What Are Some Of The Latest Trends In Website Design?

JoeMilford Level 1

December 8, 2017, 12:24 pm

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What Are Some Of The Latest Trends In Website Design?

I have been blogging for a while now, but I generally use pretty simple templates. I was wondering, however, what you all considered to be some of the latest and most successful trends or ideas in web design and website appearance currently? What types of new and exciting things are happening in web design that are interesting or compelling to you?

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DarthHazard

DarthHazard

Maybe I'm wrong but the latest trend in terms of website design I believe is material design which has become quite popular over the past year. It's used by quite a lot of sites nowadays and I think Google is the company that made material design quite popular with a lot of developers and designers.

6 years ago

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JoeMilford

JoeMilford

DarthHazard,
I hate to sound like such a newbie, but could you explain to us here at the forum, just in case some of us do not know, what "material design" is and how it is new and innovative? I know I can look this up on my own, but I am curious as to what you have to elaborate on here, and I would like to hear your perspective on this and a definition of what this design concept it...if you don't mind, that is.

6 years ago

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DarthHazard

DarthHazard

It's a bit hard to explain, to be honest. It's probably better for you to visit the following website and see what it looks like : https://material.io/. Sorry that I wasn't able to give my perspective of what it is.

6 years ago

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mildredtabitha

mildredtabitha

Thanks for sharing the link. I also was curious when I saw you mentioning 'material design'. I was already wondering what it is. I have never seen anything like it before until I checked out your link. I am glad to know which type of design it is now.

6 years ago

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JoeMilford

JoeMilford

No worries! You provided me with a resource, and sometimes that is even a better "teaching" tool, of course, than just explaining something to someone. Sending someone in a direction in order for him or her to discover something is a very Confucian way of directing, actually, so no apologies required here! This concept is really interesting, and I appreciate you steering me towards it. I wonder how I could incorporate this approach into some of the projects I am working on....

6 years ago

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DarthHazard

DarthHazard

It depends really what you are using for your projects. If you are using a content management system then you can easily find some material design themes for your projects. If you have built your site using Bootstrap or developed it yourself then you can try out the following: https://mdbootstrap.com/material-design-for-bootstrap/

6 years ago

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vinaya

vinaya

I think the latest trend in website design is having a slideshow instead of one long article. There was a time when a long article will always appear as one-page article. However these days, a long article is broken into sections and each section appears as the slideshow. If the visitor wants to read another section, he has to click the next button. This helps to reduce bounce rate as there will be an engagement when the visitor clicks the next button. This also helps to build traffic because the same article appears in multiple pages.

6 years ago

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JoeMilford

JoeMilford

I think that this is a cool idea, and I must admit that this idea is pretty appealing to me when I visit the sites or blogs of others. I have not utilized this design approach myself yet, but I find it attractive, and it reminds me of many of the professional presentations I have attended over the years where the expert "lectures" in front of the slideshow or Prezi and delivers the information with a lot of audio-visual stimulation and more of a "bullet-pointed" approach to the information at hand. I think that using this approach and also supplementing it with links to longer versions of the material is a really good idea.

6 years ago

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Baburra

Baburra

The trend for sites now is just having a scroll down page wherein you don't really click too many links anymore and instead just keep scrolling to see more information. There will be a menu at the top, still, where you could go to other pages and see further information, but for the most part, all the basic information is already given in a simplified version with each detail being revealed as you scroll more and by the end you will hopefully have the full information.

6 years ago

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Barida

Barida

This is trending as well. It's not an easy task, but online marketers use that way to keep the readers interested till the end.

6 years ago

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Tronia

Tronia

Oh, that's actually true. I have noticed this myself as well in a lot of the popular pages. I remember years ago you would really have to go through a bunch of links to reach your "final" destination with the information that you were looking for but nowadays, they don't do it as much. It's interesting. I always hated the clicking links method because once they asked me to click more than twice I closed the website.

6 years ago

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Baburra

Baburra

Yes I think those times were just a part of growing pains of the website designs as now they are a lot more efficient and streamlined. I suspect it's also mostly because of mobile devices that this type of design was pushed, considering having something simple and symmetrical where you could just keep scrolling to find more content is a lot more mobile friendly.

6 years ago

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JoeMilford

JoeMilford

Exactly. This is so much more user-friendly and accessible, and people are starting to realize that there is somewhat more to gain by making the experience of the site more manageable and less high-maintenance for the audience to peruse and navigate. Too many ads, links, widgets, plug-ins, options, etc. can eclipse the content and the experience of a site for the audience, and that can potentially result in the audience not returning to the site that is not so easy to scroll on.

6 years ago

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Baburra

Baburra

True. I think in the past people thought you need to be as bold as possible to stand out but mainly you just need to have an element of uniqueness to be memorable. I once came across a site that was just all black and had yellow text and because the style of the site was so unique, even if it was not very well designed, it became very memorable and of course the content helped a lot too.

