Developments and fashions are fascinating issues. In hindsight they at all times seem clear, however making an attempt to forecast them requires a mixture of info, instinct and luck. If you happen to can appropriately predict the place issues are transferring, and also you’re prepared to again your self, then you possibly can place for the longer term. Years in the past I had the great fortune to appropriately see that WordPress themes and web site templates had been taking off and had a giant trajectory. This gave us the chance to place a market to assist individuals promote them, and that turned out pretty well!
To be good at predicting the place the business goes you first have to wallow in it. Residing and respiration the house provides you the background to attract on utilizing instinct. Subsequent you could consciously be on the lookout for what’s working, what’s taking off, and what outdoors elements like expertise are affecting the business. Lastly you have to contemplate patterns like counter-movements and influencer teams. Like many issues in life, the way in which to get higher at seeing the place the world is transferring, is to follow.
As Shoppingwp’s CEO, it’s essential for me to be engaged on this talent. So I made a decision to spend a while serious about the longer term for internet and on-line design, and to take a stab at what subsequent yr and past may maintain. If all goes effectively, this text will look superior in a yr. And if it doesn’t, effectively it certain is enjoyable to take a position!
Transferring Previous Simply Flat
This final yr cemented in place ‘flat design’ as a form of authentically digital interface. Issues culminated with iOS7’s launch which took the idea of flat design mainstream.
The clear designs we’re seeing in the mean time are evolving as designers search to distinguish, adapt and develop on the clear strains and ease of flat design.
Flat has a protracted technique to go but, and so the principle modifications I feel we’ll see within the subsequent yr are extra enjoyable, however faddish, developments like long shadows and the like. In related style I feel we’ll see some extra depth, layering, graduations, and different visible distinctions making their manner again in, however in a extra refined and refined manner than the outdated days.
There’s additionally nonetheless loads of life left within the hipster finish of design as effectively, with its handstyled and handset typography, huge designer photographs, and nods to craftsmanship. This usually will get blended with an in any other case clear flat design to nice impact. I’m to see if this develops additional into extra of a response to the simplicity of flat design. Now that we’ve gotten comfy with sort on the internet, will we see the web equal of David Carson’s distressed typography of 90’s Raygun journal?
Extra Movement
Incorporating movement in its numerous types is one other logical construct on flat design. Every little thing is pointing to this turning into a significant piece of interface design going ahead. First we've the resurgence of animated GIFs, the attractive use of video content material and transitions on websites like Apple’s Mac Pro web page, the rising recognition of video on Instagram and Vine, and extra use of SVG graphics collectively with animation. Throw in fixed enhancements in bandwidth and video manufacturing tooling, and movement feels set to ramp up.
For internet and interface designers, movement can be used to distinguish the in any other case quite simple flat design ethos, in addition to create more engagement.
If historical past is something to go by, because it will get widespread, movement can be not simply superbly used, but additionally completely abused and inappropriately deployed. However as long as we don’t return to the times of ‘skip intro’, I feel we’ll all be wonderful.
WordPress Dominates, Challengers Accumulate
It’s very laborious to see WordPress doing something aside from persevering with to dominate the open supply CMS market. Its place feels unassailable due to a heady mixture of usable software program, large neighborhood, and consistently bettering product. Detractors usually level to the restrictions of its codebase, however even that's constantly bettering.
However the CMS market is just too huge for there to not be fixed challenges. I feel we’ll see continued progress in flat file static website builders like Jekyll, Kirby and the like. There are a whole lot of them already, so this isn't a brand new phenomenon. However with front-end designers getting more proficient on the engineering facet, there’s a rising realisation that generally a full CMS is just overkill.
On the opposite facet the hosted CMS market continues to construct momentum and income. Wix has been the primary to go for the IPO, and I count on we’ll see Weebly, Squarespace and among the others following on their heels. Meanwhiles Y Combinator continues to delivery merchandise on this house, most just lately Strikingly has been choosing up tempo shortly as a mobile-first web site builder. All of those merchandise current an extremely straightforward expertise for mainstream customers, so their progress prospects are very robust in 2014.
Tooling for Fashionable Internet Design
Whereas internet design has moved ahead extremely quickly in the previous couple of years, the tooling for creating it has been going just a little slower. After the heyday of Dreamweaver and Flash, Adobe appeared to momentarily cease caring a lot in regards to the house. However they're now coming again with a little bit of gusto. Their Edge product suite is slowly constructing out, and Edge Reflow is wanting each promising, and never over-promised.
Adobe’s lack of tooling over time left a pleasant open hole which has seen merchandise like Sketch, Typecast, Codiqa and the upcoming Macaw, attempt to step in. I like seeing nice indie merchandise, and am extraordinarily excited to see how Macaw goes.
Together with instruments for creating, are the instruments for collaborating, measuring and testing. Zurb is a good instance of an organization placing out a set of product design apps for exchanging mockups, accumulating person suggestions, and testing prototypes.
I feel 2014 will see much more variety within the tooling panorama from indie software program improvement homes, SaaS firms, and the large A.
Altering Nature of Interface Design
Will 2014 see the discharge of an Apple watch or an Apple TV? Who is aware of. What we do know is that interfaces are about to propagate like mad because the Web of Issues develops. From Pebble to Glass, Nest to Fitbit we will count on to see a continued rise of units going far past simply cellular screens. Interface design is unlikely to have main necessities modifications within the upcoming yr, however keep tuned in the long term. I count on a world sooner or later the place interface designers can be serious about how their website or app connects to a brand new array of screens and shows.
Within the meantime the roles of internet designers proceed to develop organically right into a broader and deeper set of disciplines. Many of the change in the previous couple of years has been the rising significance of UX-related disciplines and the regular deepening of front-end engineering into an more and more full-blooded developer function. However I feel we’re additionally seeing the start of extra data-driven design.
Because the tooling from firms like Zurb enhance, so to will the demand for choices to be made backed by knowledge. Designers by nature combine evaluation and knowledge with instinct and creativity. So I feel we’ll see a rising development in 2014 of thought leadership pieces about how we will use knowledge to do higher design and UX work.
That’s my take
In order that’s my two cents on what 2014 and the longer term may maintain for internet design. What do you assume may be coming?
Listed below are a pair extra attention-grabbing prediction items, if you already know of extra please do depart a remark:
