Top Trends for Digital change in 2017

With less than a month to go until the New Year, it’s as good a time as any to look at a selection of what we believe are going to be some of the most important web design trends of 2017.

All hail mobile, as smartphones and tablets set to become king of web browsing traffic

Mobile web browsing has been steadily growing since 2009 and in October 2016, web analytics firm StatCounter released data showing that for the first time mobile and tablet browsing overtook desktop accounting for 51.3% of web traffic versus the desktop’s 48.7%.

As these figures dictate, mobile compatibility is increasingly important and since Google’s Mobilegeddon update in May 2015, Google favours mobile-friendly websites for its mobile search results. So for those businesses seeing in 2017 with a website that is not mobile friendly, this should be the wake up call you need!

Encourage users to interact with animation

As technologies and programming languages become more advanced, new doorways open in regards to animation. Site are moving away from dull static imagery and instead are opting for more creative, engaging ways to communicate with their users.

A good site will take their users on a journey and may use animation to provide visual cues, capture the user’s attention, engage and excite or just simply to enhance the site aesthetics and with animations coming in all different shapes, sizes and styles, there are little limitations to what you can do.

Animation should be added to enhance user experience; overloading your site with animation without any real purpose can be detrimental to usability. Use in moderation and carefully consider each interaction to truly optimise the effects of animation on your website.

Video takes over the Internet

If a picture is worth a 1000 words, then imagine the benefits of video. Much like animation, video on a page instantly captures the attention of the user and helps you convey your message in a way that static imagery cannot.

The truth is, video is taking over the Internet and if you do not have video in your strategy for 2017, you may need to reconsider or risk falling behind as a whopping third of all online activity is spent watching video content.

Death to stock images, photography helps you stand out from the crowd

Your website is your shop-front and as such it needs to be original and authentic to establish a connection with your audience. Generic stock imagery will not suffice, instead it’s great photography that will make your site distinguishable. Consider your images wisely, the composition of the image and its relevance to the message that you are trying to convey.

It’s easier than ever to take good quality photos on camera or mobile, or alternatively there are some websites like Unsplash that offer FREE high-resolution photos to download and use. There’s only so many times you can use the same stock image, right?

Big, beautiful, emotion evoking typography

Typography is as important as any other component on a website and focus on typography in website design will definitely continue into 2017. As a powerful visual medium, typography can be used to inject personality into a website and partnered with beautiful imagery can evoke emotion and set the tone for your site.

As technology advances and device resolutions become sharper, we can really start to push typography to its limits. Why be boring if you can be bold?

Infinite scrolling? It’s no longer a chore.

Scrolling had a tough break first time round being dismissed as bad design, but its functionality on mobile devices has brought it widespread acceptance.

Scrolling is a versatile mechanic and if executed well can enhance usability and engagement on any website and its sole purpose is no longer getting a user from the top of the page to the bottom, but instead is being used in more creative capacities to deliver content and engage users.

As the world of digital is forever changing, only time will tell if our predictions are correct, who knows what tomorrow will bring.