6 years ago

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vinaya

vinaya

I have also noticed this kind of design even though I don't have this design on my websites, normally, 10 posts appear on my front page of my blogs and these are the recent pages. If the visitor wants to see other posts and pages, he has to click. I see a great benefit in encouraging visitors to click your posts. This creates engagements on your website which ultimately decreases your bounce rate. If the visitor can scroll down, he does not have to click and there will be no engagement.

6 years ago

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treecko142

treecko142

Yeah, the click more era has been replaced and people have realized how these types of sites are milking clicks for views.

6 years ago

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Einalem

Einalem

I think you're referring to these parallax scrolling websites. I also agree this is one of the latest trends in web design, specifically for personal blog site. This gives a very minimalistic look and suits well for blogging. As a previous IT student, I personally have made this kind of website design from a scratch and I just loved it.

6 years ago

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Judas2018

Judas2018

I see more sites trying to become blogs or blog/site hybrids. I am not sure why. I think having an extensive website works a lot better than having a blog. A blog has always been thought of as a small space for peoples thoughts. A website is a more extensive creation with many different areas ans aspects to explore.

6 years ago

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JoeMilford

JoeMilford

Judas2018,
I understand what you are saying here, but I do disagree to a certain degree. I think that you can combine both and have the blog as a "supplemental" area available on the website if the audience so chooses to visit it. Or, ou can cross-pollinate by promoting your site by your blog or your blog by your site. A blog can be much more than just a repository for our thoughts--it can be a place where a great deal of useful information is exchanged and discussed. I think that, personally, a blog can be just as creative as ANY website, especially if the content is really awesome.

6 years ago

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Judas2018

Judas2018

Blogs have their uses of course. But I think to blend the two just for the sake of doing what everyone else is doing is kind of a waste. I think to design your site LIKE a blog? Is a great idea. But I've always been told that a website should adhere to user functionality. While each area should have its own personality and differ in its own way - if your site is too mismatched - it can turn off visitors. Site visitors can't get the hang of using a website if one area functions totally different from another area. Under a whole new set of controls or buttons and dials. A blog imo should be separate from the official site. It should be its own being - a companion piece if you will. Not an appendage that's been strangely grafted on.

6 years ago

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Soulwatcher

Soulwatcher

I am running a blog/forum and the blog complements my forum and I think these days you need to offer your members more than just a forum. I think the days of just throwing up a forum and forget it is over. People are looking for one-stop shops, they want to know who, what, when, how and why all on the same website.

6 years ago

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Judas2018

Judas2018

A blog complimenting a forum is terrific in theory. But you must make sure you have enough content to update that blog. I've visited sites that have blogs as a companion piece to their official website. The website is updated, the forum is active - but the blog hasn't been updated sometimes in 6 to 8 months. At some point - people stop visiting it for that very reason.

6 years ago

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JoeMilford

JoeMilford

I totally hear what you are saying here, and I get your logic, but if the content is good and the blogger/forum administrator is active and present with consistency, then the pairing of the forum and blog can be a pretty effective thing. I think that the combination of a blog supporting a site is really great, and I like to see this myself as a potential customer, reader, and audience.

6 years ago

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Judas2018

Judas2018

One good idea is putting one individual in charge of updating the blog. While someone else focus on the forum and website. Having one person do all 3 tasks eventually winds up with a drop off somewhere.

6 years ago

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vinaya

vinaya

Having a blog and a forum at the same time can be too much intimidating. There is a lot of work. In the blog you should always provide fresh contents, you need to post at least 1-2 articles every week. For a forum, bring members and making them active is very difficult. These days people remain active on the forum only if there are any kinds of rewards.

6 years ago

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Soulwatcher

Soulwatcher

I 100% agree with you, but without going into too much detail about my personal life. Its been a nightmare for the last 8 months and it's going to be over in a week. Because I am moving with my wife in 7 days to a new apartment.

And things will settle down and I will have a lot more freedom to work on my website and add to the blog. But until then I am just getting by and updating it here and there. But it does get update a couple times a month and I want to update it once a week after I move.

6 years ago

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ballyhara

ballyhara

I totally get this. My sister tries really hard to update her social/virtual/business page, and she's always trying to get extra time from nowhere to do it. Sometimes I give her some help, but that can be a very heroic task. However, she says that keeping her website and social media updated is somehow slavery, but eventually very rewarding.

6 years ago

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vinaya

vinaya

I have often thought about having a forum for my blog. I could promote my blog posts through my forum as well as increase engagements on my blogs. I even tried to install a forum on a subdomain of my blog. However, I was a new webmaster back then and I did not know what to do with the forum. Therefore, I removed the forum from my blog.

