5 Website Design Tips for 2016
For the effort of maintaining the banner, gathering
the assets and the file size of those assets –which
hurts your mobile load time– carousels simply
aren’t worth it. Simple, clear messaging will
continue its rise to prominence as a result.
Card design continues its rise in popularity
Card design is just what it sounds like, rectangular
blocks or ‘cards’ that contain content and images
arranged in a grid.
N
ow that 2016 is in full-swing as we see with
each New Year, web design trends are
cycling and evolving from years past. The
following five tips are tools for making the most
of the new wave of design trends.
Don’t just hide all your content in a hamburger
menu
The problem boils down to the fact that, as
designers, we have assumed the burger menu
design and purpose are universally understood.
It is a simple, elegant solution to menu
overcrowding on mobile applications and
websites. This has been combated in a number of
ways. Some major sites have struggled with its
application – NBC News rather infamously
applied the burger menu to their desktop site as
well with poor results, eventually switching back.
Much depends on the audience that will use the
site or application. Ultimately, it reinforces the
importance of user testing and factoring in
multiple rounds to any new digital project.
Image carousels can be bad for your SEO
Google’s search engine has stopped crawling meta
keywords which was traditionally how frames of
an image carousel were logged into the search
ranking. This has been the case for years now, but
the click-through rate for any frame of a carousel
beyond the first drops dramatically.
This has existed for some time, but has risen to
prominence in step with the shift in focus to
responsive design. Because these cards follow
predictable grids, they very naturally allow for
flexible widths from desktop to mobile.
Material design steps onto the main stage
The last big design shift and one you’ve likely
noticed, was the introduction of flat design – being
flat graphics, shapes and elements in pursuit of
clean, fast-loading sites. Material design was
touted as the evolution of flat design by Google
back in 2014, though mostly focused on Android
apps and interface.
Subtle animations everywhere
Animations have always been a part of web
designs. In contrast to dancing babies or the era of
Flash websites that saw everything move, 2016 will
see the continuation of subtle animations.
Take something as simple as filling out a form or
completing an e-commerce checkout. Progressing
through the process involves a lot of formulaic
interactions and in the instance of e-commerce,
combating cart abandonment is an ongoing effort.
Simple user cues along the way, though not gamechanging, are an easy way to engage the user and
indicate they are completing everything correctly.
Chris Fernandez, Assoc Creative Director Brownstein
Group www.brownsteingroup.com
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