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Photo by Amritanshu Sikdar https://unsplash.com/photos/LoGnr-w1D8E
Modern web design, like fashion, is bringing some old things back into style. From background texture to scrolling, what’s old is new again, just with a twist. These modern web design tips will help your site stand out from the pack.
Subtle background textures
The keyword here is “subtle.” Bright, garish backgrounds are still out of style, where they should remain forever. You don’t want the background of your website to make it difficult to read the text. A tiled photo repeated over and over is too “early 1990’s” and is definitely out. But a very basic, cream on white texture? Classy and interesting. Go for it!
Vibrant colors
While vibrant background colors should be skipped, bright colors are becoming popular for menus, buttons, links, and headers. Some palettes are all shades of a single color (say, green), and some are a collection of colors that span the rainbow. As long as there aren’t too many in one place, vibrant colors pop. They stand out, but they do make the whole application look a little loud and peppy. If you’re trying to convey elegance, maybe stick to neutrals.
Content-focused design
If your web space is more dedicated to a product or your words, you want a design that emphasizes that. Highlight your message, whether you’re selling or just sharing information. Keep the sparkles and distracting drop shadows to a minimum. Focus on making your content superb, and the rest will follow!
Scrolling is back
Once upon a time, designers decided that scrolling was bad. It was terrible. No one was ever going to scroll again, and so all web pages had to be designed to avoid “the fold”, IE, the point where a screen would cut off the content and people would leave the site rather than scroll down. Today, this just doesn’t make sense. For one thing, people are using all kinds of screen sizes to view the Internet these days. Secondly, smartphones and tablets are perfect for scrolling. If you want someone to read your blog on the bus, put as much as possible into one, scrolling page. They’ll be able to thumb through it, and everything will work out well.
Check out the competition and steer clear
Websites are evolving. Still, it pays to look at what’s typical and in your field and then do something different. As long as your site still works, it will stand out in people’s memories. If you’re in a field where someone will almost always shop around before choosing someone to work with (like a real estate agent, for example), it pays to be the one they remember. Still, your competitors could change their site anytime. Make sure your site works well, besides just being “different”.
Modern web design is focused on giving your readers the content they want in the way they want it. Scrolling is great for mobile devices. Standing out from the crowd? Even better. Today, the modern web is the old web with a vibrant color face lift. It’s good to be bold.
