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10 Web Design Trends You Can Expect in 2014

There are many exciting things that 2014 has in store for us who live, work, and produce the World Wide Web.

Last year, we looked at the 10 Web design trends for 2013. Many of the trends that were spotted last year are still around today and will undoubtedly take off into 2014. After all, that’s why they are called trends and not fads, as trends tend to stick around for a few years while fads are only hot for a very short time.

Let’s look ahead and see what kind of new(ish) Web design trends we can look for and be inspired in 2014.

1. Non-boring typography
It’s great to see more designers experimenting with different types of type. One trend with type we can expect to see in 2014 is fonts with personality.

“Fonts with personality” are fonts that feel like they can stand on their own. They are not your standard serif or sans-serif font. Designers are starting to find different fonts to add to their arsenal that add a little personality and uniqueness to their designs.

We expect to see many more websites in 2014 getting away from very simple and overused typefaces and finding some with personality.

2. Flat design
Oh Apple, how we love thee.

Last year we said that more than likely, Apple was going to shake its Skeuomorphism, and boy did they ever. With the release of iOS7 came the design aesthetic most commonly known as “flat design.” While dropping drop shadows and gradients often seems like a good idea in some cases to give a more updated look to things, Apple took it to a whole other level by dropping pretty much any design element it could.

Apple has for a long time been a trendsetter, and what Apple does, the rest of the world seems to follow. iOS7 has been out for a while and already there are a flood of sites coming online every day with new “flat” designs. We don’t anticipate this trend ending in 2014.

3. Large hero areas quickly killing sliders
If you asked us what is the #1 trend in Web design today, this would be it.

Large hero areas (the “intro” area, often an image with a little amount of text, at the top of a website – a borrowed term from print design) on website home pages are running rampant and it is a trend we don’t see going away either in 2014. They are quickly taking over real estate on websites where sliders used to reside.

Either it be a simple blurred photo in the background with a heading centered in the middle, or a more elaborate one. Hero areas are quickly replacing sliders as the new attention-grabbers, and they are becoming increasingly creative and elaborate.

4. Heavier focus on mobile
Now that responsive Web design is becoming more common place, we are starting to see websites dig deeper into our mobile lifestyles.

Designers are increasingly working on keeping their sites functioning on mobile devices, but developers are taking it a step further to help along with the fact that so many more devices are accessing the Web, and so many more users are using their phones to browse the Web.

Wondering what some things are being done? Integration with social media, asking for email subscriptions, long scrolling sites, and fast loading sites all help make the mobile Web a friendlier place.

5. Videos in place of text
Why read about it when you can watch it? Something else you will start seeing all over the Web (especially in hero areas) are videos.

Videos are becoming easier to produce, and easier to share not on your website, but on social media as well. While some may argue that videos don’t belong on a website home page due to the large amount of data they take to load and run (especially on mobile devices and internet with data caps), videos are an effective way to communicate something technical or new when words just don’t cut it.

Plus, many video services such as YouTube allow you to track how many views it got, allowing you to better plan your content for your website.

6. Long scrolling sites
We’ve become comfortable with scrolling through a website to read and find information, and now with websites using more design techniques such as increased white space and responsive Web design, long scrolling sites are starting to appear again.

Several years ago, it was common to have long scrolling sites that where slammed with content. Well, now we are seeing long scrolling websites but the content is more organized and in a much easier format to digest.

7. Simple color schemes
We can’t have a post on design trends without talking about color. In 2014, we will see a lot more website with very simple color schemes. And by simple, we mean really only one or two colors.

Some websites being launched now are using very little color, or even forgoing color all together. White, black, and everything in between are popular color schemes now, and adding just a hit of another color, such as red, adds drama and impact – all things that garnish attention when used in the right way.

8. Simplified content
We’ve kind of hit on this throughout this post, but while 2013 seemed to be the year of King Content, 2014 will keep the king humble and down to earth. Simpler content will dominate 2014 and beyond as we design our websites.

Simplified content means short bursts of content, a la Twitter style. Over the years as a population, our attention spans have become shorter, so designers have compensated for that by putting content in short bursts instead of long narratives.

Not many areas on websites these days (except blog posts) have more than about 250 characters. It is because it is easier and faster to read for users who like to scan the page.

9. Dropping the sidebar
This is more for blog or magazine-type sites, but many of these sites are experimenting with dropping the sidebar all together. This allows for a more visual impact with content (and easier responsive Web development).

