Where to Now for WebDesign ?

A lot has happened in the web design world over the last couple of years. Lots of new ideas and innovations have left people wondering what is next in store for designers and web users. Well, the next step for web design is a wider embrace of some of the trends that have shaken up the industry.

Look around you and you will see websites with big and very bold homepages, big headlines and colourful headlines reminiscent of posters, without any sidebars. You will also see websites where you have to keep scrolling to find whatever information it is you are looking for. You can find good examples of these websites all over the web today.

While these new styles aren’t exactly news to most of the best web designers around, they are news to most people in marketing who have always known the standard web design template (navigation bars at the top, secondary pages and complex sidebars, photo slideshow and boxes filled with information that links to deeper pages), and this novelty is why their popularity is soaring.

Why is scrolling design the next best thing?

We chose to enlist the help of Web Design expert Mark from Geeks Chicago, a recognized cutting-edge design company from Illinois. Mark told us to look no further than the proliferation of mobile devices and tablet surfing. Statistics tell us that the number of people visiting websites from their mobile devices and tablets is growing at an amazing rate, with figures from late 2013 showing that over 28% of web visits were from mobile devices. The figures are even higher for businesses with a target demographic relying on phones and tablets. For the average mobile web user, scrolling is easy and straightforward, while clicking on text links is annoying!

What do you gain or lose from embracing this shift?

With scrolling mobile-friendly sites, there is reduced hierarchy when it comes to finding answers and these sites are much more immersive. Mobile users also appreciate the bold and large links where they cannot be avoided.

However, some people are so used to the detailed site map and drop-down menu design philosophy that they feel lost and overwhelmed in a situation where there is a lack of hierarchy.

This might explain why very few content-rich websites have adapted to the simple scrolling trend. As time passes, though, that is expected to change.

If you are thinking about moving your website to the simple scrolling design, here are some scrolling sites that will give you all the inspiration you need to get started. However, you need to take care to avoid upsetting the apple cart too much. For most people, a simple responsive design is all that is needed to improve user experience in the mobile environment.

Ensure you understand your audience before making sweeping changes, and try to engage them as much as possible. This will help to engender buy-in and increase the engagement on your website.

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Created on Dec 31st 1969 18:00. Viewed 0 times.

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