I recently embarked on a new journey into web design. Coming into it as a videographer I was confident I had enough “creative vision” to make something aesthetically pleasing, but wow, I was wrong. Web design takes the cake for being its own unique creative obstacle course.

My first project was to design a homepage, the all-important landing spot where users begin interacting with your site. It’s the part of your website that you want to use to capture the attention of users and convince them to explore your site. No biggie.

Fast-forward to the moment I looked up at my end design. It was a masterpiece! (Totally kidding here. It was a design disaster) So, I quickly started over and tried to erase the evidence of the Frankenstein-esque homepage I just created.

With a second chance at designing this homepage, I decided to change my approach and do some studying first. I figured I should be familiar with current design trends going on in the web design world. For some inspiration, I visited Awwwards.com and even viewed some of Red Shark Digital’s current website designs for inspiration.

With my studying completed I got to work on my second homepage attempt, and to my surprise, it turned out halfway decent. I still have ways to go in my design efforts, but I’m sure that will come with more practice and more homework on design trends.

That long intro leads me to the original intent of this blog, (no, not to bask in my failed attempt at designing a homepage) to pass along the three current web design trends I’m most interested in.

Minimalism

Minimalism still seems to be trendy and continues to become more minimal. A term that is commonly thrown around is “clean.” With an increasing amount of white space, a website looks “cleaner.” This minimalism leads to a very comfortable user experience where they aren’t being bogged down with too much visual information.  This trend may lend its popularity to a culture that constantly promotes “more, more, more!”. It’s nice for a user to experience less and feel that fresh of breath air, and comfort.

Shadows

As you might be aware, shadows are great to use to create depth. Shadows are being used in web design to transform those flat designs into designs that are now semi-flat. Shadows can be used on CTA’s to make them pop out from the background drawing users to click on them or establish some hierarchy between elements. Using shadows sparingly ads impactfulness to the shadows used, so be sure not to use excessively.

Illustrations and Videos

I’m sure you are aware of the phrase “A picture is worth a thousand words.” Well, designers are very well of this phrase and jump at the opportunity to display that much information in such a simple format. Video and custom illustrations used on your webpage can translate your message to users without them thinking or reading into it to far, and that's what you want! You want to make the user experience as easy, and as stress-free as you can.  Videos are engaging as well. Studies show that users are more apt to explore your site or fall further down the conversion funnel after watching a video.

Many others trends are popping up in the web design world. I encourage you to do some research of your own to see what's going on out there. You might just find some new inspiration for a design! As always, you can refer to Red Shark Digital for any of your web design needs.

I’m going to to go now and do some much-needed research myself.

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