2017 Design Trends - The End of Flat Design?

With a new year opened and with the nostalgia of things new, we tend to reflect on the past to help predict what to expect in the future. The same is true with the field of web design and in this article we will reflect on web design trends of 2016 and what to expect in 2017.

Flat Design may be nearing its end

From what we’ve observed from experience as well as what other professionals say, the industry is generally approaching the point in flat web design where everything is starting to look the same marking a decline in personality and creativity in design. Basically sites are starting to look the same, and not much differentiates sites from one another. Designers feel that the creativity is gone, and with the desire to create something great, I see flat design ending for the most part in favor of layouts and designs that are more imaginative and unique.

Geometric shapes and patterns are still in

It seems as though the use of geometric shapes, lines, and patterns have really took off in the late part of 2016 and we should expect to see continuing growth in 2017. The key to this on going surge in usage is due to the fact that there is a seemingly infinite amount of ways in which you an integrate geometric shapes, lines, and patterns into your website, and this could be one way in which designers take fat design to a new level (and even add some personality, as mentioned above).

Personality will Rule

Did we mention more personality in 2017? Well, what better way to personalize a website than brand coordinated decorative details. 2016 saw a gradual departure from the minimalistic geometric shapes to more subtle decorative elements. Linear, rickety icons are slightly detached from the content they illustrate. Buttons are less frequently created as harsh rectangles with texts inserted in the middle. They are often designed as soft, shifted dashes.

Personality will also see itself manifest through imaginative heading styles. In 2017, we’ll see a move away from the basic heading style seen on websites (san serif, all caps, centered heading) and moving more toward imaginative or creative headings.

Increased use of animations and GIFs

Animations were an increasing feature on websites in 2016 and 2017 will see heavier usage on websites as they are often a great way to show how something works, how to do something, or otherwise reveal meaningful content. GIFs have been used for this purpose, but now we are seeing GIFs becoming more sophisticated and animations using SVG and CSS to achieve some pretty unique design elements.

Navigation diets

With most of the world accessing the internet via mobile devices, the overall trend to make things easier to navigate has taken over and reformed our navigation on websites.

Instead of overly complicated and long navigations, more and more sites will start to simplify their navigation down to about four to five items. Keeping navigation to a minimum also helps visitors to focus on the intent at hand, instead of trying to find a way off the page.

2017 will no doubt be a great year for web design and will see a much refreshing injection of personality in websites.