It may be a bit late, but I did a little bit of research on the web design trends of 2014. It is important to stay on top of these trends – not only to develop a cool site for you or your company, but to provide a simple interface for your users that follows conventions they understand.
Here are the articles I read ( in no particular order, just the first ones to show up in a Google search) :
- http://thenextweb.com/dd/2013/12/29/10-web-design-trends-can-expect-see-2014
- https://econsultancy.com/blog/64096-18-pivotal-web-design-trends-for-2014
- http://www.webascender.com/Blog/ID/449/14-Website-Trends-for-2014#.U-pgoUhOTnA
- http://99designs.com/designer-blog/2014/01/22/top-10-web-design-trends-for-2014/
- http://teslathemes.com/blog/top-10-web-design-trends-to-watch-in-2014/
Based on what I read, there are 11 basic themes across all the articles:
- Flat Design, simple or monochromatic color schemes (black and white plus one color)
- Typography – large type, expressive fonts
- Hero Areas vs Sliders, big images, image backgrounds, video backgrounds
- Mobile First, responsive design, simplified design, CSS instead of images
- Scrolling sites, parallax scrolling
- Less text, richer content, more graphs, videos, interaction, infographics
- Short, burst content (a la twitter)
- Micro UX – heightened attention to tiny details
- Cards, Tiles
- Minimalist navigation, fixed navigation, drop the sidebar
- Social media integration, 3rd party services, SAAS, open source
I have practiced most of these trends myself in the last 2 years – flat design, image backgrounds, mobile first and responsive deign, more graphs, micro UX, minimalist navigation. The others I have seen in my travels through the internet. It is good to know that even through all the years, I still haven’t lost it.
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