Public Relations & Social Marketing Insight

Websites that are considered as modern and fresh today, will not be treated in the same manner tomorrow because Web design trends are changing constantly with time. Professionals associated with the industry are aware of the fact that every year brings new challenges and opportunities in the field of web design and development.

Therefore, it is important to know how to make them flexible and adaptive towards the rapidly changing trends of website design. Here, we have put together a list of web design trends that will have a bigger impact in 2018....

2017 is the year we return to the organic roots and we will see a return to the natural. In terms of colors, the start has been given by Pantone (as every year, in fact), who has crowned the color for 2017 as Greenery, based on it’s meaning of new beginning, freshness and environmentalism. Manifesting as a “fresh and zesty yellow-green shade that evokes the first days of spring”, Greenery envelops the notion of breathing, reinvigorating and appreciating the great outdoors.

That said, let’s take a closer look at the graphic design trends that define 2017. Most of them influence both print and web design, but some of them are just for the web....

People are overexposed to so much stuff today that the concept of simplicity stands out as elegant, refined, and enviable.

In web design, too, the concept of simplicity is enjoying a resurgence. People spend more time interacting with devices and online, so they increasingly crave an experience that is psychologically comfortable (intuitive) and visually calming or straightforward. Simplicity has never been so popular or so difficult to attain as it is today....

While clients often ask you to cram in as much information into a page as possible, seasoned web designers know this can lead to a usability nightmare. Confident and careful use of whitespace, in contrast, is all about giving content room to breathe.

The examples listed here work because everything the visitor needs is still there on the page; all that’s absent would just be clutter. In place of that clutter, whitespace helps create a balanced, easy to navigate interface where you can find what you need without being overwhelmed....

As 2016 comes to a near close, our creative team here at Dock9 reflected on what we consider the rising web design trends of 2017. Like any trend, these go in and out of fashion and may not necessarily suit all our users. However, we like to think of each trend as an “additional tool” to our designer tool box, where we pick the right ones for the job at hand.

This week we’ve compiled a list of 9 key trends we believe have been prominent in Web design this year, and we predict, likely to continue into 2017.

Trends are mysterious things. Some stay for years and others are just a swift shimmer that leave as fast as they enter the scene. Still others shift and evolve with the times. Design is both the driving force and the result of this cycle of trends—with packaging design creating personal experiences (like the unboxing experience) that connect consumers to brands on a deeper level.

With that in mind, here are the 9 packaging trends that we are predicting for 2017....

For the early part of this century we saw a lot of colorful artwork in the shape of icons and vibrant mascots. Heavily shaded, three-dimensional characters, and richly rendered forms were all the rage.

Now, illustration is heading for a more authentic and organic experience. Low-color, hand-drawn looks that are specifically created for a single-site use are becoming more common and are expected to stick around.

Custom designs will more often take on a unique, loose and even childish feel. Websites will feel more personable compared to the copy and paste looks we have been seeing thanks to the prevailing flat design/minimalism bandwagon....

When the weather warms up, the arctic length of the supermarket beer aisle starts to beckon. And every year, when we venture over, we are amazed by the amount of design talent on display. Moreover, it is clear that the trends in beer label design are always changing.

The growth of the craft beer (a.k.a. artisanal, a.k.a. micro-brewed, a.k.a. small batch, whatever) industry appears to be unstoppable. In fact, there are so many bottles to choose from now, almost all of them thoughtfully designed, that it has become rather difficult for any one to stand out. Is it still possible to do so on the basis of a particularly good beer label design alone?

We think so.Here is our trend observation: the best examples of beer label design today do not take the middle road. They are either distinctly maximal (colorful, visually loud, eclectic and full of attitude) or minimal (confidently spare, geometric, typography-oriented, exuding elegance). Below we’ve rounded up our favorite recent examples of each type...

Less is a bore, as Robert Venturi once said.

