Must Design

Bait & Switch Parallax
Earlier today we shared a Scoop on ecommerce web design trends (http://sco.lt/5bADXl ). CycleMon is a good example of falling in love with an idea, parallax scrolling, and forgetting ecommerce basics such as 1. DON'T MAKE ME THINK and 2. You have 9 Seconds to tell me what you are all about.

http://www.cyclemon.com/mobile/

Cyclemon forces customers to scroll to the bottom of a long list of designs BEFORE they proceed to a Cafe-Press like store. WRONG. Don't be so impressed with your designs you make me spend precious TIME scrolling through ALL of them.

OR if you do so ask me a question. What design best describes you? Cyclemon could use a tag or make their images clickable to clue their customers faster. Don't FORCE your customers to follow YOUR line through the forest of your products.

And, don't bait and switch. When Cyclemon LOOKS one way during the scroll and another after the click they violate the scenttrail rule - whatever is on the other side of a click must resemble and amplify what is on the other side.

Cyclemon violates the rule because they leave the ecommerce to after a long scroll and click. This is like inviting an insurance salesman to lunch. Be more clear upfront and you won't violate the Scenttrail Rule.

Oh and one more thing. The Cyclemon page defined our laptop as mobile. Make sure your sniffer is reading correctly before you expose it to the world or you lose trust and legitimacy both things needed if customers are going to open their wallets.

While many design trends are fleeting, a select few are natural evolutions of the industry. As the range of devices on which we view websites continues to grow,

Our Notes

1. Typography Will Be Flexible (agree).

2. The Decline of Web Coding (disagree, after spending a few weeks at The Iron Yard learning CSS & Java feels like CODE is going up not down, but we understand the point since it is possible to do a lot with templated WordPress these days).

3. The Evolution of Responsive Design. (Agree, responsive will need to permeate data architecture, website navigation and functionality too). 

4. Flat Design will Conquer Every Pixel (agree)

5. Bigger = Better for Images
(depends on the site, but agree mostly)

6. Revamped Scrolling Animations, Parallax Effects and Microinteractions (agree).

7. The Dawn of Webgraphics (agree).

In this post we will try to review the current status of web design scene and predict some trends for 2015.

Marty Note
Great summary of some "new to me" trends for next year such as video backgrounds and rise of website generators (still looking for a really good one of these, most suck).

Hope the stock photography and personal branding predictions come true.

Now it’s time to analyze the web designs that have emerged this year, and place predictions for the possible trends that lie ahead for 2015.

Marty Note
Promise to create a mashup of all web design trends postings to identify common consensus and outliers.

Ten Web Trends To Look For In 2015

1. Responsive Wins.
2. Ghost Buttons (made with Divi). 
3. Emphasis on Type.
4. Large & Beautiful Backgrounds.
5. Scrolling BEATS Clicking.
6. Card Design Gets Better.
7. Flat Design morphs into Material Design.
8. Microiterations.
9. Interactive Storytelling.
10. Personalized UX.

An updated look at the hottest best web design trends of 2014 including a showcase of modern web design inspiration.

Marty Note
This @justcreative post hit many nails on the head when it was initially published and Jacob's update of Helga Moreno's post doesn't disappoint either. Things I REALLY agree with:

See Less of (PLEASE):

* Stock photography (no photos? ASK your employees / followers for help but please no more Stepford people in pics on websites).
* Flash (has killed more #seo and sites than you can shake a stick at and fact it is still alive is amazing).
* Capcha - spam sucks but so do capcha forms.

More of PLEASE:

* Content First (implied in Responsive or Mobile First Design is a new way of thinking about, tagging and presenting content).
* Interactive Exploring (BIG AGREEMENT see my post about Time is Money Online https://plus.google.com/+MartinWSmith/posts/RdjAjWoJTHw and tag this next to #gamification).
* Arresting pictures and Video (YES, your great content will be ignored or under-shared UNLESS it is paired with strong visual hooks and supports).

Great post by Helga for Just Creative and so TRUE to our experience of web dev in 2014 for leading ecommerce clients such as Moon Audio.com.

Mobify is a mobile e-commerce optimization platform used by leading online retailers to deliver exceptional responsive shopping experiences.

Pageless design frees websites from the outdated conventions of print design and fully utilizes the digital platform they’re built on. 

8 Compelling Reasons Why "Pageless' Web Design Wins (in the end):

* Tells a better story.

* Easier to "digest" or understand what to do.

* Emotionally more powerful.

* Higher Conversion Rates!!!
* Makes updating faster & easier.

* Lowers BOUNCE & encourages sharing.

