Website design has witnessed changing trends based on the user preferences since forever. But at the heart of any UI design trend has always been user experience. User experience does not only decide the direction of the User interface trends, it also decides what trends the search engines will consider as important. Keeping user interaction and user experience in mind, here are some of the UI trends that can prove to be ground breaking in the year 2017 and beyond:
#1: Conversational User Interfaces
Conversational User Interfaces have gained in popularity this year. The messaging platforms (such as Slack, Facebook Messenger, or WeChat) are fast taking a lead over the social networks and app downloads and this is the reason why companies have started to think about utilizing these platforms to their advantage.
#2: Predominance of Responsive Design
We’re in times when the importance of using responsive design to enhance the user experience can simply not be overlooked. A responsive design is by far the best way to achieve a great UX because it allows the user experience to get adapted as per the device screen size on which the website is being accessed. So, in 2017 and ahead, it won’t be a surprise to witness the next generation of the responsive design.
#3: Custom Illustrations or photos over stock photography
UI designs of the recent times have seen growing preference for custom illustrations or pictures, fast replacing the use of stock photographs. This is because the custom images add personality and character to your design to create a strong brand identity resulting in instant brand recall. It is true that the quality and texture of user-generated images might range from acceptable to excellent but there are quite a few benefits of using these custom illustrations. Your custom images are going to
1) be uniquely associated only to your business and no other brand
2) look great
3) be a reflection of your brand
4) convey the intended message
5) attract potential clients and customers
6) represent a complex idea in an interesting manner
7) represent your unique value proposition
#4: Use of vibrant colors
The best example one can take for this is the change in logo for a social media platform as popular as Instagram. Their logo that once had a flat, neutral design, now has become a lot more vibrant and colorful. Similarly, with brands as big as Google, Microsoft and eBay also, endorsing colorful logos, we can safely assume that the trend of using vivid and rich color palettes both online and in traditional mediums is here to stay.
#5: Cards and grid style UI
The use of card and grid based UI has been made popular by the brands such as Google, Facebook, Twitter and even Pinterest. This UI lets your web content to be broken down into smaller and rather easily digestible chunks that can not just be easily navigated through but also impart a clutter-free presentation to all the information. The card & grids style of UI works well with responsive design, performing equally good on all devices including desktops, tablets and mobiles. This UI has become popular because of the rhythm, balance an consistency it brings in the website design.
Keeping up with some of these trends can not just help your brand stand apart from the competition, but it can also positively contribute to your website conversion rates in relatively longer run as these trends hold the promise of bringing about the changes to web design that are here to stay.
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