If you haven’t heard of big data and all the huge methods and trends that revolve around it, then the real question is – Where have you been for the last couple of years? While big data definitely sounds confusing and bewildering to a lot of people, so that they even decide to ignore it altogether, the fact is that the future of many things, including website design, already relies on it enough that you cannot ignore it, and this trend is only going to grow.
When you look at big data, it can really consist of a huge amount of storage. Take Facebook, for example. On its own, it contains at least 100 petabytes. So, the fact is that it all may look scary, so some people tend to look away because they aren’t aware of how valuable this data is to solve their issues. Beyond so many current trends that depend on it, the future tells us that 2018 will be all about machine learning, which will make a lot of use of it, making automating processes significantly simpler.
In this article, however, we will focus on big business website design trends inspired by big data analytics.
Illustrations coming to focus
A common challenge for web designers is what image to choose to properly present the product. Some of them turn to UI shots of the products and GIFs, while others turn to editorial or lifestyle photography. However, an emerging trend this year is using illustrations, both when it comes to marketing and designing products.
The data is showing that the world of fashion is coming into a cycle – illustration was dominant in the ads of the 60s, and now it’s coming back with a boom. The amazing thing about illustrations is that they can give life to more abstract concepts. This is why big companies like Dropbox and Shopify are embracing this style as a trend.
Oblique and organic shapes
For a long time, web design has been driven by card-based user interfaces. These cards have been designed with sharp edges and right angles. However, since 2017, things have started to change. The data has shown a tendency towards more organic, oblique shapes, so almost every app that you get from Google, Facebook, Twitter, and so on now has cards, profile images, and input boxes with rounded corners.
In fact, this trend has grown beyond these basic design elements. Now we can see an abundance of backgrounds that are full of colorful round shapes, diagonals that give away a dramatic effect, and cartoonish renders of reality. However, curvy shapes aren’t necessarily the only solution. A lot of designers simply push their boxes out of their ordinary position by giving them a slight twist, where they are no longer angled by 90°. Others combine straight lines with organic and oval shapes to come up with creative solutions.
You will also notice that many designers turn to vibrate color combinations for their user interfaces. While you can certainly create powerful effects this way, you need to be careful as they need to remain user-friendly. Not everyone is going to be fascinated by harsh color combinations.
Web animation
The important role of animation is to make interfaces, as well as ideas, simpler to comprehend. We live in a fast world, and a quick animation can engage your visitor in a short amount of time. The animation tells a story and gives personality to your website. Things become a lot less static and a lot more dynamic as a result.
A big trend in 2018 are definitely animated logos. They are just another step towards boosting your company’s brand identity. As always, it’s a visual representation of who you are, but now it becomes a bit more engaging.
Web designers now have a large number of tools that they can use to play with animations, and this makes the line between design and development less obvious. You will find designers so deeply dedicated to the animating process that they are learning coding and prototyping to come up with the best possible way to convey a particular concept to the customer.
However, according to local SEO experts, it is essential that you do not use animation just for the sake of it. It has to be used properly and fit the concept of your project.
Imaginative typography
Typography can make a big impact, and serif fonts are going to make a large comeback this year – on their own, or in combination with sans-serif fonts, in order to come up with an engaging and dynamic UI. When we look at contemporary devices, we can see that their resolutions are becoming sharper, meaning that fonts need to be more legible. As a result, a great number of custom fonts are on the rise. There’s both the achievement of emphasis as well as an aesthetic effect.
The fact that is certain is that designers no longer approach typography from a subtle perspective but rather go for dramatic and big typefaces, which emphasize boldness.
A typography-related trend that a lot of web designers are implementing is cutouts and overlays. Those are transparent text elements that show the background image underneath, which can be still or moving.
Big data is having a huge effect on how businesses make decisions, and a lot of it will change in 2018 and in the years to come. Web design trends are adapting to the data that companies gather and analyze to develop the best possible solutions for their audiences.
People are more impressed when they come across a website that is following a trend that is close and relatable to them. With the right data, you can know exactly what your customer base wants to see, and how to attract and retain their attention.
