Whether your focus is on UX or UI, the end goal of designing any online platform is to attract more users, keep those users on your platform longer, and motivate them to take meaningful action.

If you want to remain competitive, have a look at this list of 10 of the biggest web design trends you can expect to see in 2015.

1. Large Background Images

Full-width background images and videos have emerged recently, and their popularity does not show any signs of slowing. Paired with large, bold, and rich typography and parallax effects, these background images create a visually impressive experience.

2. Responsive Designs

Responsive design most certainly is not a new trend. In fact, designing websites to load beautifully on devices of every size has been happening for several years now.

What you can expect to see are new iterations of responsive designs, with a mobile-first approach to all web layouts. It is important for branding purposes for any web-based platform to provide a consistent experience regardless of device type.

3. Vibrant Colors

Colors that make a bold, vibrant and often unexpected statement are rising in popularity. This is especially true when contrasted against muted background colors.

This type of bright color usage is very effective when combined with significant transitions, animations, and large typography.

4. SVG Elements

Scalable vector graphics, often shorted to SVG, allow images to look sharp on any screen size. They can be easily animated and go a long way to reducing overall load time.

The prevalence of SVG usage will rise heavily in 2015.

5. Interactive Elements

Studies repeatedly show that users who enjoy an engaging and interactive online experience are more likely to emotionally identify with a brand.

Most importantly, users who are able to create a memorable experience online tend to spend a longer time on your website.

You can expect to see an increased level of interactivity between users and websites this year.

6. Large Typography

We have already alluded to this point, but the trend continues that large and bold fonts are being favored in all areas of web design – not just when used as headlines.

This means the emphasis is now on saying more with less, and improved readability.

7. Ghost Buttons

In case you are not familiar, a ghost button is similar to a standard button on a website – except it is completely transparent. Ghost buttons are often implemented with hover animations, and look excellent when contrasted against a full-width background image.

Although this could be considered a fairly small trend, the use of ghost buttons is increasing and we will definitely see more of them in 2015.

8. Plenty of Scrolling

Largely due to the prevalence of mobile web browsing, scrolling will be favored this year over clicking. This is the main reason that one-page web designs were first introduced. In most cases, users would prefer to scroll the length of one longer page than navigate to multiple different pages.

Another scrolling trend will be the use of horizontal scrolling functionality. This allows all the website content to appear above the fold in a slideshow format instead of navigating to additional pages.

9. Storytelling

Both executed as mixture of branding and user engagement, storytelling is now a prominent aspect of many popular web designs.

Storytelling focuses on a minimalist web design, such that each carefully placed element serves a purpose in directing the user to what he or she should be doing next.

10. Remove Distractions

As touched upon in the previous point, minimalist web designs are favored over cluttered content with multiple calls to action – aka distractions.

Everything that is non-essential will be removed in 2015.

This may include removing large headers, unnecessary navigational menus, multiple images, sidebars, and more. In most cases, it also means sticking to a fairly simple color scheme.

Conclusion

While this list certainly represents some significant trends to keep an eye on, it is not exhaustive.

The online world changes every day, and we want to hear your input.

Did we miss a web design trend you think is worth noting?

Let us know with a comment below.

The post 10 Important Web Design Trends You Need to Know in 2015 appeared first on Classic Informatics.