visual tools with which you can easily create animations. Small interactive animation elements that carry a navigation function are popular: they help users to see the result of their actions or explain the further steps on the site. In 2017 this direction will gain momentum.

9. Personalization. About the personalization of content speak for a long time, but the desired result has not yet been achieved. It’s about adjusting the content to such user characteristics: demography (who is our user?), Behavior (what is he doing now, and what did he do last time on the site?), The context (from which device does the user go to the site?) . For example, some sites already offer users to tell about themselves: specify a profession, gender. This information will allow us to recommend the right content to the user in the future.

10. Non-standard grid. The last few years have been a lot of controversy about whether modern web design dies. But in 2016, there were many different ways to place elements on the page of the site. The classic grid is gradually disappearing into the past. The fact is that now the page does not have division into several clear columns: photos and text can be placed chaotically, they can even run against each other, thus making up unusual compositions.

11. Talk more with the help of bots. Experts believe that 2016 can be called the year of bots. But in 2017, there will be even more of them. And for their launch you need a user-friendly interface. Become popular simple, conversational language. And before the content managers will open new opportunities: they will become designers of bots. Also in 2017, a lot of investments will be invested in user content (forums, communities).

12. Fighting fake news. The presidential election in the US in 2016 showed how the Internet can influence the socio-political situation. The main conclusion was this: disinformation is very easy to produce. Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg says that the percentage of fake news in the social network is small, and he tells what steps Facebook is taking in the fight against misinformation. A group of university students came up with a plugin for Chrome, which marks the news. And Google and Facebook said they would limit the flow of advertising funds to fake news sites with the help of their tools.

13. Look into your brand. In 2016, design companies began to establish their own blogs. It became popular. To some extent, this is an attempt to give the brand a face. The focus was on three areas: brand, humanization and utility.

14. Virtual reality on the web. In 2017, virtual and augmented reality will affect the Internet, even if browsers are not yet able to support such formats. Of course, the sites will change and adjust. To get acquainted with such a tool that is able to embed virtual reality capabilities on the site, you can click on the link.

Do you know other influential trends in web design for 2017? Share it with us in the comment section below.