Happy holidays to all of our current clients and visitors to our website. At this time of year we are always reminded of the many people during the year who made our success possible. From the staff at Inside Design Orlando we wish you all a safe and enjoyable holiday season.
Our post today will be all about web design trends for the new year ahead. Gradients and duotones will continue to dominate the website scene in 2019. These trends have a lot of staying power and versatility for designers. Designs this year will be sleek and have a modern up to date look and appeal Passing fads die quickly so as we design for the business owner, we will be delivering a visual user experience to last. Brands can expect eye-catching designs that are quick to load and easy to navigate. You have only a few seconds appeal to your target audience. If you have a slow-loading site your chances are cut to a minimum. This year each site owner must prioritize the speed with which the website loads if they want to be competitive.
Mobile first matters:
Each design should be mobile-friendly first since Google chooses to index mobile sites above those not mobile-friendly. A simple, yet sophisticated in look and overall experience is the goal. Mobile-friendly sites are now holding priority over desktop sites. We are fundamentally changing the way we design with this new mobile trend. We begin first by developing a site for the mobile user. Once this is done, we move on to design for the desktop and laptop computers. It is now all based upon these mobile ranking factors for SEO (search engine optimization). We are expecting this trend to continue into the future.
The speed of the internet:
Users today are completely spoiled and very impatient. They do not expect to be kept waiting and will want to click on a site and have it load almost instantly. We are seeing that many end users will not stay on any one site which takes more than two to three seconds to load. If your site loads slowly you should immediately set out to determine the cause. You could have an outdated site which is not user-friendly. Or you could have excessive programming and bloated content which keeps the site from loading quickly.
If you have a “shared” server, this might be the culprit. Check with your server and find out what is the best option to improve your site loading speed. No matter how beautiful your website is, no one wants to wait these days. The options are endless and the competition is fierce. You could be losing customers due to a small problem that could be handles quickly and efficiently.
Site content and images slow down the site:
The day of large imagery and bloated javascript is gone. Uncompressed video files are also not suggested in this challenging environment. All of this must be considered as we design websites. Photographers for an example live and die by their photographs. But adding too many images which causes the site to load more slowly could change their chances for success considerably. Choosing the best few images will work best to keep them competitive and keep the site loading quickly.
Clean design methods:
In the past couple of years, designers have stuck to flat design which is a clean and simple design platform. This design method helps us to meet the speed requirements which Google looks for. Mobile searches are increasing with each day and moving forward we will continue to follow this form of design. No more image heavy sites which load slowly. We now stick to a sleek and clean minimalist design.
The design aesthetic of Flat design is a beautiful choice for every brand today. The clutter is gone and it focuses on using vibrant bright colors which draw the user in and keeps them on the site to see more. With this Flat design method you will also notice more white space is allowed within the design dimensions. Every part of the site is now providing a more engaging user experience. This better method for design makes each website more attractive to Google and other top search engines since they are easier to crawl.
The broken grid method for web design:
Some of our designers are looking at creating a broken grid design. This is a design effect that uses an overlapping effect to bring about a new creative flair. The grid overlaps the other elements on the webpage, creating a layering effect.
Ways to break out of the pack using broken grid design:
- Use moving elements, accent colors and animations
- Designers could use parallax scrolling animation
- Try using element overlays and layering
- separate content to help with readability
- use white space for a more inviting design result
When developing a broken grid system you don’t need to stick to two columns and the sidebar. The grid provides plenty of opportunities to align and adjust the layout. There are many opportunities to be creative.
Inside Design Orlando News & Views for December of 2018
Congrats to Child, Senior Safety on their great new mobile-friendly site just launched. They look forward to being more independent and learning to manage their WordPress platform. We also are extending happy holiday wishes to Sterling International Photography. Their new site is bringing in new clients and they are happy to have a new look for the new year.
