Web Design Trends for 2014

Here’s an interesting article I found written by Leslie Krenzelak.

Hot Web Design Trends for next year…

The web is constantly changing. It it’s landscape is determined by it’s users and after 20 years it’s users want a little more sophistication.Your trusty web designers and developers are ready for a little elegance as well.  Here of my top 10 Web Design Trends for 2014.

Content is still King

Expect clear, concise, original text, stunning photography and creative video.  I think there will be a big emphasis on keeping content funny and real (the human touch).

Story Telling

We will use storytelling to convey brand messages.  We will use websites to give users something to believe and participate in.

Responsive Design

Sites will have dynamic and fluid designs that look good on today tech (wide screen high res monitors, laptops, tablets and smart phones). That same design will carry over into tomorrow’s wearable devices.

Clean Design

You will see clutter free and elegant site, using just the bare minimum, bold colors and clear icons to make a huge impact.

Flat Design

Sites will be free from drop shadows and heavy textures.  Instead you will find solid blocks of saturated color, strong lines and creative typography.

Single Page Design

You will see more designers and developers using simple, clean, single page sites that allow users to scroll instead of skip from page to page.

Infinite Scrolling

Social media giant Pinterest made the technology popular and it stuck.  You will find more pages that will adopt this ability to keep loading continuously as you scroll down the page with out reloading.

Parallax Scrolling

This allows animations to come alive with an almost 3D effect (you may be familiar with this technology if you are a gamer).  The background moves at a different speed than the foreground object.

Fixed Header Bar and Navigation

Headers will stay stationary.  Users will scroll down and never be far from navigation.  This makes the users experience faster.

Stunning Mix and Match Typography

Designers will mix different style and size fonts to give sites visual interest.  Some will do it well… others, not so much!

You can already see these trends out in our internet universe today.  Heck, I’m working a website right now that incorporates at least 5 of these trends.  One thing is for sure, as users become more sophisticated, web design trends will continue to rise to the occasion.