Design Template by Anonymous

Trends of 2015 - Present

2015 - 2020

Flat Design

With the rise of minimalism, flat design became popular. Flat design can be thought of as a mixture between minimalism and Skeuomorphic design. The influence of Skeuomorphism, and the rise in mobile scrolling and minimalism helped to solidify the flat design trend as it provided a clean, readable, yet realistic design to all site types. Flat design gave designers all the benefits of Skeuomorphic design with the aesthetics of minimalism.

Example of flat vs Skeuomorphic design — This is a good example of the difference between flat and Skeuomorphic design. As we can see, the icon with the flat design, left, is more minimalistic. Courtesy of Justinmind.

System Themes

System themes are another trend we see in the late 2010s. With so many people opting to use “dark mode” on their phones, web designers took the initiative to implement this into their sites. Dark mode provides an interface that is less stressful on the eyes, and that preserves battery life. There are also cons, though. Negative text, white or light text on a black or dark background, is said to reduce retention of information, and has a negative impact on readability. Given the choice, though, it is said by Gitnux that 88.6% of people prefer dark over light mode.

2020 - Present

Accessibility

Within the last few years, websites have seen a rise in accessibility features to cater to those with disabilities. With the growing awareness of the importance of inclusivity, web developers implement features, such as alt text and thoughtful color pallets, that benefit all users, not just those who have disabilities. Another reason accessibility has become so popular is because of the legal requirements of the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG). This organization pushed for greater accessibility compliance, forcing big name sites to prioritize accessibility to avoid legal repercussions.

The POUR acronym coined by the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines provides directions in order to keep sites accessible to all. Courtesy of UItop.

AI

Artificial intelligence provides developers with a wide range of tools. AI is able to streamline repetitive tasks, such as coding, testing and debugging, as mentioned before. This automation will free up developers to do things that AI can’t do. Additionally, natural language processors and machine learning can enable features such as virtual assistants and help chatbots. AI also has the ability to bolster website security by detecting and mitigating malicious behavior, or enhancing authentication measures

Conclusion

In conclusion web designers have gone through many trends as software and the world wide web has evolved. Some key takeaways I hope you gathered from this tutorial include:

That a trend is a tactic designers use to enhance the way a user consumes their site
UI trends change the look of the website, and UX trends change the way the user interacts with the website.
That trends are always evolving. While trends become stagnant, others can stick around forever, like the use of whitespace.
Whatever is happening in the media, like the release of HTML5 or the Iphone, has an effect on the trends designers choose to use.

By exploring the timeline of these trends, I hope this presentation showed you the importance of adapting to an ever-changing field, and the connection between real-life and the trends designers implement.