As we are well into the second half of the year, experts are already turning their attention to what will be the biggest trends in web design for next year. While not all trends will affect all businesses, it never hurts to know what is likely to be the biggest issues and how these will affect your business. So what are the early front runners for biggest trends for 2018?
Mobile First release
It has been on the cards for a while but it looks like Mobile First, Google’s dramatic shift of emphasis from desktop to mobile will take place in early 2018. For many companies, with the furore about mobile friendly websites a little while back, this won’t be quite as big an issue as it might seem but there are some clear issues to consider for its arrival. So, if you are planning a redesign, update or just want to ensure you don’t lose your ranking, start considering it in your calculations.
Bold, expressive design
Typography has always been an important element in website design and 2018 looks set to see it become a bold and expressive central element. Part of this is that emphasis on mobile – typography doesn’t slow down a site the way big images do but can have a big effect on the visual effect of the site. So one big trend looks to be a move away from hero images and towards creative text-based designs.
Progressive Web Apps
Almost 90% of our time on smartphones is spent on an app so this has led to the recognition that apps are crucial going forward. This has also led to the creation of a blended app that mixes traditional app behaviour with web page behaviour – known as a Progressive Web App. These will continue to develop and see the inclusive of things like splash screens, push notifications and animated page transitions following the lead set up Twitter, Medium and the Washington Post.
Hamburger Menu
Another design trend that is led by the dominance of mobile is the hamburger menu. If you have been to a website and seen a little trio of horizontal lines in the corner, then you have experienced the hamburger menu. It allows sites to easily compress the main navigation into a little box that expands when tapped and means the space used by the main menu can be used for something else.
Micro-interactions
The use of micro-interactions is a way to make people interact more with a website and removes traditional static web page design. We already use these micro-interactions a lot on Facebook – when ‘like’ became a host of other little emojis to give a fuller picture of what you thought. The use of these micro-interactions also helps to flatten the speed bumps created when a page reloads while keeping the analytics information accurate.
Conclusion
2018 is going to be an interesting and even exciting year for web designers but there is going to be a lot to learn and master. From the Mobile First change to the many smaller design trends, it looks to be a fascinating year that might forever change the industry.
