5 web design trends tips for 2016

2015 is drawing to a close, so what can we at Tigerfish suggest to make the most of the ever changing world of web design in the next 12 months?

1) The way we consume the web has changed…

So don’t be afraid to make it easy for people responsive design, standard themes and WordPress have all had huge impacts on the aesthetics of modern websites. As a result, structural similarities are increasingly obvious, and ultimately lead to resemblances in feel and function. Whilst this is likely to continue and become more evident in 2016, you shouldn’t see it as a negative.

People want to feel comfortable on the web. The reason that a lot of user interfaces are standardised is that people understand how to use them, and they actually work. The most important thing you need to ensure is that every single user on your website has a hassle-free experience and that they achieve everything that they set out to. A beautiful website, with a properly functioning interface is the priority, whilst providing something that users have never encountered before doesn’t even make the top ten.

2) Be bold with colours

It seems like a simple and obvious thing to say when advising on design trends for any design medium over any time period, but we simply can’t ignore it; 2016 will be the year of happy, bright and vibrant tones. We’re not suggesting that you splash neon green over every page of your site, but we are telling you to not be coy with the digital brush.

Colour always denotes something, and helps significantly with a user’s journey. Whether we like it or not, colour impacts on our decision making online and is one of the defining elements of a relationship with a brand. If you’re shy about your use of colour in 2016, then you’re going to fall behind. From over the top cartoon stylings, to understated and stylish sites, design struggles to break through without a firm grasp of the colour palette.

3) Live life through a lens

Now we’ve ensured that you’re not going to shy away from bold use of colour in 2016, let’s take a look at another fashion that’s going to take hold in the next 12 months; colour lenses.

These stylish filters, which are basically just overlaid partially transparent colour blocks, give you simplistic control over how an image comes across. So, a bleak landscape with a bright yellow filter suddenly becomes a tropical paradise, and so on and so forth. This isn’t the most refined way of injecting your photos with a life of their own, but web designers will find success with it so you might as well give it a go.

4) ‘Below the fold’ is well and truly resigned to the past

We’ve known this for a while, but in 2016 it will officially be etched onto the stones of time; ‘people are willing to scroll’. Okay, the stones of time thing isn’t true, but the scrolling thing is. Gone are the days of text heavy pages with the least pertinent information at the bottom, and the only thing people will read at the top. Mobile devices have caused this shift in mentality, and browsing on mobiles is not going anywhere in a hurry.

Harnessing the power of the scroll works terribly well for organisations that have a good story to tell in the first place. Thankfully, most organisations do have stories that people want to engage with, and at Tigerfish we love to help you do just that.

Scroll based websites also give you the control to split up your sections visually so you don’t necessarily have to create different section types in the back end. As they say, you’re in full control with the scroll.

5) Don’t wait for people’s attention to expire

The concept is ‘lazy loading’ and the premise is that you’re given content immediately upon arriving at a site to tide you over whilst the rest of the content loads. This is all part of a new internet, where websites constantly feed new content and we all receive some kind of gratification immediately.

At the moment only the big boys like Facebook and Instagram are using this ‘lazy loading’ approach, but it is set to disrupt things for the rest of us. That being said it should help simplify things in the long run, as we’ll be able to chop up our content and load it one piece of a time. This should help smooth out the user experience and keep our audiences engaged in the vital few second we have to capture their attention.

So, that’s it, our 5 quick tips for web design trends to look out for in 2016.

We’d love to hear your thoughts on how you think it’ll go, so come and chat to us on Facebook and Twitter now.