6 years ago

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Baburra

Baburra

I think a lot of sites are gearing more towards simplification because they are wanting to target mobile users as well, which I think is understandable since a good portion of the market nowadays already browses a lot more on phones rather than laptops. I haven't seen many sites that are doing blogs though but I think I have seen what you call these hybrids although they keep their updates on a separate section when they do.

6 years ago

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JoeMilford

JoeMilford

Baburra,
Good point here, and others, like Soulwatcher, are also acknowledging this. I didn't really think about this until this forum, because I do not tend to use as many apps on my phone as the "average joe", but this really is an issue for many people. I know that some of the academic apps which I access on my phone are way too clunky and cluttered, so I prefer to work on those on my laptop or desktop. I tend to gravitate towards minimalism because that is just my style, but it makes sense that this would be more user-friendly on the smaller screens.

6 years ago

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treecko142

treecko142

Yeah, it's piggybacking off social media where people post things that are happening in their daily life, and making their website appear like so makes them more relatable, at least from their point of view, in terms of connecting with their target market.

6 years ago

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Soulwatcher

Soulwatcher

I think the biggest growing trend is the mobile internet. I just saw an article online that show mobile traffic account for more than 2x the traffic of desktop users. So now not only does your website need to look good for desktop users, it has to look for mobile views too. Or you're going to risk the death of your website. And the amount of mobile viewing keeps increasing each year and desktop views are declining every year.

6 years ago

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Barida

Barida

Mobile internet has taken a new dimension in our world today and it's great to see how the makers of smart phones are doing all they could to ensure we have the best user experience with new features coming up on a daily basis.

6 years ago

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mildredtabitha

mildredtabitha

I also agree. The increasing sales in smartphones including latest designs and improvements has encouraged mobile internet. I also prefer using mobile because it is very convenient. Sitting in front of a desktop has many health effects because we strain our eyes and also have bad sitting posture.

6 years ago

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Soulwatcher

Soulwatcher

If you go to the local computer shop by my house you will see cell phones and tablets and PCs. Because computers are not selling like they use to and mobile internet is the future, Heck I know a few people who don't even have traditional internet they do everything on their mobile phones with their unlimited internet.

6 years ago

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JoeMilford

JoeMilford

I have really been contemplating buying a table more and more every day now! It would just be more efficient than lugging my laptop around, which is pretty big because I invested in a large screen when I bought this last one. I know a lot of people who use their phones this way as well, and I am pretty sure that most of my students use their phones predominantly--we have a lot of apps which our university provides students for academic purposes, so they tend to gravitate towards smartphone use more than anything else, from what I have observed.

6 years ago

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JoeMilford

JoeMilford

This is a really good point a really important issue to consider. I am familiar with many sites that are user-friendly on my desk or laptop but they can get pretty clunky and hard to use on my mobile. I even have a pretty large smartphone, and still some of these sites do not work as well on the screen on my phone. This is a really good point here. People are depending on their mobile devices now far more than ever, and we need to make sure that our sites are compatible with this trend in order to stay competitive.

6 years ago

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Judas2018

Judas2018

I think most of the major sites have a mobile version but we are a long way off from every popular or modestly popular internet site devising a mobile version of their web presence. For starters - it's expensive depending on what you want it to do functionally, and how you want it to look. Secondly, many people still use their desktops or laptops when they're at home to surf the web. Some use mobile at home but most mobile users really rely on mobile sites when they're outside. There's also research that suggests most mobile users check email, or visit social media more-so than they do anything else on their mobile device.

6 years ago

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Martinsx1

Martinsx1

I have to agree with you on this point, the trend of making a website to be mobile friendly is a huge hit in the field of web designing and it's really booming people's participation in such websites. Most people are now more comfortable with using mobile phones for almost all their websites surfing and internet dealings. Excluding the mobile friendly design of website is 100% to the detriment of the site owner.

6 years ago

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treecko142

treecko142

Yeah, I personally use just mobile or tablet to browse the internet when I'm not working. From experience, not all sites, even the more popular ones, have successfully transitioned their desktop pages in mobile, which decreases the number of potential visitors to their site.

6 years ago

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vinaya

vinaya

I think ecommece websites are also getting very popular in the past few years. Therefore, people are converting their simple personal blogs into an ecommerce site. Shop button is visible on many popular blogs. Those who do not have their own inventory to sell are dropshipping. ecommerce design is also one of the trends in web design.

6 years ago

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Judas2018

Judas2018

That's nice for them if they have a good product. Also products work best when connected to a brand. People aren't going to buy a product just because you're selling one. Unless that product greatly improves their lives somehow. I see many people selling useful or interesting and dynamic products. But then there are people who're re-branding and then selling things other people are already selling. Or selling products that have little to no use to the average person.

6 years ago

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