Servage Magazine

According to its definition, trends may come and go, especially in an industry as versatile as web design. But thanks to a spiraling increase of mobile device usage across the globe, one thing is definitely not going away anytime soon in terms of web design: Responsiveness. Mobile optimized is a must-have for any 2016 website.

Mobile

With the mobile ecommerce industry expanding fast and due to the fact that 60% of all Internet searches are performed from a mobile device, it is pretty clear why mobile usage is one of the most important things influencing web design patterns in 2016. Some designers have quickly adopted to this trend and are suggesting to use rather vertical pages, that use scrolling as the main navigation tool and are easier to be converted to smaller screen sizes.

New technology

Technology advancement is another key factor that can drive changes in terms of web design, or what developers can create. You probably remember the “Flash era” and how you had to wait for ages for a website to load. All that is now being replaced by smart and interactive animations that can captivate the user’s attention and guide him throughout the entire website. Some of the most used and appreciated animations are the parallax effect and the pop-up notifications boxes, as long as they are not being annoying, too big or impossible to close.

Hover, motion and visual effects

The hover effect is a big hit on many e-commerce websites, but it can basically be used for any kind of website. However, even if these animations are designed to enhance the user experience, they may cause some problems in older versions of Internet Explorer, so be careful when testing a website across multiple browsers. Furthermore hover is no really possible with touch devices. 360 degrees motion animations are also possible now and are used to draw the user’s attention to a specific product or area of the website. Galleries and slideshows can bring a lot to the table in terms of trending web design and user interaction, as they can present a lot of information through clear images without overwhelming the user.

Users also have some power over design trends, as they are the ones that ultimately decide how to use the available technology, whether they like a website and can use it, or expect it to work in a different way. That’s why trends like flat or minimalist design are hanging on in 2016 and don’t appear to be going away anytime soon. Recently they have also been joined by Material Design, or also called a more interactive version of Flat Design, specially created to give the visitor a more realistic perception of the website by using shadows and the notion of movement and depth.

The hamburger menu is another thing people got used to using, and it is present more and more on desktop versions of a website, not just the mobile ones. Whether it’s just a way of experimenting or trying to completely get rid of navigation and menus, the hamburger menu seems to do the trick for many websites out there and we’ll probably see more of it in 2016.