Visuality has been the leading priority in web design since its very beginning. In general, almost everything on a website is visual. It means that one has to grasp the whole concept of a web project before actually changing or adding visual effects. Layouts, fonts, animations should co-exist. Let’s divide all web visual stimuli into two big groups, entertaining ones and practical, and see how they can be used.
Visual Effects for Entertaining Presentation
The growing number of designers all over the world postulate the fact – the ‘80s and ‘90s spirit seems to be coming back into fashion. Why? People whose childhood has been spent in the ‘80s and 90-s constitute the bigger part of the active and most experienced web audience. What does it mean for web designers?
Using bold color patterns is the easiest way to refresh your website design. The combination of basic colors, like blue, orange and white, adds structure and consistency to your website layout. Bold color patterns can be applied to almost every design element, from the background palette to the loading animation. Check out the single-page theme for web design agency. Looking fresh and vibrant, the color palette of this theme makes your website memorable for your clients.
Choosing more sophisticated typography is also in theses days. The main idea is that we should play around with the size and style of letters. Web designers claim that your font can and should be somewhat unpredictable, like pink bold handwriting. The bottom line, however, remains quite straightforward: typography must suit the general spirit of your website, like in Bolden.
When talking about visual representation of the product, one should care about authenticity. There are several easy ways to get authentic online. One of them is depicting resources such as metal, rock and wood. They could bring extra life sparkle to your product presentation. Another strategy for creating an authentic website is using candid and believable photos. If your visitors can relate to images they see, there is a higher chance you will be able to involve them into a (long-term) cooperation. Quite surprisingly, this strategy works well both for personal services websites and industrial websites. For example, this CMS Template for Industrial Websites is aiming to evoke the interest of car owners who look for a trustworthy gas provider. The bright sky, a road, and a reliable gas provider seem to be everything one needs to fully enjoy their thirst for travel. One more idea to help your website look real is applying a hand-drawn illustration or a clear geometrical pattern. These effects belong to real eye-catchers and add precision to your product presentation.
Animation has become extremely popular in web design. It is an excellent choice for websites of different types and budgets due to its capacity to quickly grab visitors’ attention. Of course, the very concept of using animation in web design is not new. There are, however, a few trends that you might want to consider if you are about to give new momentum to your online ventures. Among them one can find cinemagraphs, background animations and videos, icon animations, and parallax motion. Let’s try to analyze what animation trend will fit your website concept best.
Cinemagraphs has risen from simple photography to become one of the most successful animation tools so far. Cinemagraphs are fun to look at and thus very effective as attention grabbers. Let’s try to see what is so peculiar about this website of Ann Street Studio. The subtle motion of a butterfly and the candle light do make you stare at the screen for at least two seconds. And this is exactly what cinemagraphs are about – they prompt visitors to stay longer at your page.
Background animations and videos seem to be getting more attention this year. And this is no surprise. If your visitors have a choice – either to read about your product or watch a 1-minute video about it, what do you think they will choose? Right, a video. And this is exactly what guys at Bukwild prove. However, there are pitfalls that one should try to avoid at any cost. The first one is that you have to shoot a video only when the rest of the content is ready. This can ensure that your website looks visually consistent. The latter pitfall is the loading speed. Background animations are relatively heavy and may cause severe loading issues.
Animating an icon or a certain graphic element can also engage your audience’s attention in no time. This effect works exceptionally well if your website is using long scrolls, like the Upturn’s website.
One more intriguing animation idea is to give the parallax motion a try. The typical feature of this effect is a central element, usually your core product, fixed right at the middle of your page. Any website is getting more dynamic with this visual effect, which you can experience in Cyclemon.
Visual Effects Trends with the Practical Value
Minimalism remains the guiding principle for all the visual effects in 2017. The hamburger menu and other types of hidden navigation menus still belong to reliable ways to minimize the content density, like in Draw to Click agency website. Long scrolls are also still in. Of course, with this boom of minimalism one can easily get carried away. The worst case scenario in this case is a website that is so minimalistic that it starts being not intuitive enough. We would not want that, right?
People stick to their mobiles to experience the Internet world. It means that responsivity will be one of the leading factors to keep in mind when visually (re)designing a website. To ensure that your visitors have the smoothest web experience possible, you have to consider modular layouts or card layouts. As scientist say, human brain can process only up to 9(!) chunks of information. So why not creating manageable information pieces and actively engage your visitor’s attention with modular layouts or card layouts, like this Visit London guide does?
To sum up, one can say that visual effects trends of 2017 are all about bringing a smile to your clients’ faces. So, let’s wait and see how these effects work together. And of course, remember that moderation in all things is the best principle for successful web designers.
