5 tendencies in web design that are to stay

When I decided to pick this topic for an article, I’ve spent a few hours learning all sorts of posts and blogs. An interesting thing is that a big number of authors confuse trends with fads. It’s time to differentiate these two different definitions and figure out what real trends mean out there in the industry.

A trend is something that takes long to grow to people’s hearts and ages to fade away, if ever. A fad gets popular within a very short period of time and quickly disappears as if it’s never existed before. As an example, organic food would be a trend when the latest popular diet would be a fad. The first one won’t disappear when the second could be replaced by something new at a rate of knots. The same rule is applied in web design industry. If you concentrate on the latest bells and techniques, you basically risk to create a project with a very short life. On the contrary, if you understand real design trends, your website won’t look outdated in a year time.

Trend 1. The days when designers could use a limited amount of fonts available on users computers have gone in the past. Nowadays, Google fonts and Typekit make it possible to use unlimited number of fonts in web designs, significantly enhancing their appeal to the visitors. Since recently, more and more websites are built with a strong attention paid to typography.

Trend 2. A brick-like design grid is a trend that features solid block of colours together with blocks that carry photos and text. There is nothing special in this trend and yet, it appeals to the visitors with its simplicity because it offers a well-organized overview of the site content. Contrast between colours and text arouses interest and motivated people to stay longer on the site and learn more about it.

Trend 3. Homemade trend is about creating simple, modest and warm designs, something you would expect to see at your grandmother’s. The elements used in web designs are unpretentious, hand-written or drawn and combined with subtle textures and colours.

Trend 4. Large-sized and bold headlines are well-known in graphic design, but they’ve become a new trend in web design industry. More and more designers use this technique to attract visitors’ attention to the site. And yet, you need to make sure that what you’re going to say sounds compelling.

Trend 5. Photography backgrounds is another great trend pioneered by photographers. Clients absolutely love this trend because it looks and feels really good.

If you’d like to create a website that would have a staying power, consider all the above trends. These design approaches won’t fade away. Besides, you can easily combine them to get a design of your dreams!

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