Minimalism has held a tight grip on the modern design industry for the past decade. We embraced the Apple aesthetic, extolled the logic of Helvetica, and worshiped at the church of Dieter Rams. It served its purpose, most recently, as a correctional to the excesses of the 1990s. But lately, as dispatches from Milan Design Week have shown, asceticism has given way to audacity.

Every April, hundreds of thousands of people trek to Milan for its trendsetting design week, which ultimately influences the furniture, accessories, and textiles that make their way into homes, offices, hotels, restaurants, and virtually every other interior. This year the artistic influences ranged from ’30s art deco to ’70s eclecticism. Designers and manufacturers experimented with digital fabrication–like 3D knitting–and rediscovered artisanal craft techniques, like lacquering, metal casting, and jacquard weaving.

But one thing was consistent: They’re embracing luxurious materials and textures, testing ambitious silhouettes, and piling on the details to yield products and furnishings that are visually enticing and emotionally evocative.In other words, minimalism is dead; maximalism has arrived....

Scroll triggered animations and cinemagraphs
Elements that animate as you scroll down aren’t exactly new. But instead of just a flashy gimmick (hey, I’m an animation, look at me!), they’ve become a key element for storytelling. Well done, every animation we discover as we scroll down the page should tell a part of our story. Apple led the way with its amazing Mac Pro site.

If all this sound to hard to implement, just check Spark — the Adobe visual storytelling tool, free and easy enough for everyone to use. You can build some gorgeous pages and graphics, at the same time you’re telling your story.
But that’s not all about animations. You know the GIF has also returned to our screens, thanks to the meme craze. But now, GIFs come in a new form: the cinemagraph.

Cinemagraphs are still images where a small part has a repeating movement, creating an animated loop. The human eye is immediately dragged to the contrasting, moving part, as the background stays still....

Can you imagine the morning without a tasty cup of coffee? No coffee, no workee – nothing wakes you up better than a cup of coffee. In this showcase you’ll see how coffee companies do their best to attract customer to their brands, as I have put together the best coffee branding examples for your inspiration.

Brown and white color dominate in this sphere as they are associated with coffee beans. Attractive cups and vivid paper packages make all the difference – Let me know in the comments bellow which one is your favorite coffee branding example....

These technologies have combined to create a huge shift in the web design paradigm, creating, most notably, a responsive (or increasingly mobile-first) design philosophy.

On the aesthetic side, 3 years ago flat design reigned supreme. And then Google introduced Material design, which brought us slightly out of abstraction. 2017 marks the year design takes one more step back into reality. Whether it’s through form, color choice or functionality, 2017 is a year of hybrids, where reality and technology collide to create a seamless browsing experience.

Here are the 9 web design trends we think are going to bridge that gap...

Are you considering creating a new website for your business? Want to know the trends that are expected to take charge in 2017?

The Deep End take a look at the 10 web design trends they expect to see more of in this infographic....

It’s design vocabulary time! We know you’ve heard these two terms floating around: skeuomorphism and flat design. What do they mean?

They’re two contemporary designs trends that each have their own unique style and set of traits. Skeuomorphism creates a sense of familiarity by emulating materials, while flat design stays true to its medium, often feeling minimal and utilitarian.

These opposing styles create a major fork in the road for designers (especially those in UI design), and many projects begin with the question of which world to jump into. Luckily, we’re here to help answer that question with an in-depth look at each design style. We’ll also explore Google’s all-new design language, Material Design, which combines the aesthetic of both skeuomorphism and flat design....

If you look at how product pages take shape across different companies, it's clear that they run the gamut. Some go for the direct approach, displaying an image of a product and explaining why someone should buy it. Other companies create elaborate pages with moving parts and fancy coded elements.

Of course, some companies fare better than others at creating delightful product pages.

But since we prefer to focus on the positive, we scouted out 14 examples that we find truly admirable. From messaging, to value propositions, to general product promotions, these brands nail these features in a persona-friendly way....