A new website! Sounds exciting but rings alarm bells because of the time, effort and upheaval that is involved. There is branding to consider, designs to wade through, content to write, images to find etc etc etc, and that is before the migration takes place and there are a heap of bugs to be fixed to get it working correctly. All that without losing those valuable visitors. It sounds a similar pain to getting a new kitchen fitted right? Very exciting until it is underway, then it is just a mess!
After a visit to my friendly web design agency, Alniro Web Design Winchester, my mind was put at rest. Particularly in view of my biggest problem, what are the current trends for websites and what should I chose?
They explained to me what I needed to know and the web design trends to look out for in 2016. They might help you too:
Welcome CSS3
CSS, the language that tells HTML how to display it’s elements on screen, has finally rolled out its level 3 version. Welcoming CSS3 means that web developers have more control over how sheets are displayed, providing a more uniform look.
Animations
Popular in 2015, animation is set to be even bigger in 2016. Delight your visitors with clever animation techniques, provided they live up to expectation they can instil a sense of confidence in the user which will guide them further into your site. Don’t over do it though, it is just as easy to turn them off completely.
Hamburger Menus
The popular “hamburger icon” has been around for a long time, however it is growning in popularity now with the event of mobile browsing. The “hamburger menu” is commonly used in design to hide navigation until it is expanded. This creates space and gives the website a cleaner more organised look, great on mobile devices. It is not for every website though. Be aware that it can be common for users to miss large sections of your site if the navigation is not obvious.
Cinemagraphics/Animated GIF’s
Cinemagraphics or animated GIF’s as you might know them, have been around for some time, but again have recently grown massively in popularity. They allow you to bring your photographs to life, displaying a small snippet of movement.
Improvements in technology have made them much easier to produce, so it is easy to grab your visitors with a rotating logo for example. They can be great fun too.
Typography
Look out for big, bold statements in typography. The range of fonts accessible to professional web designers and developers has increased greatly. So get ready for a move away from the uniform and even corporate looks of plain, bold black and welcome an explosion of large, colourful fonts. The way that we view text online is about to change.
So, those are the trends to be looking out for in 2016. Do any of them inspire you to make changes to your current website, or perhaps design a new one altogether? Let us know in the comments.
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