11 Hot Website Design Trends to Watch

The following are some of the hottest web design trends to watch in 2015. All of the most recently designed website employ some or all of these web design elements and add to the look and feel and functionality of the websites.

1. Grid-Style / Masonry Layouts

Grid-style and masonry layouts are becoming more and more popular as a web design trend. The first mainstream example of this was on site like Pinterest and other sites like Twitter and Facebook as following suit and now appear to be more grid-like as time goes on. Although having said this, grid-style masonry layouts are not something that can be forced on old website and need to be planned into the website design.

In many situations using thumbnail images or text updates the grid layout condenses everything into an easy-to-read format. This makes the content look good and easily skim-able.

2. Focused Landing Pages

Many website homepages are adopting a focused landing page type layout. This makes the homepage focused and easy to use, as well as focused on the main service offerings. Website are adopting this type of layout because it makes the website less busy and more user-friendly.

3. Crafty Image Captions and Overlays

Many more sites are using crafty image captions or overlays. These image captions and overlays are visually interesting for the eye and make the site look clean and modern.

4. Flat Design Elements

A lot of websites are using flat design elements and icons to add to the visual effects of website and give websites a modern and clean look and feel.

5. 3D Transition Effects

There has been a rise in the use of 3d and jquery effects used on websites. Be it images transiting in as you scroll and then appear, or 3d hover effects and such these effects are becoming more and more p0pular on websites.

Naturally the animations aren’t fully supported in all browsers, and designers should be wary of using too many animations on one page.

6. Custom Icon Use

The use of vector-based icons and graphics is on the rise too. This help to organize and make content interesting, break it up and structure content that may have otherwise been visually uninteresting and lack any graphic elements.

7. Customized Image Galleries

The use of customized image galleries and portfolios is on the rise too. People love to browse through pretty images and the saying ” A picture speaks a 1000 words” always seems to hold true.

8. Mega-Navigation Menus

All kinds of new fancy navigations have been tested and adopted in recent years. An important consideration now is that a menu is mobile friendly and can be easily accessed on mobile devices. Another important consideration is that a menu looks interesting and incorporates images and icons, is structured in a user-friendly way if there are a lot of menu items and such. Plugin such as WordPress mega menu have made such menus very popular and are being used increasingly.

9. Unique Font Use

One of the coolest new features in web development is the @font-face declaration. They can upload custom non-web-safe fonts to websites and use the @font-face declaration to style fonts and headings, pull out quotes and such hence giving your website a unique look and feel.

10. Mobile-First Design

More and more web designers are thinking mobile first. Web designer now often design for mobile first and then build on it for desktop and pc full version websites. Web designers also often use @media statements to drop out elements for mobile resolutions to debunk the clutter and make the website look clean and user-friendly.

11. Quick User Registration

Many websites have now adopted signup using Facebook or LinkedIn in order to simplify the user registration process. This encourages users to register as it only takes a second and has benefits such as being able to access website user only content.

Conclusion

The above hot website design trends are definitely on the increase and should be watched in 2015. Adopting many of the above trends will ensure that your website keeps pace with the latest web trends and make your website stand out from the crowd.