10 Quick Tips About Custom Website Design
The Website development industry is changing at a rapid pace. What is a rage today seems to be horribly outdated in a matter of few months. When it comes to creating customized websites, it is not about blindly emulating trends. Whether your niche is healthcare, finance, technology or hospitality knowing proven web design tips is critical to stay ahead.
While having amazing content and intuitive interface are always critical for the success of your website development project, being able to tell users a story through your website is a big plus. Web design and development have transcended the traditional approach of sell and only sell. Today, it is about trying to help users by telling a story.
Here are few tips and trends that will help you help you take your web design strategy to the next level.
1. Don’t challenge for sake of creativity
Undoubtedly, creativity is the essence of customized websites. After all, you need to stand tall in the crowd of millions in the web sphere. In the mad rush, to look different and cool, designers put usability and convenience at stake. Don’t challenge certain aspects of websites. For instance, take the navigation bar on website which has tabs for About Us, Services, Contact Us and lots more. People are bound to look for information, so don’t challenge the set pattern.2. Typography rules
Yes. We saw this trend catching up in 2014 and likely to be a key in 2015. Large typography will be used increasingly to enhance the hierarchy of the page. This will ensure that visitors read the largest font on the page first.
3. Images take center stage
Images are getting better with every passing day and taking customized websites by storm. There are no barriers of limited bandwidth. Images will continue to take centre seat in overwhelming ways. Techniques will continue to evolve ranging from responsive resizing to optimizing image for quick loading.
4. Embrace responsive design
For the responsive design critics, the message is loud and clear. It is here to stay. Make sure you hire a web designer to leverage the power of responsive designing. The year 2015 will witness the emphasis shift towards performance and speed. It is not just about your site opening on all devices, rather performing at optimum speed.
5. Utilize Visual Hierarchy
In today’s competitive webspace, ultimately everything boils down to putting content in correct spaces to attract eyeballs. Visual hierarchy is all about following a pattern that can help you optimize content on your site. Users scan through information from top-to-bottom, left-to-right. So putting the most relevant content could mean more clicks.
6. Material design
Simplicity is the ultimate form of sophistication. Gone are those primitive days of complex interfaces. Minimalist, clean and simple interface that allow for high performance on mobile devices are fast becoming a rage. It is all about reducing clutter and highlighting the essential elements. 2015 will also see the rise of material design. Considered to be a natural progression of Apple’s design philosophy, Google’s Material guidelines focus on core design principles with particular emphasis on mobile.
7. Micro-interactions
But what do you mean by micro-interactions? Well, this new trend is indeed a paradigm shift in custom website design . Micro interactions are small tasks that help accomplish one major task. They improve engagement level and effectively make a static webpage more interactive and engaging, as well as provide affordance, feedback, and overall better user experience.
8. Skeuominimalism
It is about time to give a new twist to skeuomorphism. While this trend is fast fading, the all-new flat approach seems a conservative move away from gradients, glossy, and drop shadows. It is about merging the best aspects of flat design with the distinctiveness of skeuomorphism. This end result will be flat Skeuominimalism, basically minimalist icons trying to convey content in easy to understand manner using real world objects.
9. Scrolling instead of clicking
Parallax scrolling animation is fast catching up. Today’s mobile users prefer scrolling instead of clicking. It lets information to flow easily and requires less loading time.
10. Webgraphics
Just like infographics, webgraphics allow large amount of information sharing but allow the user to interact with information physically. They are visually appealing and significantly improve user retention. Welcome to the age of interactive infographic.
Design tips and trends mentioned above are rapidly becoming a norm in web design. However, designers are responsible for transforming ideas into standards and best practices. Remember, tips and tricks come and go, but a strong emphasis on user experience and quality won’t fade away ever.