Imagine this: you reading an article without things flashing, crowding, or otherwise buying for your attention. Designers understand this and are working to make your reading experience more pleasant by getting rid of these distractions and expanding the content of the article to take over the page.

10. Manipulated imagery
While it is easy to just throw any old photo on your site, it is a little more difficult to manipulate it into something different. In 2014, we will see more images that have things such as color overlays, blurred images, or even images that are reminiscent of Instagram images with filters.

BONUS: Crazy, sexy, cool stuff
This will be the trend that we hope never ever dies. As the Web grows and becomes more involved, and as more things are developed, designers and Web developers are going to get their hands on them. If you thought parallax scrolling techniques were cool, just you wait.

Expect to see many more things hit the Web in 2014, such as the use of HTML5 to animate different parts of a site. Just don’t go overboard.

Creativity Sparks a Greater ROI

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It’s a question often asked of any advertising professional: “what’s going to be my return on investment?” While there are many metrics for measuring ROI, measuring the ROI of creativity itself if perhaps the most important consideration.

So why do so many businesses play it so safe when promoting their brand? It’s not fear of the unknown, or even a low tolerance for risk. Instead, it’s because some don’t fully understand how truly important creativity for creativity’s sake truly is. If they did, they would do everything in their (and their creative team’s) power to set themselves apart from their competitors in creative, memorable ways.

In 2010, England’s Institute of Practitioners in Advertising published a study called the “The link between creativity & effectiveness.” In it they provided a thorough analysis of 435 campaigns studied over a 16-year period from 1994 to 2010. The report revealed something we creative professionals have always known in our gut – that creativity fuels a greater return on the advertising dollar. In fact, they discovered that creatively awarded campaigns are 12 times more efficient at increasing a brand’s market share. Some 77 percent of these campaigns had television advertising at the heart of their success.

The report’s summary concluded, “while creativity cannot be defined or prescribed, its effects can be measured and creative ads tend to be enjoyable and involving, and different than other advertising. They tend to stimulate an emotional response. Effective ads also tend to generate these responses – and they are also likely to be well branded.”

That’s been my experience as well. When writing a radio spot for ReNew Life Formula’s Diet Start Cleanse, the lead character was a bathroom scale. He pleaded with his owner to try it and it would help her lose weight, thus making his “life” easier. We used the voice of Jay Kiernen, (the voice of the cartoon cockroach who screamed “RAID!” at the end of that monumental and long-running campaign), to do the voiceover. It was a brand and a product worthy going that extra mile, and they were savvy enough to embrace it. Click here if you’d like to give it a listen.

TCS PAP pool cleaner adThen there was this ad for Pinch A Penny Pool, Patio and Spa about automatic pool cleaners. The brand is built around the notion that pool cleaning is as easy as child’s play, and children were predominant in all advertising. Plus, children and pools naturally go together, and many pool owners have children in the home. This ad took a rather mundane topic, automatic pool cleaners, and tied it to the brand in a fun, fresh way. It was engaging, immediately easy for adults with children to identify with, and reinforced a strong sales message. Such approaches have helped build this brand into a pool care powerhouse, and they are still true to the children and family oriented approach to this day.

And that’s the true value of creativity. It has the power to turn the mundane into the exceptional. Which is why more and more corporations are harnessing the power of creativity to get the best out of their people. Take, for instance, General Electric. GE was able to increase patentable concepts by more than 60 percent after its engineers and designers completed a two-year, in-house creativity course. Participants in Pittsburgh Plate Glass creativity training showed a 300 percent increase in viable ideas compared with those who elected not to take the course. At Sylvania, several thousand employees took a 40-hour course in creative problem solving. The ROI for that course was $20 for every $1 spent.

Hewlett Packard was an early adopter of creativity training. The company invested more than $2 billion in R&D in 1999, and generated more than 1,300 patent applications. The net revenue from their investment in creative thinking? A whopping $42.37 billion that year alone.

So the next time you’re thinking about doing a mailer, sending out some email marketing, placing an ad, posting on social media, or filming a TV spot, don’t just think out of the box. Make a new box to be in. The return on your investment will be highly rewarding, both emotionally and monetarily, and motivate you to continue to supercharge your brand identity through creativity.

Blog post created by Jennifer Frazier/The Creative Stable

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