​Five website design trends that shaped 2014 web design

Design trends will always come and go no matter what the arena, and when it comes to web design it is no different. The development of the world wide web over the past few years, not to mention the changes in how and where we access the internet, have had a massive impact on the way sites look. Gone are the days of pixelated graphics; auto-play audio has (thankfully) fallen out of favour; images no longer take several minutes to load.

If it is time to give your website a design revamp then check out our top five design trends that have been influential in 2014 – use some of their best bits and you should be able to create a great-looking site that is suited for the modern era of the internet.

• Keep it simple
• We may have all manner of all-singing and all-dancing tricks and techniques at our fingertips, but actually, less is more these days. This is especially true when it comes to fonts and layouts. Keep to sans serif fonts and avoid lots of layers on a page. Think flat, clear and bold.
• Go mobile
• The number of people who access the internet via a mobile device (smartphone or tablet) is growing massively, and quickly. If you are not on board you are going to lose out, so make sure you have, at the very least, a responsive design site. Ideally you should create a specific mobile-optimised site to really give your visitors what they want. The mobile-based interaction – swiping rather than clicking – is influencing desktop sites too with long pages to be scrolled down staying on-trend.
• Keep quiet
• A picture speaks a thousand words – very true of some of the most beautiful websites of 2014. Use pictures and graphics to convey information – think quirky infographic meets fashion house shop window.
• Embrace monochrome
• Gone are the days of in-your-face websites that use all the colours under the rainbow just because they can. Limited palettes are much more appealing and do not show their age as quickly. Choose your colours wisely though!
• Video backgrounds
• Now that websites load much quicker thanks to broadband and better servers, video can be an integral part of a page. In fact, video backgrounds have been a key trend in 2014. The movie-like feature is a far cry from stuttering Flash animations of years ago. This works best when the layers on top are simple and integrated with the video.