A Closer Look at the Top Ten 2017 Web Design Trends

Posted by Myles Golden on Nov 28, 2016

The Web is a continuously evolving mechanism, and what was popular this year may not be the same for the next. There are various web design trends to follow and even use on your site for the next year. As always, there are edgy techniques and ideas that are constantly upgrading the user experience. In the end, your content, site design and features can always be upgraded and tweaked to provide a better experience for the user and even give you some essential tools to create better content and drive traffic. While a 2017 web design trend may not be specifically geared for your audience, it's a good idea to keep updated on what's available and what has become popular for all types of site design. One thing is clear. Web design is utilizing various responsive designs to handle all of the traffic from mobile devices, and it's likely that this will evolve further for 2017. Here's a look at some of the other web design trends.

1. Content Focused First

The main thing that every site designer should be looking at is content. As Google and many other search engines place more emphasis on stronger, high quality quality, you need to evaluate your own articles and blogs to determine whether your content is meeting these standards. For the 2017 web design trend, it looks like content will be largely focused around the user. With over 4 billion mobile devices active, the content must be accessible on the multitude of device types. Not just that, the content needs to be user focused while also using social signals, in-depth articles and semantic search keywords to drive traffic will be imperative to the success of page's rank. Content must be accessible and available on various platforms, but it must also be easily searched and readable by search engines.

2. Simple Web Design Techniques

By making your content more accessible and readable, you should also focus on a more simple site design. Your site should utilize responsive designs in order for users to access your site all over the globe from whatever device they are browsing with. This means that content strategy, UI, UX, accessibility, visual design and usability will all play a role in the 2017 web design trend. For now, sites have to be readable and easily navigated by users on any device.

3. User-Centered Design

Design trends are also looking at what the user wants in a website. Ideally, you are providing all kinds of content, authoritative links, resources, images and video in a simplified fashion that allows users access from whatever device. The user experience should be looked at as an extension of how your brand interacts with an audience. If it's easy to access all of your information, products, blog, social media and profile, then you are in a better standing to get more traffic, sales and social signals from all types of users.

4. App Interfaces / Mobile Synced

Desktop websites have been transforming at an alarming rate. Site masters are choosing to go for imitation app style site design to make it easier for users to find all of the content that they want. As efficiency is one of the main driving forces behind developments, mobile devices synced with desktop sites is the next logical step. Instead of being tethered to a computer system for hours at a time, this feature would allow people to move freely while still completing their tasks. This is pure responsive design, and it's been working for many reasons.

5. Single Page Design

You definitely won't see too many sites with ".mobi" mobile sites any more. The trend is towards responsive designs that utilize a single page and unify both desktop and mobile versions into one single website. Users now expect to be able to access their applications on a smartphone, tablet, laptop, and desktop and have the same experience. It’s no longer enough to focus on just one platform. There is an evolution also taking place that will allow multiple devices to access web pages. While there used to be an argument for adaptive design, it's now headed almost singularly to responsive design.

6. Adaptive vs Responsive Design

The idea of adaptive vs responsive first began as the mobile browsing trend continue to grow. Developers no longer wanted to have a completely separate design for mobile users. As cross-platform technologies continued to grow like webfonts, SVG, typography and mobile design, it has evolved beyond adapting a site to meet the demands of mobile users. Now it's about a single design that will transform depending on the screen size, operating system and device that a user uses to access a page. The question now becomes how to change over from adaptive vs responsive design to completely responsive designs.

7. Less Decoration, More Purpose

Visual trends are headed towards more simple design including flat colors, app-style interfaces, design-focused typography and less decoration. Scalable elements and responsive images are important for all of the users accessing the web through various devices. Elements and images are also optimized for retina displays and faster Internet connections. High resolution screens will be important to how site designers upgrade for future web trends.

8. Single Page Applications

The newest 2017 web design trends is probably Single Page Applications (SPAs). Single Page Applications are Web apps that load a single HTML page and dynamically update that page as the user interacts with the app. SPAs use JavaScript to create fluid and responsive Web apps without constant page reloads. One of main reasons that Single Page Applications are becoming more popular is they allow to offer a more native app like experience.

SPAs have two main benefits for users which makes it one of the upcoming 2017 web trends:

• The first benefit is removing that annoying page change when you click on a link. In a Single Page Application, the navigation controls and main interface typically stay on the view state when you click a link. In return only the piece of content you want changed actually gets changed.
• The second benefit is the massive speed boost you get from a lighter server response (as it uses the clients browser) for the chunk of content versus a whole page loading. The lighter response transmits across the network faster and the browser can incorporate the new piece of content more quickly than redrawing an entirely new page.

9. Isomorphic / Progressive Web Apps

What is an isomorphic web application you might ask? To break things down real simple – it's a code base that can be used between shared environments (both server side and client side). Isomorphic comes from the latin words: iso (same) morphic (form), thus isomorphic web applications share the same code base from client-side to server-side.

The latest evolution for the 2017 web design trends has become Progressive Web Apps. Progressive Web Apps are actually just a design mechanism. These are web applications that meet predetermined criteria to be given special native capabilities on smart phones. They are cost effective, have a low barrier to entry, and don’t require the publishing apparatus of App Store apps.

10. Internet-Ready Everywhere

It's clear that all types of devices are already connected to the Internet. In the next year, it's likely that this technology will be more streamlined and robust to provide the full user experience on televisions, refrigerators and other appliances. They will feature LED screens and audio devices to give people entertainment wherever they are at home and at work.

As web design trends continue to unfold, mobile design, simplicity and responsive design will play a large role in how developers choose to create web design in the future. Drop us a line and let's talk about your next project and how we can incorporate the latest 2017 web design trends. It's as easy as clicking the icon on the bottom right of your screen and starting a conversation.