The Year 2017 is off to a fast start and it is time to set the tone for what we will be seeing featured in designs this year. We believe that the the following 10 trends will continue to be important: minimalism, material design, white space, duotones and gradients, geometric shapes, videos, micro interactions and SVGs, and lastly customization and personalization.
Minimalism
“Simplicity is the ultimate form of sophistication.” — Leonardo Da Vinci
Minimalism is not a new concept, we have seen a move towards minimalism in the past few years. However, it is still difficult for some people to think of minimalism as a powerful and purposeful way of designing websites and applications. Some of our clients have the desire to create more complex websites and tell us to put more elements on their page as minimalistic design somehow feels empty for them compared to the crowded pages they have used before.
sapie.sk redesign by PLATFORM
Material design
Material design is an important new trend that we will see included in designs this year. It comes at the intersection of art and technology. Material becomes the metaphor, surfaces and edges of the material provide additional visual cues for the design. The use of familiar attributes from the real world helps users understand affordances in the websites and especially applications without the need for a lengthy description or a manual. These cues are specifically important for communicating motion and interaction, the use of light, surface and movement helps us define relationship between objects. When material design is used properly, it not only creates beautiful looking designs but it also improves app usability and flow.
Google uses material design in its new functions in Gmail that help you organize your trips in one place
Duotones
We have all heard that a picture says a thousand words. Our minds are drawn to them and when used well, they can increase conversion rates, create trust in a brand, communicate with your customers on a subconscious level. However, it is not easy to keep producing high quality pictures and sometimes even the best pictures do not properly fit with a specific brand identity. There are two approaches you may find helpful for your designs, duotones and gradients.
Stink Studios created a special end of the year website for Spotify using Duotones.
“Duotone is a halftone reproduction of an image that brings out its middle tones and highlights”
Duotones can be a very powerful way of using stock images and creating something unique that nobody else will be using on the web.
Gradients
Gradients (merging one color into another) are another visual element that can be used in the background or to dress up a stock image to create a unique feel to it. If your brand uses multiple complementary colors, this may be one way for you to highlight all of them in a herobanner or even in a newly redesigned logo.
PLATFORM used gradients in the homepage redesign for Elev.io
Geometric shapes
Geometric shapes can create depth in your design and create a unique futuristic look. Especially the use of irregular shapes (hexagons, triangles) can draw attention and break the symmetry in your design in a very positive way.
Invision LABS by Invision combined white space and clean design with geometric shapes to create their vibrant design.
Customization
Personalization and customization are often used interchangeably, however there is a big difference in the terms. Customization requires you to actually actively engage in some action to get the result you want. You may tell the Starbucks barista to give you 2 pumps of flavored syrup instead of the 4 that are customary for the drink. Or you may ask a web portal to only show you news from a particular part of the world.
Medium.com allows you to customize your experience and allows you to choose your interests as part of their onboarding.
We hope you found these 6 tips insightful. To view the full list of 10 tips, please visit our blog. We are looking forward to seeing everyone’s beautiful designs created in 2017. If you need help with yours, do not hesitate to let us know ;)
Originally published at www.plat4m.com. by Anna McNab, Ph.D.
