The new year is just around the corner. As you’re working on those last minute gifts and planning for New Year’s, if you’re anything like us, you’re probably doing so while wondering what shape web design will take in 2016. What exciting innovations and trends will come forward? How will creating a website change and how can we best prepare for these new developments?
In this post, we will explore some of the most thrilling trends, concepts and features that will make 2016 a splendid year for web design. Buckle up, fellow web design fiends; it’s going to be really fun.
Google’s Material Design Concepts
Named after the inspiration of real-life materials like ink and paper, Google’s new visual language gives these real materials the dynamic quality of digital design. Material Design draws on the fundamentals of graphic design – typography, grid, space, colors.
What does this mean for web design? A minimalist look that is nevertheless multidimensional, a design that flows into a clear order of the page. Get ready for extensive use of icons, shapes, shades and layering. Cause we are living in Google’s world – a material world.
The Rise of Video Backgrounds
Website backgrounds don’t have to be boring and static. They can set the tone to the entire design, convey important information to site visitors or even create powerful branding messages. This is why video backgrounds are becoming so popular and why we will see even more of them in 2016. A cleverly-directed video background can liven up your whole site. It’s not just another version of a site background, but an additional channel for engagement with your visitors.
If setting up a video backgrounds sounds like too much of a hassle, we have really good news: you can even shoot great video backgrounds with your own mobile phone!
Enter Funky Colors
Get ready for some pretty exciting color schemes because 2016 is going to be energetic and bold. We will be seeing both a richer color palette that combines different shades creatively, as well as an elaborate monochromatic exploration of single colors.
There’s more to website colors than just style and looks. In web design, colors build an atmosphere and communicate emotions and mindsets to site visitors. Whether you decide to explore various hues of one bold color or to mix and match, take into account the mood that you want to establish. The bottom line is that colors are very much in, so don’t be afraid to embrace them.
“Wall to Wall” Site Strips
We will soon start seeing more wide strips dividing website layouts into rectangular sections. These “wall to wall” or full-width strips are not only dazzling in looks, they are a highly functional design elements that break your site elegantly into clear pieces of content. They can feature full-width images, large typography, or create an informational section. The strips take the full width of the site but the length can be flexible.
Wix makes it super simple for you to add all kinds of pre-designed strips and move them around your site to change their order.
Parallax Scrolling Reigns Further
In parallax scrolling, the background layer moves slower when scrolling than the foreground layer. This example will clarify how it looks. This creates a sense of dimensionality, a smoother browsing experience and has shown to decrease bounce rates (i.e. the number of visitors who quickly leave your site without meaningful engagement).
Since 2016 celebrates dynamic web design, parallax scrolling, which can be spotted around the web already, will continue to be a prominent feature. Applying it to your Wix site is as easy as one click – check it out.
Design in Motion
Movement in web design is making a big comeback. If you asked us four years ago, we’d advise you to stay away from animations in web design, but recently motion design has reached a level of sophistication that makes it into a desirable decoration for many types of websites. Moving images, animations, gif files – web designers are finding innovative ways to integrate these into their work and it is really sweet.
Customized Visuals to Consider
It’s impossible to avoid using stock images and graphics entirely, but in 2016, we will be seeing less of these ready-made visuals and an increase customization of visual material online. True, obtaining original materials is not necessarily the most economical option, but there is a certain value to presenting photographs and illustrations that were created solely with your brand or your website in mind. This type of investment is often worth your while.