UX and responsive design are what all the eCommerce sites looked for in the past year. There has been a lot of talk among the designer communities over the new eCommerce web design trends. Which designs are going to reign in 2017 and which will become trendsetters are all among the on-going discussion.
It is not an easy task to analyze and predict the upcoming designs for any web designer. Some web designs may be the trend today but may become history tomorrow. Nothing can be static in this business as designs are made to change and evolve constantly. Here in this article, we will go try to understand the designs, the trends, and the evolution of web designs since the dawn of 2016.
- More mobile responsive design
If we just look at the beginning of the last decade, eCommerce websites were established keeping desktop in mind. Gradually as time passed, touch screen phones came into the scene. Hence designs were made and developed to be supported on these. Now at the break of this year, the fashion has changed drastically. This smartphone generation has seen a huge rise in eCommerce since the emerging of smartphones. People are able to get everything at just a tap of a finger. Hence, designers have reversed the process completely. They have now started to make designs and establish new trends for the mobile application first and then they go on to think about the website for larger devices. The mobile version has also been given huge dedication because of things like detailed images, buttons, creative icons, hidden menu bars and much more.
- Evolution of semi-flat design
The flat design has been the trend setter and gained huge success in the previous year. But, the trend of flat designs has begun to sink in and now is taking re-birth in form of a semi-flat design. This new design is user-friendly, eye captivating and attractive. This semi-flat design is completely based on the flat design characteristics in terms of operation, usage etc.
- Images, lots of images
Images are very lucrative and attract the attention of any person almost immediately. Extensive research has also proved that people get more swayed by the image of a product and this becomes the purchasing factor. In this year, people will be looking for more images for more validation of any product, goods, and items out there. Take out all the excessive text on the site. People take only 2 sec to judge a particular thing. So, therefore give in more pictures and try to grab the attention of your customer.
- Material design to evolve further
This design was first launched in 2014 by Google on Android platforms. Since then, it has made a name for itself and is still now running strong. This design was the perfect one for new companies to establish themselves as a brand. Till this day this design is ruling over the eCommerce sites. Layouts like cards, alterations, animations are some of the characteristics of this web design. This is still bound to continue this year also.
- Long scrolls with lazy loading
Another trendsetter for 2017 is the long page scroll designs. When you visit a website, it is somewhat a hectic job to go on clicking ‘next page’. This makes it more annoying on mobile phones, where it takes more time load a new page. So, by adding more products on one singular page, it is easy for the customer to make his choices or preferences. It saves time and is way easier for the customer for product selection. This trend is to be seen in 2017 designs.
- Rich animations and cinemagraphs
As said above, images mean a sense of validation. They will be a necessary element in web design for the upcoming year. But to make them a little fancier and eye captivating, designers have come up with ideas such as animations, GIFs and the likes for the eCommerce sites. If any company wishes to make customers return more and more to their website, then they must adopt this new trend of GIFs coming their way. These may be put on the banners of the home page, headers background, etc.
- Hamburgers on the left
Like the material design, hamburger menus are trending for quite a long time. Many sites are widely using hamburger menus as of now. The websites which have been designed by bootstrap framework have the hamburger type menus on the right-hand side. In this year, the changes that are about to come to this type of menu is that it will be placed on the left-hand side of the website. The eCommerce websites want their customers to look up this menu as soon as they enter the site. Hence this is another specific designing to look up for in 2017.
- Hand drawn elements
Nothing is better than handmade stuff. The time has come for handmade elements to make their way into the arena of web designing. This year many trends will change and many will evolve. Logos and icons this year will be largely substituted for hand drawn elements. These elements will create a very strong impression on the customer about your brand. Try to hook yourself up with such stuff and keep the icons and logos on the sidelines. Ask for specifics of what type of hand drawn stuff you want and then get going with it.
- Large and flexible typography
Flexible typography is one such design which works wonders on both mobile phones to large screen devices. Typefaces, especially large ones can have large impacts on the customers. Larger typography makes it easier for customers to read on their mobile phones. This will help the companies to build a better and brighter brand name for themselves.
Hence all these are the different trends in 2017 web designing for eCommerce websites.
Author BIO
Tom Blake is a digital marketing guru at Media Shark digital agency in Gold Coast, and all round entrepreneur. Running his own businesses since the age of 20 his work has seen him travel the world living in various countries. Now heading up Media Shark in the sunny Gold Coast of Australia. His passion lies in helping people with online marketing and providing technical SEO and digital strategies with one goal ROI.
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