December is in its peak, and it’s high time to think not only about Christmas presents, but also about the trends which will determine the Internet development next year. Speaking about web development, we can make some predictions already as the trends which are expected to shape the face of web development in 2014 are already in use.
Continuous Scrolling
Readers have been enjoying the new look of website home pages for some time: to find previous posts on these sites they only need to click on “Load more”. It is really convenient – you can read old texts without having to scroll tens of pages. In 2014, such website layout will become a trend. Of course there are those who don’t like it, but the Internet is ruled by the majority.
Flat Design
After Apple released its new iOS 7 with a completely flat design, the emergence of a new paradigm for design became obvious – minimalism and visual relief, as opposed to Web 2.0 design forms. In addition to the external differences, flat design has a positive effect on performance – all shadows and gradients that can devour precious kilobytes disappear.
Adaptive Mobile Design
According to the Walker Sands report, 28 % of all traffic to sites in the third quarter of this year was generated by mobile devices. So, the approach, when such users are not taken into account and don’t need a special “mobile” version of the site, should be buried. Now sites should (and can!) be flexible, adapting to different screens and devices. It means that there is no need to maintain two different versions of the same site, as you can just develop a responsive one.
Large Fonts
Fonts are getting bigger. Monitors are constantly becoming bigger and fonts which were all right on 15-inche screens will already look small.
Parallax Scrolling
Parallax Scrolling is a 2D-effect in which the number of objects on a page are moving at different speeds, creating a 3D illusion. At one time, this approach has been successfully used in computer games (Mario Bros, Mortal Kombat). Now parallax-effects are increasingly found on websites (e.g. New York Times).
Surely, 2014 will bring some new tendencies and innovations into web design, however, it is highly possible that the first half of the incoming year will be lightened by these trends.