Winter is coming. That means baking biscuits, drinking mulled wine, admiring fireworks, and making many good resolutions for the next year. And the web creatures do not hibernate, but instead search for the latest web design trends for 2015.
Material Design: the new Flat
The now well-known Flat Design is and remains the standard – but that does not mean stagnation, as it is constantly evolving. Google calls it “Material Design” and by that means Flat Design combined with subtle gradients, layers, and animations. Card Design, which is particularly known through Pinterest and Instagram, will also stay with us, as it offers the ideal conditions for personalising websites.
Everything is coming to life
Thanks to HTML5, animations on the web will be ubiquitous from 2015 at the latest. The one page websites, which are springing up like mushrooms, have boosted the trend of parallax scrolling animation. More and more is being triggered on websites by scrolling and less by clicking. This brings many advantages, which is why it will continue to prevail. The transitions from point to point on the website are smooth – no bumpy page reload with a new menu item.
Big is beautiful – and responsive!
Regarding background images and typography, there is a very clear motto for 2015: the bigger the better. It has been proven multiple times that larger fonts are beneficial for readability on the web, and even more focus will be placed on this in the future. For backgrounds in 2015: a photo or – even better – a video should use the largest possible area, regardless of the device in use. These two points suggest that responsive design must already be a prerequisite for every website. Here, however, designers and developers face new challenges in the coming year: smartwatches, smart TVs and co. demand completely new navigation systems.
Interaction desired: Webgraphics
Infographics have been indispensable for visualising more or less complex issues for a long time. But today an infographic is no longer enough – interactive webgraphics are the future. They also provide a large amount of information, but they allow the user to interact with the information, making them much more engaging and memorable. So definitely a must from 2015 for the appealing visualisation of demanding data.
Looking forward to 2015
As a designer with a (not really secret) soft spot for animation, the coming year will be anything but boring for me. But it's still a while until 2015. That's why we're going to play Secret Santa now at Santarama. The swaying Christmas decorations already give a hint of what awaits us soon.