* Looks great on all devices (mobile included).

* Lower cost to develop.

Marty Note
I confess to not being in love with the "infinite scroll" just yet. One modification we worked out for @Curagami, our Startup Factory funded startup, is to include a Call-To-Action at the top & Bottom.

CTAs help prepare the scroll. Remember "open book" tests? Putting a CTA on top of a waterfall of content helps prep a visitors mind. It "opens the book" for them. With this many impressive benefits I'm going to have to figure out how to start loving "pageless" design (lol).

I bet there are 5 (or so) similar modifications we can make to help us know how to create the paths and conversion we want by going "pageless".  

Flat web design has been a huge topic in the web, even Apple is adopting flat web design style and you need to make sure you upgrade your site too!

We're boiling down 13 of the most prominent web design trends emerging in 2015. Will they change your understanding of a "modern website"? You be the judge.

Marty (@Scenttrail) Notes:

1. Make it big (Agree but not as easy to do well as they make it look).

2. The multimedia experience (agree and same as #1)

3. The Parallax effect mutations (Horizontal Scrolling) Agree

4. Animated storybook (Agree and cool).

5. Flat design (agree & effect of mobile)

6. No more boxes (Agree and YES!).

7. Tiles (Pinterest effect and agree).

8. Navigation widgets (Agree!)

9. Integrating Google maps (Agree where appropriate).

10. Mashup interfaces (AGREE grab those APIs :).

11. Minimize (Seems to contradict #1, but agree).

12. World Wide Wait (speed is going to be KEY).

13. Designer automation (Agree, can do a lot with templates now).

Updated! Some of the web's smartest thinkers reveal what they believe will transform the web.

Summary & Marty Notes

1. Huge Background Images (Agree, but hard to do well in responsive design).
2. Card Based Design (Agree and need to know more about this since cards = responsive and responsive i.e. platform agnostic is the way to go now).
3. Digital First Branding (Agree and this will be a big shift for many who think of their websites as additions not the MAIN THING).

4. Open Data (Need to know more about this).
5. Responsive Design...Evolved (Agree, Agree, Agree).
6. Privacy (not sure about this one, think that ship has sailed).
7. Isomorphic Java Script (Need to know more about this).
8. Iteration (Agree, we will make MVPs, ship them and then watch and improve them).
9. Vibrant Design (not sure about this one, the example made my eyes hurt).
10. Web Components & Adaptive Design (this is Internet of Things and I agree).

This time last year I made 7 predictions for web design in 2014, with mixed results (I’m looking at you SVG). This year, I’ve sought out 10 web design trends you'll actually see:

1. Lettering
2. Goodbye to IE
3. Micro-design
4. The Internet of no thing
5. Mobile video
6. The decline of framework dominance
7. The beginning of the end for the old guard
8. Art direction
9. Pooled analytics
10. SVG will (finally) take off

Design Is Revolutionary
Don't have to be Steve Jobs to know design is revolutionary. Our Web Design Revolution feed on Scoop.it is one of our favorites. We love THINKING visual because most of us (save one poor CTO) are marketing geeks who visualize in our sleep.

If you visualize in your sleep consider contributing a Scoop or two or three to The Web Design Revolution in 2015. Several easy ways to contribute:

1. If you are on @Scoop.ituse the Suggest Feature. We appreciate all the great suggestions we've already received and promise a new focus on collaboration in 2015.

2. If you aren't on Scoop.it you are missing one of the best "do less, get more" tools we know, but you can still contribute ideas for stories we should include by:

email: martin(at)Curagami.com

Twitter: @Curagami

Call For Help NOW
Right now we are interested in creating a year-end mashup of all the web design predictions for 2015. If you have a favorite prognosticator and they write about what they think is going to happen in web design next year send us the link and we will mash your contribution up into a summary with early views going to contributors.

Thanks for a great year and hope you will contribute to The Revolution in 2015.

Web Design
Cha Cha Changes are ahead for web design. Our social / mobile / connected world is blowing up our wireframes. and that's a good thing.

Like the World Wide Web itself, the world of website design is constantly in flux as technologies change and design standards evolve. What worked in 2013 may

Beautiful Unusual Navigation Designs for Inspiration. Selection of Awwwards websites with a strong presence of unusual navigation. An effective navigation design is crucial for a website

With the release of iOS7 just around the corner, clamor over the changes Jony Ive will institute is growing. The general consensus--on this site and elsewhere--is that Apple is about to get a flat makeover. But for the uninitiated, “flat design” can be a confusing term. So let’s talk it out, shall we?