What Changes Are We Going To See in Web Design: Five Predictions

Web design is an area of technology consistently experiences rapid changes. It’s important that businesses keep up with these developments, or they risk falling behind. Below, we’ve outlined our five predictions for web design in 2016.

1.The end for scrolling Banners and Images on the front page:

We live in a world where people are rushed. They don’t have time to spend 30 seconds to a minute while your banner scrolls through its various headings. People rarely watch landing page banners. Sure, when they first came out, they looked flashy and leant the site an air of professionalism, but it was just a novelty. People weren’t reading them.

Now, they just slow things down. Websites load more slowly, leading to a high bounce rates and poor user experience. This is compounded by the fact that they’re difficult to see on mobiles and tablets.

This trend’s on its way out.

2.More text less imagery:

Partly as a response to the greater access by mobile phones and tablets, and partly because they don’t serve much function, lager image headers are on their way out. Today, web designers are replacing this with premium copy. The message is clear: we’re making the message clear. OK, so that wasn’t very clear at all, but what we mean is that rather than using images to convey meaning, web designers are becoming more direct, and using words. For instance, you're going to see a big increase in ‘call to action’ type language. We can see this trend happening in the web design company London and around the world, with their emphasis on high-end writers and a move away from content farming. If you have an English Degree, now is your time to shine!

3.Minimalism continues to rule the roost:

We are constantly bombarded with information in the 21st century. People have neither the time, nor the inclination, to care much about it. They want to know what they need to know and they want to find it as easily as possible. The search engine algorithms are starting to favour sites that have a clear and concise purpose.

Simple content: Your customer/reader reaches the website, they easily find what they’re looking for, they stay around a while, the search engines love them.

Complex and repetitive content: Your customer/reader reaches the website, struggles to find what they’re looking for, and goes off in search of your competitor’s site.

4.Professional images:

We’ll be seeing far fewer images than we saw in the past; but of those we do see we’ll expect to see quality. People are starting to turn away from stock imagery and themes. If you’re serious about making your website work, then professional photography and design is will set you ahead of the competition.

5.Hidden off-screen menus:

People access the internet in so many different ways, that we need to establish design techniques that work across the board, rather than focussing on a single type of device. Once way we’ll see this happen is in the use of off-screen menus. Large icons will direct users’ attention to the fact that there’s a menu lurking off to the side, and with the click of a button, it will fly back out. This will make navigation much more intuitive.