It’s a new year and we’re ready to embrace some of the latest movements in the industry. Last year we noticed an overwhelming acceptance for the multitude of devices now on offer and 2014 definitely boasts increased awareness of this. Check out Pipe & Piper’s “ones to watch” for 2014 below:

1. Flat Design

Apple

Web design has often grown in complexity over the years and while this will continue to be the case we will notice almost a step back in terms of UX. The “Flat Design” most commonly noticed in the new release of apple’s iOS 7. Everything has been stripped back to basics; removal of drop shadows, 3d gradients and much more. While not everyone has adopted this approach, what happens more often than not is when apple deliver a new design other designers within the marketplace follow suit. If you need an apple app specialist in Sheffield get in touch today.

Twitter

Another big name you will instantly recognise is Twitter’s new flat approach, they, like apple have reversed ideas on design. These new design ideologies remove any reminiscence of a “web 2.0” feel. By removing the shiny icons and navigation bars we are left with solid colours and more icons.

2. Dropping the Sidebar & Adding the Reveal Bar

For many years we’ve been getting used to lot’s of websites offering  sidebar which give you extra navigation links, now with increasing demand for less cluttered interfaces they are becoming increasingly hidden from view. Now it’s extremely important to know what type of device your user is using so you can provide them with an appropriate interface, whether it’s touch, tap, slide or click. By hiding the the sidebar it allows the designer to create a design with more impact to the user.

3. Less Text

Don’t worry “content is still king“! However we’re seeing more and more websites utilise the homepage as a large splash screen. With little text, more full screen images  & extenuated sexy typography becoming more prominent. We live in a world of constant information and we are now seeing designs which harness all this information and present it to you in bite-size chunks. Websites now portray a story to the user rather than presenting them with information overload, they take you on a journey

4. Hero Areas

These are the are the large banners that take the whole focus of the website, they normally appear on the homepage. This technique is becoming increasingly evident and will continue to shape design of websites throughout the rest of the year. These banners also tie in nicely with the trends 1) flat design and 3) less text. These areas will be bold and sometimes adventurous, there aims are to grip your attention.

5. Mobile First Approach

While designing for mobiles and tablets is nothing new, however we will be seeing more websites totally focus around smart devices first then build the desktop version on top of this model. We’re seeing complexity stripped from initial prototypes and extra functionality from the desktop sites added a later date in the development process. The reason for this increased approach is the fact that smartphones and tablets are gaining huge market share. Google developers have implemented this ideas for a few years and finally we are seeing the marketplace being persuaded.

Potential Trends for 2014…

HTML5 Canvas – For animations & games previously the web used Flash or Java to handle the heaving. However with apples decision to end Adobe Flash’s lifespan and Java’s need to install itself onto the users browser we can expect to see huge numbers of sites using the inbuilt browser technologies to display complex animations.

SVG – Another open source product which will most likely be hitting the headlines this year will be the Scaleable Vector Graphic. These allow images to be stretched with minimal distortion and also allow 3 dimensional shapes, there also great for analysing dynamic data such as numbers to product complex graphs and charts. There are millions of delicious examples of SVGs’ capabilities that are already out there in the marketplace and will only continue to grow.

Websites are still in evolutionary process, they continue to support and introduce new great features; which enables us to view richer content more easily than ever before. It’s always exciting to imagine what could be next for the www. Here in this article we delve into what’s currently hot this year in terms of web design.

Single Web Page

Lots of creative companies are going down the route of having a single page website. These sites utilise the navigation links to scroll to the relevant section. There are several positive and negative impacts single pages can have on a design. If Single Page is well designed then, you should be able to stay clear of most of it’s detractors, it’s worth knowing that there is a lot of work goes into making a single web page a slick and interactive product.

Positive Impacts

• Design looks creative and free flowing
• Looks different to the more traditional box layouts
• Content is already loaded so decreased loading times per section

Negative Impacts

• Harder for the design agency to maintain (may increase the cost)
• The company that has a single web page is mainly reliant on their website designers to maintain the website
• Not great for SEO as all sections are loaded on one page and not split into different cacheable URLs
• Slows initial loading time for webpage as all content is loaded at once.
• Website can confuse user if not extremely clear workflow

There’s no right or wrong way to design a website but there’s definitely some food for thought when thinking about implementing a single page app.

Minimalism

We are seeing increasing numbers of web apps deploying a minimalistic approach. There have been several influential products which have had an impact on this trend. Especially with the new windows 8 metro design for tablets, mobiles and desktop computers. Has seen many new websites spawning being heavily influenced by the windows design. Another example great example is the new XBOX 360 dashboard, this like the metro design is both simplistic and easy to use. This minimalism hides huge volumes of content into more palatable bite-sized chunks.

Typography

The use of typography in web design has always been considered by many an art form, since the inclusion of @font-face we have seen a huge reliance on custom fonts to change the way we view websites. This art form is not just appreciated by web designers but everyone! This year has seen some fantastic websites take advantage of some of the extremely elegant fonts that are now available. Whilst websites in the past have incorporated  typography as a large part of the design process, we are now starting to see nearly every major website rely on this technique.

Fixed Headers

The year of the fixed headers! This is a funny one because the ability for a user to have a fixed navigation bar has always been available, however it’s only been widely adopted by many sites fairly recently. The fact that fixed headers are so easy to incorporate begs the question of why have they not been around sooner?

However having fixed headers provides many advantages…

• Brand Building -It helps build the sites brand as the logo and brand name are always viewable
• Easier Navigation – Helps people navigate around your website more easily
• Stops Unecessary Scrolling – It can more often than not prevents the need to scroll all the way to the top/bottom of the web page
• Improves Usability – By improving the usability of the site you are in turn increasing the pleasure factor of the visitors viewing experience.

Responsive web design

Web design trends in 2013 could not be complete without mentioning the rise to prominence of “responsive web design”. It has been around for a while, like many other techniques listed, however the amount of sites that now offer a responsive layout to it’s users is only ever increasing.

The web is only heading in one direction and that is mobile, this is why many websites cater for different devices and screen sizes. A responsive website allows the owner of the website to serve the same content but to be displayed differently depending on your device. It’s a really cost effective way to reach as many people as possible, it’s very important not to alienate your visitors.

Stay up to date with the Latest Trends

With Pipe & Piper you can guarantee your business gets a head start by knowing your website is at the forefront of the digital age. Whether your in Sheffield, Barnsley, Rotherham, Doncaster or anywhere in the Yorkshire area we have happy clients all around the UK, so location is no problem for us!