Basic trends in Web Design

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Web design trends have a habit of moving both quickly and slowly at the same time. There are trends such as gif animations that stuck around for years before dying out, and there are trends such as a full flash website that died out very quickly. Do not be afraid of taking part in the newest website design trends. Supposedly “jumping on the bandwagon” is supposed to be a bad thing, but it is entirely possible that a new trend, a new technique and a new idea may help you to create a very exciting and high quality website. Here are a few basic trends in web design that you may like to try.

Keep it simple and basic

This is not so much a trend, as something that really works. There have been simple web designs from the very beginning, and it is the simple ones that seem to stick around the longest. This does not mean websites that are made by amateurs. There is a clear difference between a website design that is simple, and a website design that is cheap and made by an amateur.

The websites that exhibit little flair and lots of simple navigation and layouts are the ones that have stuck around the longest. Consider the Amazon website. If you were to create an eCommerce site, you would probably be more adventurous than the Amazon design, and yet Amazon is still doing well. The eBay website is actually quite complex in its construction, but the design and user interface is devoid of extravagance. It has a stylish design but nothing complex (at least in terms of the UI and appearance).

Installing social media widgets

This is more a trend of needs rather than a trend that is likely to come and go. People need to integrate social media in many cases, and doing it is now often done with widget. But, even the design and layout of widgets has trends. There was a trend for big and customized icons, but that trend has all but ended. The most current trend sees the social media widgets/icons hovering on the left or right sidebar and moving down as the user scrolls down.

Changing your WordPress design every month

This is just for people who have a WordPress website. A nice little trend that has appeared is of people who change the design of their website each month. Some do it for the hell of it, but those are the ones that tend to get bored after a month or two. Others do it for a reason that links with their site. For example, horoscope blogs often look good when the design changes to match the horoscope date that it is in. This has the added benefit of the fact that the same design can be used again next year when that star sing is the present one again.

Changing the background depending on the page content

This technique is old, but has gotten easier these days; the background changes depending upon the content of the pages. This has been done very well by websites that have categories. For example, the gardening section has greenery in the background, whereas the gardening tools have machinery in the background. It is a nice design trend if it is pulled off correctly. Websites selling collectables have also had similar successes with this technique.

Animated menus and navigation using CSS3

This is a current trend because it looks good and it has gotten even easier thanks to HTML5. It is now possible to create some very nice, very sleek looking menus and navigation options that have animated effect. It makes the website look a little more futuristic or modern, whilst not making the page render or load much slower, (it only has a mild effect on loading and rendering).

Using a full photo as your background

This is often done on just the home page. It is actually a little harder to pull off when you do it with all of your pages. Still, there are some websites for institutions (such as universities and museums) that have used this web design technique very well. It does come with its own set of problems; such as if the image does not load correctly then the website looks terrible. But, compatibility should be the byword of a web designer anyway, so it should not be a problem.