The Website Design Trends For 2015

Every year, Web design grows and so many awesome things are being published daily. I can only imagine that the best is yet to come in 2015, including many of the trends we predicted for 2014.

While many of those trends will still be around in 2015 (and probably 2016), it’s time to see what new trends are likely to emerge in 2015.

While everyone is reflecting on the year that was and looking ahead to the year that will be, let’s take a look at some Web design trends we will likely see when we turn the calendar to 2015.

1. Longer scrolling sites

It hasn’t gone unnoticed that most new site designs published today tend to be longer in length when scrolling through the page. As mobile devices become more popular, it’s becoming more commonplace for sites to opt for scrolling instead of linking as a means to display content, especially on their home pages.

It is easier for users to simply scroll through a page to get their information than it is to constantly click to find information.

Homepages aren’t the only place where the long scrolling trend can be spotted. While long scrolling sites have been popular for a while (hello, one-page websites), the benefits of scrolling have multiplied and found themselves in other places other than the home page, such as about pages and even product pages as a means to elegantly display a wide variety of content.

For example, Apple’s page for its iPhone 6 showcases the long scrolling page trend outside of the home page. It’s designed the main iPhone 6 page to be a long scrolling site, showcasing all of the product’s specs and features.

In addition, the site added some slick animations to make the scrolling experience visually attentive.

2. Storytelling and interaction

While having amazing content is always crucial for your website, being able to tell a story through your content is a big plus. Web design in 2015 will likely focus around helping tell a story for users.

For example, the Space Needle’s website beautifully tells the facts of the Space Needle through the use of storytelling and a design that helps support it (it also goes in line with the long scrolling trend discussed above).

The Space Needle website also demonstrates another trend for 2015 – interaction. Web designs are becoming more interactive and animated to help present content in a unique and appealing way.

Interaction paired with animation used in website design – when tastefully done – can bring the wow factor to your site. For example, the Impossible Bureau’s website is very interactive in that it responds to your scrolling and hovering over different elements (instead of the normal clicking).

3. Absence of large header background images

The trend over the last few years have been large header background images, often with text on top, and it is the first thing most visitors see when they come to a site. So how can you stand out from the crowd that has embraced the large-header-background-image trend? By doing the opposite.

Some recent site designs have decided to buck this trend by keeping their large headers, but making them background-image free. My guess is that not only do they want to not follow a trend, but they are also looking at the performance and speed of their site as a reason to ditch the large images.

The New Wave Company’s site showcases this well. It has a large header welcoming visitors to the site and large typography centered in the page. What it doesn’t have is a large background image behind that heading.

This is tastefully done and doesn’t fall in line with other trendy site designs using large background imagery.

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