Web Design Trends
If you experienced the full horror of 80s fashion then you'll know that what's the height of fashion can quickly become laughably dated.
Like the fashion world, web design has strong trends. One minute you're hot and the next minute you're not. These trends take hold rapidly. It's easy to completely redesign a website (as opposed to say a car or an office block) and there are plenty of gurus, blogs and galleries to spread the word.
Websites can almost be 'carbon-dated' by looking for key indicators. Instead of carbon isotopes, you're looking for tell-tale elements such as animated gifs, table-based HTML, rounded corners or drop-shadows.
The thing about trends
If you experienced the full horror of 80s fashion then you'll know that what's the height of fashion can quickly become laughably dated. Chinos, puffball skirts, huge shoulder pads and even bigger hair…. not to mention fluorescent and preferably-not-matching socks.
It's the price you've got to pay for being 'on-trend'… you've got to keep up as trends change. If you don't you're going to look like Melanie Griffith in Working Girl for the rest of your life. And no one needs that.
With rapidly-changing trends your bang on-trend website can start looking dated quickly.
Another thing about web design trends is that they start out being fresh and innovative, but soon websites following them become lost in a sea of sameness. They can also dominate. Content, usability, branding, and even purpose… the crucial foundations for a successful website become subservient to a trendy design.
Whether we were hippies, punks or new romantics when we were younger… as we mature we tend away from the avant-garde and toward the tried-and-tested, "won't ever go out of fashion" classics. We also consider things that were alien to myself as a teenager – practicality and value for money.
Sure, we still follow trends, but compared to the average teenager?
What the heck has this to do with web design?
The 'Web 2.0' jump in technology (which was supposed to be about online functionality) brought with it a taste for plenty of decoration… you couldn't move for rounded corners, reflections and drop shadows (the web equivalent of Melanie Griffith's power perm and suits). Why? Because designers could.
Browsers gave designers a whole bunch of new toys too irresistible not to play with. Think of it like the distinctive fashion of the 60s following decades of stuffiness. And note now, that you're more than likely not sat there head-to-sandals in tie-died psychedelic prints (but groovy if you are).
But beneath the trends and over-done decoration, sound principles and design classics remained. Things like intelligent use of white space, the right typography and balanced layouts to perfectly present content and aid usability. All things now taking the focus in a bit of a 'design not decoration renaissance'.
The latest web design trend is simplicity. Interfaces have been de-cluttered. They're cleaner and slicker, with less distraction and decoration. Users can get to what they need quickly and without fuss. It's all about usability and fulfilling a purpose… the timeless classics of design.
And there we are. The sun appears to have set on the flamboyant trends of the Web 2.0 era, the web has matured. We're now in a neo-classical age of purposeful design. Let's just hope the cool new toys of HTML5 don't take us into another decade of 'because I can' trends.
Written by Jason John Mills