WHAT WE ARE TENDING TO SEE IN 2015 SO FAR

• Larger background images, but less conventional stock photos. Genuine imagery of relavent information seems to be what people notice. Artificial photos are too much like that wallpaper in the background. A realistic photo that shows what you are about works much better.
• Video background. This seems to fluctuate in fashion. Video started to be used less as mobiles were expected to be used more; some video formats took longer to load on a mobile, and people grew impatient. Now video seems to be more popular again, partly because the site responds to the mobile when used.
• Human image- The 1980s got it wrong – we didn’t’ become emotionless machines or fell the urge to act this way. Rather, like a good painting or photo we learnt to use the technology to capture the human side of what we are. Okay, represent an idealized version of how we like to think of ourselves. The images on the net are a little too good to be true, but they are larger than life rather than devoid of feeling. People buy from other people, or at least images of other people. The impersonal has never been attractive to many.
• Responsive designs- instead of separate sites, or separate versions of sites for mobiles, the one site adapts to the device
• Modular design- self-contained units that connect with each other in various ways, often interchangeably. This is an old concept, but now applied to the look of a site. Neatly spaced images with minimal white boarders look very clean and neat, a good look to pursue.
• Scrolling pages- people seem to respond to this. Instead of stopping and waiting for a new page to load the scroll progressively reveals more as you want it. This makes sense on a mobile.

None of these are new trends; there and many other ideas existed in 2014 and before. The thing is some ideas increased in popularity as others faded. 3D is less popular, as are complexity and text heavy sites. Separate mobile sites are replaced by responsive sites. There are always trends, but which ones continue and become to become more than trends is hard to ascertain.

Sydney web design companies like to think they do more than just follow the trends, though the whole business is hard to follow. It’s not about novelty or originality, though these can get you noticed; Innovation, which the North Shore web design companies aim at, is about finding what works best for real people and the particular site at hand.

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