Top Design Trends 2014: Part 3
Top Website Design Trends for 2014: Part 3
Website usability, often referred to as User Experience (UX) is always evolving and there are no indications this will slow at all 2014. In fact, both the trends relating to mobile devices in Part 2 and trends relating to visuals in Part 3 will continue creating a constant need to develop and re-develop better functionality.
Here are 3 elements we expect website designers to be hyper-conscious of in 2014.
Experimentation with navigation
A number of trends are likely to lead to some experimentation with navigation over the coming year; Mobile design considerations are leading to minimalist navigation styles, increased use of icons (instead of words) and roll-downs. Other trends such as scrolling website design are likely to bring more websites with fixed menus that make navigation easy even when you’re at the bottom of your webpage.
While icons and colours can help to make navigation clearer and lighter for mobile devices, it’s critical to remember that sometimes plain on text provides the user with a better experience than an icon that’s not immediately recognisable or understood. Where hover text will help you explain your icon on a PC, it won’t appear on a smartphone.
Scrolling websites roll on
In the last couple of years scrolling websites have become increasingly popular, perhaps due to their natural suitability to mobile and general ease of use.
Over the coming year, we’re expecting parallax scrolling, infinite scrolling, horizontal scrolling and column based scrolling websites to become even more commonplace.
Website design refinements
As website designers continue to focus on making their sites and mobile applications user and mobile friendly, we’re likely to see more fine details, small enhancements and incremental improvement in all elements of the user experience of the coming year.
Some examples of the finer details are the mention of how long an article takes to read on the Medium website and the progress indicator on the Daily Beast site as you scroll through articles, which both help users be more efficient and manage their time better.
2014 will almost certainly see more and more sites and apps make small improvements that win big brownie points with their users.
iFactory applies the 5 Fives of Design to create websites that do their job. With an in-house team of designers with a finger on the pulse of slick visual trends, developers drawing on cutting edge technologies and a selection of Digital Strategists who understand the real business of digital, we’re ready to help you develop your next website or mobile application. Send us a shout out or call iFactory on 07 3844 0577.
